Canadian Cable Giants Launch A Netflix Rival

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It looks like Netflix has some competition north of the border. Thanks to PixelNinja for the heads up.

Cable giants Rogers and Shaw think they have a better option for some viewers -- they've just unveiled Shomi, a mostly TV-focused service that might have a few aces up its sleeve. The offering blends automatic recommendations with handpicked selections; if you're looking for nothing but comic book adaptations or movies with dating disasters, you may have an easier time finding what you want. Shomi is also leaning heavily on exclusive deals for past seasons of big TV shows like Modern Family, New Girl and Sons of Anarchy, so it may be your best bet if you're looking for a Hulu Plus equivalent.
 
Won't touch it with a 10 for pole, but competition is good, hope it pushes Netflix to get more content.
 
The exclusive deal shit is what is screwing up these services for me.
 
Fuck Robbers, fuck em with a 10 ft pole. Those fucks charge an extra $30 to get unlimited bandwidth on top of the normal monthly cable internet fee's
 
Won't touch it with a 10 for pole, but competition is good, hope it pushes Netflix to get more content.

Ok going to take the pessimistic view of this, and now we have a cable company offering a service similar to netflix, so expect netflix traffic to start acting a bit wonky for those who use Rogers service. Does Canada have any version of net neutrality?
 
Ok going to take the pessimistic view of this, and now we have a cable company offering a service similar to netflix, so expect netflix traffic to start acting a bit wonky for those who use Rogers service. Does Canada have any version of net neutrality?

Canada has a very small oligopoly of ISPs, they dictate what they allow. The government tries to intervene, but does very little (last time they tried it resulted in price increases essentially). There are a handful of "independent" ISPs, but all they do is lease bandwidth they estimate they will use from the big ISPs and resell cheaper. Even then, the major ISPs dictate what hardware they are allowed to use, essentially to make sure they don't use the latest modem/router hardware.

In my experience, Canada is one of the WORST values in the world when it comes to ISPs and wireless.

I have experienced throttling with Netflix and had to use a VPN just to get full speed. Still I'd say I'm lucky cause I have access to "unlimited" bandwidth, not everyone does by on shot.
 
The past, and current practices of Rogers make me apprehensive of anything they do
The company is essentially criminal.

Luckily politicians and the judicial system can be swayed by $, well done Rogers!
 
Yakk is dead on, up here the internet is essentially run by 3 mob families. Every now and then the government tries to stir things up, but whenever they do these guys just tighten the noose. Throttling is rampant and we have data caps on top of what we pay for internet speeds. I don't see the point in getting this when I'm already running against my cap all the time.
 
Ohh loook this service dosent count against a bandwidth cap....what a suprise.....fyi i have no clue, just a feeling.
 
Actually I live in Canada and I'm a Rogers Customer and I can honestly say Rogers is a very greedy evil company, I would go with Bell(who aren't much better) and there Fibreop service but I can't get it installed in my apartment.

As for Shomi I don't know how but they will find a way to force it on it's customers.
 
Yakk is dead on, up here the internet is essentially run by 3 mob families. Every now and then the government tries to stir things up, but whenever they do these guys just tighten the noose. Throttling is rampant and we have data caps on top of what we pay for internet speeds. I don't see the point in getting this when I'm already running against my cap all the time.

i'm not sure where you live in canada.

But rogers got rid of the throttling equipment awhile ago.

I haven't had my connection throttled in years.

Most ISP have data caps so I don't see how that is special to the big 3.

And if you are hitting your cap either pay for a bigger one or manage how much data you use.
 
Fuck Robbers, fuck em with a 10 ft pole. Those fucks charge an extra $30 to get unlimited bandwidth on top of the normal monthly cable internet fee's

I pay $35 a month for Rogers Hybrid 60 / 10 with a 320GB cap.

Have a 50% discount for 2 years already. If you are paying full price I suggest you get someone to talk to them on the phone that knows how to talk the talk.
 
I pay $35 a month for Rogers Hybrid 60 / 10 with a 320GB cap.

Have a 50% discount for 2 years already. If you are paying full price I suggest you get someone to talk to them on the phone that knows how to talk the talk.

yup, i also have the hybrid 60/10, 320gb cap and TV service with all the popular channels from rogers and i'm paying $65/month, been a rogers customer for 19 years now, just gotta know how to talk to them to get deals ;)
 
While Shomi will have 340 TV series and a strong dose of Canadian content (30 percent), it has just 1,200 "cult-classic and fan-favourite" movies

oh boy.. im sure netflix is scared by such a "deep" offering

LOL
 
oh boy.. im sure netflix is scared by such a "deep" offering

LOL

I don't think at this point the content is comparable, but if this *MAGICALLY* does not count against your cap is the bigger issue.

In Canada Netflix already has an extra streaming option, extra-low quality, to help people with caps. It's abysmal, but the only option for some people. Now magically they may have an HD stream without it counting against thier cap? 300-400gb a month just flies by for multiple HD streams. What would you choose?

Fair no, and I'd wager Rogers is using the 30% Canadian content to make sure they won't get any problems from the CRTC for this unfair competition. A "compromise" we'll call it I guess.

Oh and Bell is doing something similar with their FiOS.


The whole system is corrupt as hell.
 
No way am I gonna go with Rogers for anything. I've been long done with that company.
 
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