Shaw Communications Inc. has revealed plans to launch an online movie streaming service to compete against Netflix that threatens to put the Calgary-based cable giant at the center of the net neutrality debate in Canada.
The new service, dubbed Movie Club, will cost $12 per month and will allow Shaw customers to watch movies and television shows on their TV and their computers over an Internet connection.
However, Shaw said that movies streamed using its own service will not count against a subscriber’s monthly Internet data caps, unlike movies streamed from competing outlets like Netflix — which charges users $7.99 per month for access to online streaming of movies and TV shows — which will continue to count against a user’s cap.
“There should be some advantage to you being a customer,” Shaw Communications president Peter Bissonnette told the Calgary Herald on Thursday.
“The Shaw Movie Club is the result of listening to our customers and delivering products that fit their needs and the way they use technology,” Mr. Bissonnette said in a Shaw press release on Friday.
Shaw’s Friday press release did not mention the fact that Movie Club does not count against a user’s monthly Internet caps.
The obvious complaint by Netflix will be that Shaw is giving itself an undue preference in violation of violation of Section 27(2) of the Telecommunications Act.
[…] new Netflix application looks great, plays great and is a fantastic consumer experience,” said Nintendo […]