VANCOUVER and CALGARY – Novus Entertainment has filed legal proceedings with the BC Supreme Court, and plans to complain to the Competition Bureau that cable giant Shaw is offering major discounts in an attempt to steal its customers in Vancouver.
"Shaw is abusing its dominant position in the market by offering services – which it normally makes nearly 50% margins on – at a sizeable loss as a means to destroy a local competitor," said Donna Robertson, co-president and chief legal officer of Novus, in a press release on Tuesday. "The millions of existing Shaw customers paying full price should be outraged because they’re unwittingly subsidizing the costs that customers with a competitive alternate pay, which is unethical and unfair. If they don’t make the offer available to everyone, current customers should call Shaw and demand the same deal."
But Shaw president Peter Bissonnette disputed Robertson’s accusations, calling Vancouver’s multi-dwelling unit (MDU) market, which Novus targets, “a very competitive marketplace.”
“We have a promotional offer out to all MDUs in Vancouver”, he confirmed to Cartt.ca in a telephone interview on Wednesday. “That is an area where we are trying to increase our penetration in advance of the digital transition in 2010-2011.”
Novus’ release said that Shaw is offering its entire TV line-up, including high-definition TV, phone and high-speed Internet services to current Novus customers for $9.95 per month, each.
“That price point is very misleading”, Bissonnette continued. “In fact our offer is more in the range of $29.85 for those services.”
Novus markets television, Internet and telephony to certain apartments and condos in Vancouver. It is currently operating in approximately 220 buildings and has about 9,000 customers.
– Lesley Hunter
