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Excerpt:
"Ah, Canada. The true north, strong and free, as its anthem sings. Here, Blockbuster's Canadian subsidiary is indeed strong--at least, much stronger than it is in the U.S.--and free--or at least, debt-free. Unlike its American counterpart, which is mired in nearly $1 billion of debt, Blockbuster Canada Co. has remained strong, with more than 450 stores and annual sales around $400 million. But don't expect this success story to last too much longer--Netflix is expanding north, in a move that could seriously damage Blockbuster's Canadian operations.
Netflix announced today that it will be launching a streaming-only service in Canada this fall. It's main competitors up north will be Blockbuster and Zip.ca, a privately owned kiosk and DVD-mailing service that's a spitting image of Netflix (just check out its homepage), but without Netflix's killer online-streaming capability. "The future really is streaming," says Steve Swasey, VP of corporate communications at Netflix. "Netflix is growing very robustly in the U.S., and we hope that our neighbors up north will enjoy the service."
Swasey says Netflix chose Canada for several reasons. Besides it's close proximity to the U.S., Canada benefits from having a high-broadband penetration, close to 75%, which is obviously crucial for launching a streaming service...."
read more:
http://www.fastcompany.com/1671681/launch-of-netflix-canada-spells-big-troubl...
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