First rule of movie club… backpedal.
Earlier today the mainstream media jumped on Shaw’s new Netflix competitor “Movie Club“, a service that would allow you to stream movies without running up your bandwidth meter.
I wrote a blogpost that echoed what quickly became the resounding verdict of the internet, Movie Club was anti-net neutrality and therefore, anti-competitive.
Shortly after I wrote that post, Shaw posted a series of tweets and an official “clarification” on Facebook.
Shaw Movie Club is intended to be watched through your set-top box…watching movies on your set-top box won’t affect your included Internet data. However, you can also stream your Movie Club movies online to your computer – this WILL contribute to your Internet data.
While I’m glad they’re not breaking net neutrality, this position is even more damning. Bandwidth is bandwidth, regardless of whether it’s being sent to your cable box, or your cable modem. If Shaw can afford to send the data to your cable box for free $12/mo, then they can afford to send the data to your cable modem, there’s no difference… and so the UBB argument unravels further.
2 replies on “Shaw’s Movie Club”
“Bandwidth is bandwidth, regardless of whether it’s being sent to your cable box, or your cable modem” That’s not true… Shaw does not use IPTV for its cable box, so delivering VOD through the set top box is different than streaming a movie online through your cable modem
Based on the wikipedia definition, Shaw appears to be IPTV. In any case, the VOD bits travel across the identical infrastructure as the vod.shaw.ca bit. Bits are just electricity traveling across hardware.