Astral Media’s CEO Ian Greenberg gave a speech on Monday and stated foreign Internet competitors such as Netflix should be subject to the same rules as Canadian broadcast providers. Pressure continues to be applied to the CRTC to ensure a level playing field for all players regardless of whether they be over the airwaves, cable, or via the Internet.
Netflix currently has over one million subscribers in Canada, and continues to increase, even depict dirty moves by other on-demand providers.
Astral currently does have a number of long-term deals in place with various US movie studios which does give it a competitive edge as they can provide some level of exclusive content. They also have exclusive deals in place with cable networks such as HBO and Showtime. However the growing user based of the online line only Netflix continues to put fear in the eyes Astral and other traditional video providers.
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