This blog is in response to a fellow classmate and friend of mine, Mitchell McCullough. Mitch talks about a newly introduced online streaming service “Shomi.” The platform was created by Rogers and Bell in hopes of competing against Netflix and ultimately taking substantial market share away from the dominant industry leader. Mitchell believes that the company lacks differentiation from Netflix and therefore exhibits a weak business strategy. He also adds that Shomi is by no means disruptive, as it offers very similar content at a higher price.
Personally, I believe Mitchell brings forth some very key points. If Bell and Rogers expect to simply roll into the market and take-over the vast majority of the market share, their strongly mistaken. Netflix has existed for many years, and they have virtually monopolized the industry. It is going to take more than simply a replica platform to over-take their current position. Similarly to what Mitch mentioned, over-time Netflix will lose a few current users as some viewers switch over to Shomi in attempts to try something new. However, I don’t believe Shomi will make too great of an impact. Shomi gives consumers no reason to make the switch, as they offer no incentive to consumers thus they lack differentiation.
Source: https://blogs.ubc.ca/mitchmccullough/2014/11/04/shomi-is-it-a-netflix-killer/