Streaming service shomi available to all Canadians Thursday

Media giants Rogers and Shaw are makingtheir joint venture streaming service shomi available to all Canadians starting Thursday for $8.99 a month.

The service, which seeks to compete with Netflix and other unlimited video streaming options, first launched in late 2014but was restricted to existing Rogers or Shaw customers who already have cable television or internet service from either of the two companies.

That meant that the majority of shomi's previous customers were accessing the service's catalog of more than 1,000 movies and television episodesvia their set-top boxes. Thursday's move makes the service available on a range of new devices includingtablets, mobile devices,desktop computers, Xbox 360s, Apple TVs and on Google'sChromecast.

Bell's offering in the streaming space, CraveTV, is set to lift its own restrictions and offer its services to anyone online in Canada as of next year.

Neither shomi, nor CraveTV nor Netflixrelease public data on their number of subscriptions in Canada.