From a media release:
Today, shomi announced the streaming service will be shutting down operations as of November 30, 2016.
“We’re really grateful to Canadians who enthusiastically invited us into their living rooms and took us with them on their phones, tablets and laptops,†said David Asch, Senior Vice President and General Manager, shomi.
“The business climate and online video marketplace have changed markedly in the last few years. Combined with the fact that the business is more challenging to operate than we expected, we’ve decided to wind down our operations,†Asch said. “We’re proud of the great service we created and the role we played in the evolution of Canada’s video landscape.â€
Current shomi members can keep streaming and binge-watching their favourite shows and movies online, via their Shaw or Rogers set-top box, on select tablets, mobile devices, Xbox 360 and Xbox One, Apple TV, Chromecast, and PS4 until November 30, 2016.
Netflix may try and get some of the shows. I believe it has Legend of Korra while shomi had Avatar, since they’re shows in the same world it’d make sense for them to try for the set. Still this opens the door for Amazon which is rumored and has some possible reasons to believe its on the horizon in Canada. Maybe a future podcast topic eh?
https://cartt.ca/article/analysis-steady-summer-shomi-speculation
http://brioux.tv/2016/09/shomi-the-door-enter-amazon-canada/
Aw. I actually subscribed to Shomi (when it came available on Xbox) a couple months ago and am currently in the middle of Peaky Blinders. I was surprised to hear about this. It must have been bleeding money pretty badly for Shaw and Rogers to shut it down this quick. I wonder how Crave TV is doing. I have no access to it as its not on Xbox yet. Streaming TV is the way of the future though. TV/Cable/Satellite won’t last forever so those media corps that can’t make it with a streaming service will be left in the dust.
Once Corus purchased Shaw, shomi was doomed. There was no way they’d keep shomi going. I got shomi free as part of my cable package; I wonder if I’ll be given something else now?
Netflix has so many advantages. It helps them a great deal that there’s a Netflix button on every smart TV and that because of their international presence they can pick up international deals on series.
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What does Crave TV have to do to survive? First of all, they need to make themselves available to more Canadians via smart TVs, Xbox, PlayStation, etc. Second of all, they need to offer something Netflix doesn’t, more original content or other features Netflix doesn’t really have. Canada is too small a country to support a competitive (to Netflix) service on its own. Its much like a small business trying to stay open in the face of Walmart. A small business survives if it provides something that consumers like that they can’t find at a big box store. Third of all, they need to crack the international market by partnering with companies in other countries. Much like it’d necessary for Canadian TV series to find international broadcasting deals for their shows, a Canadian streaming service needs to find an international streaming distribution.
Hulu have locked themselves out since they sold most of the shows to CTV/Global/City. In the States CBS and the CW are doing their own streamers which somewhat have the same problem. You can sense Amazon is circling here. In addition to the links, they already do things with Prime that Netflix never will and smaller US channels like Starz with Outlander and USA Network with Mr. Robot don’t have the resources to launch here directly themselves, they already sent their shows to Amazon UK. Its only a matter of time. They jut upped the minimum free shipping to $35. You know they know Canadians consider Amazon Canada overpriced and inferior and Prime Video would only help them. The thing is can/would Rogers/Shaw just sell over the shows to Amazon? They’d recover some of the loss but they aren’t always known for doing things like that.
HBO and Showtime are much longer depending on how long the recent deals with Bell are but eventually I don’t think they’d renew it rather then just stream directly to Canada themselves. The only funny bit is Bosch being an Amazon show on Crave somehow; though I believe Netflix officially launched in Australia while a local channel had OITNB and they just waited out the contract before putting it on Netflix Aus, so something like that could happen perhaps.