Entertainment Shomi and CraveTV (Project Latte) vs Netflix

Shomi and Project Latte are upcoming Netflix competitors launched by the Canadian media giants.

Shaw and Rogers launched Shomi: http://shomi.com

It's currently in beta testing available only to Shaw and Rogers customers for now.
Pricing is $8.99/month with a 30 day free trial.

Bell in partnership with Telus is launching Project Latte later this year. Bell has acquired exclusive rights to stream HBO content and all 9 seasons of Seinfeld.

I'm loving the competition, but I don't know how they will compete with Netflix with a pricier service. I think the only way they would be successful is if Shomi and Project Latte merged and offered enough content to rival US Netflix. They would need to have apps for Chromecast, Roku, etc. and it would have to be cheaper than paying for Netflix and a decent VPN service like Unblock-US.

 

Project Latte appears to be CraveTV now: http://www.cravetv.ca/
$4/month and currently only available to TELUS, Bell, Bell Aliant, Eastlink and Northwestel customers right now.

I suspect Shomi and CraveTV were designed solely to outbid Netflix for streaming rights. The fact that Shomi and CraveTV are limiting their audience to existing cable subscribers supports this. The Canadian media giants don't want to improve streaming services in Canada. They just want to prevent Netflix from growing.

 

Here is the programming guide for CraveTV: http://static.telus.com/common/cms/files/tv/pdf/CraveTV.pdf

PS: I would stick with Netflix for now. Better content, original series, same price and better integration with SmartTVs and streaming boxes like Chromecast and Roku.