Canadian movie package aims to compete with Netflix

A package of four new specialty movie channels may hit Canada'sairwaves this winter and give cable and satellite companies more fodder to compete against Netflix online.

Called Hollywood Suite, the four channels will air 24-7 in high definition with commercials popping up only between films. One channel will air Warner Films titles, another will have older movies from the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer library, and the other two will focus on action and romance/relationship films from a variety of movie studios.

Hollywood Suite was not designed to compete directly against the higher-priced premium movie channels like TMN and Movie Central, says co-founder Jay Switzer. Instead, it'll take on the cheaper specialty movie channels, which run commercials during films and sometimes edit out parts of movies.

President and co-founder David Kines would not say how much Hollywood Suite will cost it will be priced by cable and satellite companies but added that it would be "substantially cheaper than Netflix," which is $8 a month.

Cable and satellite companies will also be able to offer Hollywood Suite's stable of films online. Switzer says a minimum of 80 movies will be available to stream online at any given time.

Picking from the best film catalogues

In a not-too-subtle swipe at the competition, he says Hollywood Suite will have a higher standard when it comes to selecting the films it presents.

"We have the advantage of being able to pick the titles we want from the world's best catalogues," he says.

"There are others in the marketplace that do output deals with single studios and they have to take the good and the bad. We're able to hand pick title by title."

Kines named Blade Runner, Casablanca and A Clockwork Orange as examples of some of the quality titles that will be available through Hollywood Suite but are not on Netflix.

Switzer says the appeal of the channels will be in having access to a selection of movies curated for big movie fans.

"There will still be people that just want to sit at home after work and watch well-programmed, high definition, full movies (with) no commercial break."