Netflix rolled out a streaming only version of its service north of the border earlier this month and, so far, the reaction has been less than enthusiastic. The $7.99 price tag hasn't been a problem, but the catalog of mostly older, and B-movies (can you say, "Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus" and not feel our northern neighbors' pain?) has been.
In general, reviews about the quality of Netflix delivery in Canada have been positive, applauding the user interface, streaming quality and even the available HD content. Positive reviews about available content? Not so easy to find.
As one reviewer wrote: "Like fast food, it's very cheap, extremely convenient and filling. More or less." Another compared the available new releases in Canada (Nowhere in Africa, The Blair Witch Project and All the Kings Men) to those available in the U.S. (Iron Man, Star Trek, Astro Boy) and found, obviously, "the selection just doesn't compare."
But Netflix, from the outset, hasn't expected the service to take customers away from IPTV, cable or satellite provider offerings of first run movies. As CEO Reed Hastings said at the launch in Toronto: "Think of us as a bicycle compared to cable/satellite as the car. Sometimes it's good to take a bike to get somewhere, but it's really supplemental to the car."
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