11:23 AM PST 11/03/2014 by Etan Vlessing, The Hollywood Reporter
The upstart will stream U.S. TV hits including ‘Modern Family’ and ‘2 Broke Girls’ (above)
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Upstart Shomi will launch on Tuesday, as Canadian broadcasters compete against streaming goliath Netflix Canada.
Shomi, from Canadian media giants Shaw Media and Rogers Media, getting off the ground follows a $100 million war chest opened to buy new Hollywood TV shows and movies from suppliers such as Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, Starz Digital Media and BBC Worldwide North America.
The SVOD’s lineup includes American Horror Story, Sons of Anarchy, Wilfred, Modern Family, Sleepy Hollow and The Strain. The new SVOD service will cost $8.99 a month and aims to get TV shows to subscribers sooner than Netflix, as Rogers and Shaw already have rookie and returning U.S. network shows picked up at the Los Angeles Screenings and available for catch-up viewing online.
Shomi also aims to slow the meteoric growth of a profitable Netflix Canada, which launched here in 2010 and has binge-worthy hits such as House of Cards and Orange Is the New Black. Another priority is reducing cord-cutting as Canadian cable subscribers increasingly take up Apple TV and other online video options.
Amazon and Hulu have yet to launch in Canada.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/canadian-svod-shomi-launch-tuesday-745733
And yet, while trying to register with Shaw, I was put on a merry-go-round to other pages on the Shaw site. Attempts at on-line chat service also failed as the connection kept dropping off. Hopefully, when I do get thru Shomi will perform better than the sign-up process.