Shaw has dropped a "price bomb" on Novus Entertainment, a small cable operator in Vancouver, BC. Novus is offering fibre-to-the-home is some residential buildings in the city. In response, Shaw is offering those customers 15Mbps service with a 100GB cap for $9.95, 200 channels of TV service (with 25 high-definition channels) for $9.95, or digital phone service with free installation, also for $9.95 a month. Other Shaw customers are not eligible for the offer, so Novus has launched 10BucksToo.com in response along with action at the BC Supreme Court and the Competition Bureau.
Shaw Drops “Price Bomb” on Fibre Competitor
14 Comments
Recent Posts
Why the Government is Quietly Undermining Competition Bureau Independence in Bill C-56 
A Reality Check on the Online News Act: Why Bill C-18 Has Been a Total Policy Disaster 
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 177: Chris Dinn on Bill C-18’s Harm to Torontoverse and Investment in Innovative Media in Canada 
Why the Government’s Draft Bill C-18 Regulations Don’t Work: The 4% Link Tax is Not a Cap. It’s a Floor. 
Federal Court Approves Consent Order Requiring Minister Steven Guilbeault to Unblock Ezra Levant on Twitter
And the CRTC thinks there’s no need to regulate the incumbents?
This is a textbook case of why the CRTC needs to step in and deal with the monopolies we’re suffering with under the telecom/cable incumbents.
Nice to see Novus fighting back
Doubt the CRTC will do anything though. Look how those muppets handled Aurora cable in Ontario.
FTTH
This could possibly backfire on Shaw: now consumers all over Vancouver will want to get their own buildings wired for fiber so that, they too, can get that great deal from Shaw. If it spreads to far and Novus can stay afloat, Shaw won’t be able to eat the losses anymore and will have actually helped to expand the fiber infrascructure.
P.S. I think it’s spelled fiber. (fee-bray?)
It would be too late!
Chances are shaw expects a slap on the wrist from the CRTC. But figure it is worth it to squash the competition now before they take a foot hold and pay the slap on the wrist.
That my opinion any ways.
You think the CRTC should do something about it?
Who do you think set up this monopoly situation?
Good Luck Novus
If you make it through this, come to Toronto next, PLEASE!
If consumers in BC take the deal from Shaw, then I say they deserve what they’ll get … a nasty price jump once Novus goes out of business.
Competition Bureau, not CRTC
This is a clear (and egregious) case for the Competition Bureau. The CRTC has little or nothing to do with it.
fee-bray?
>P.S. I think it’s spelled fiber. (fee-bray?)
If so, you may be American.
As an added bonus, Novus is upping their speeds by 10 mbps effective Aug 4th
First I want to say, nice try Shaw, but I wouldn’t switch back even if your service was free. Novus provides uncompressed HD(vs your compressed HD), more HD channels, and a higher speed internet that is 100% unthrottled(I’ve maxed it out both ways with bittorrent). Not to mention a larger bandwidth cap(110 GB down + 110 GB up = 220 GB in Shaw parlance).
And now to my main point, got an email Friday evening from Novus advising me that effective tuesday, August 4th, that the download speeds for the residential packages would be increasing by 10 mbps to 20/10(down/up), 40/10, and 60/10. And boosting SOHO packages by 10 mbps both ways to 20/20, 40/40 and 60/60. All while keeping the same price as before.
And I’m paying $35/mo for 1.5Mbps.
It kinda feels like I’m being bent over the desk and… well…
CRTC needs to wake up and earn their pay cheque.
Must find a bldg that offers Novus
The title says it all.
Novus will counter offer the deal
I spoke to Novus last week and they offered me a comparable deal to the Shaw deal. All I had to do was send them a copy of my Shaw offer. I wouldn’t leave Novus they are a great company (service/people).
Shaw price gouging
So if Peter Bissonnette (Shaw’s president’s)quote is TRUTHFUL(from business in Vancouver article) we should all feel ripped off. Peter is quoted as saying “that Shaw’s pricing is not below-cost”. If this is the case then their mark up is astronomical. After doing the math on this offer, it works out to $24.87/month, after factoring in the 2 months free, for all 3 services from Shaw. Now after this promo is done and you pay their regular rates, you would now be paying around $240.00/month!!!!!! That works out to approximately a 1000% MARK-UP!!!!!!!!
This is what I call GOUGING your customers. I am appalled at this. No company should be allowed to have these kind of mark-ups. This is why they want Novus gone. No competition = 1000% mark-up.
Quebecor – Videotron
Yeah… for 30$ with Novus services, I pay 120$ with Videotron. Please Novus, expand to Quebec province… 🙂 You will reap more than 2 millions customers.