Made-in-Canada Netflix may be the only thing worse than Canadian Netflix

In a move already being hailed by media commentators as "intended to bolster...business,” cable giants Rogers and Shaw have jointly announced yet another subscription movie platform that isn’t as good as American Netflix. (Even the Canadian version of Netflix is notoriously sparse in comparison to its U.S. counterpart.) Shomi, as the new product is known, will be priced to match Netflix, at $8.99 per month. It’s expected to launch in November with a roster of 1,200 movies and 340 TV series. Netflix is secretive about the exact numbers of titles it offers at any given time, so it’s difficult to gauge how well Shomi stacks up, but the upstart’s introductory press release brags about the fact that a third of its offerings are Canadian content, “curated by people who love popcorn and magic”—and that doesn’t bode well. Also not great: at least initially, Shomi will only be available to Rogers and Shaw customers.