Doomed Canadian SVOD service ‘neared 1m subs’

Canadian on-demand service Shomi has come close to attracting 900,000 subscribers, it has revealed after this week deciding to close the net down.

Shomi parents Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications this week decided to shutter the SVOD net in the face of stiff market competition.

However, Shomi’s senior, VP and general manager, David Asch, said in a statement that the subscriber base was close to a million, well behind market leader Netflix but a reasonable number considering the Canadian population.

“We recently approached 900,000 subs and even today we are not far off that number, which would likely make Shomi a top ten service in North America,” he said.

Netflix has more than 5.2 million subscribers in Canada, according to Solutions Research Group, placing it well ahead of its rivals.

Shomi reps have still not responded directly to questions about redundancies, but told TBI yesterday: “We are reviewing and will provide more information in the coming days.”

“The business climate and online video marketplace have changed markedly in the last few years,” Asch added statement this week confirming the closure. “Combined with the fact that the business is more challenging to operate than we expected, we’ve decided to wind down our operations.”

Shomi has been fighting for market share with Netflix and CraveTV, a cut-price service from telco and TV player Bell.