Shomi, the subscription VOD joint venture of Canadian service providers Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications, announced Monday that the multiscreen streaming service will be shutting down operations as of Nov. 30.
Shomi, which has been competing in the market against SVOD rivals such as Netflix and CraveTV, launched across Canada in August 2015 and sold for C$8.99 per month. A beta version of shomi debuted in November 2014.
David Asch, SVP and GM of shomi and an exec who is late of Redbox, Frontier Communications and InDemand Networks who took on the day-to-day of the service in mid-2015, said several factors contributed to the decision.
“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,” Asch said, in a statement. “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. We’re proud of the great service we created and the role we played in the evolution of Canada’s video landscape.”
