With fall arriving, let’s catch up with a couple of items left over from summer.
First up, in August, Rogers and Shaw announced they’ve teamed up to offer Showmi, which has been described as their “Netflix competitor.”
Debuting in November in beta form initially, only for customers of the two communications giants, it will work essentially the same as Netflix with a bundle of TV shows and movies you can stream online as much as you want.
Showmi will cost exactly the same as a new Netflix subscription at $8.99 per month and will be available on the web, tablets, Xbox 360 and set top boxes.
It places heavy emphasis on television content, with promises of past seasons of shows like Modern Family, Sons of Anarchy, Sleepy Hollow, Shameless, 2 Broke Girls, Vikings and New Girl. Unlike Netflix, it will also have 30 per cent designated Canadian content, an interesting wrinkle since Netflix is unburdened by Cancon requirements thanks to Internet content being unregulated in Canada.
On the surface, Showmi might not be a bad service. The interface demonstrated in promotional videos looks attractive and, like Netflix, it’s reasonably priced.
And while more competition for online entertainment would be welcome in Canada, it’s interesting that Showmi in its own statements has positioned itself not as “Netflix competitor,” but as a complementary service. Fair enough.
But there are two problems. The first is that, at least initially, Showmi requires you to be a TV or Internet customer of either Shaw or Rogers, and it’s unclear what the future requirements for subscribing will be. As is, Showmi stinks for cordcutting.
The bigger problem is that Rogers and Shaw are borrowing from the wrong model. Canadians don’t necessarily want another Netflix. We want Hulu.
Hulu is best known to Canadians as the service we can’t get. It’s a U.S.-only offering, which hosts current TV programming from most of the major American networks and a limited selection of older movies and original programming.
Available through the web, it releases episodes of shows often as soon as the day after they air on broadcast or cable. In basic form it’s free, with ads inserted into programming. A paid monthly subscription of $8 US a month is required to watch Hulu in high-definition or through apps on Android, iOS, gaming consoles and devices like Apple TV. Hulu is far from perfect.
Some programming is available on the free version but not through the paid version, except on the web and vice versa. Some episodes take longer than a day to appear on its site after its initial TV broadcast. Seasons of shows seem to appear and disappear with no logic. It lacks heavy hitting cable networks like HBO, which means no Game of Thrones or Girls. Most egregiously, the paid version still has advertising.
But it’s the single best friend the cordcutter has because it’s the easiest and simplest way to access current network TV programming online without being beholden to cable. And it’s superior in function to any of the disastrous online apps created by Canadian networks. Showmi, as described, will be limited to past seasons of programming. Want to watch Season 3 of Vikings? Sorry, you’ll have to wait a year. Be sure to avoid all the spoilers on Twitter in the meantime.
Made by hand
A few columns back I lamented the loss of old school experiences including snail mail and photography when it was rare.
The column generated a few responses from readers who miss things like the widespread availability of vinyl records.
One reader sent me a greeting card, written by hand, in the mail, as way of thanks.
She also noted how she missed numbers.
Before cellphones, we kept the telephone numbers of friends and families in our head, and as the reader points out, those numbers had a mysterious resonance with the people they belonged to.
Both that thought and the card were appreciated.
Barry Link is the editor of the Vancouver Courier. Follow him at twitter.com/trueblinkit
