(15-Jul-11) Shaw Communications (TSX:SJR.B) has launched an all-you-can eat movie "club" to combat the popularity of online competitor Netflix, an effort keep its cable subscribers from considering cutting the cord.
The multimedia company announced Friday that its new Shaw Movie Club will offer unlimited access to a selection of movies for $12 per month, with an additional $5 option to be made available later this summer for high definition viewing.
Company president Peter Bissonnette said the idea to counter online movie and TV service Netflix came during customer consultations on Internet bandwidth consumption.
"In those consultations our customers also said 'Why don't you guys offer a movie service to compete with Netflix,'" Bissonnette said from Calgary.
It's expected that most consumers will watch movies through their digital cable boxes, he said, but when they're streamed and watched on computers they will be part of consumers' monthly bandwidth use. Bissonnette said that Shaw's data caps are high enough that it will be "inconsequential in terms of capacity."