(19-Jul-10) For Canadian movie and TV lovers, there will soon be a new way to watch their favourite flick on demand.
U.S.-based Netflix announced Monday it would launch a Canadian service this fall that delivers these shows via the Internet to computers and TVs for a monthly fee.
The long-awaited arrival of the well-known U.S. brand is likely to have an impact on Canadian cable and media operators, analysts predicted.
Companies like Rogers Communications Inc. and Groupe Videotron have been rolling out similar kinds of Internet-based services but the market is still in its infancy in Canada, analysts said.
“I wouldn’t call it a shakeup but definitely a lot of eyebrows went up,” said Kaan Yigit, president of Solutions Research Group, in Toronto.
Netflix has yet to reveal what it plans to charge for the service in Canada. Analysts are betting it will be more than in the U.S., where for $8.99 a month subscribers to its traditional mail-order DVD rental business can also stream the content online.
