EMPIRE WILL BE AVAILABLE ON SHOMI INSTEAD OF CITY

Fans of the hip- hop soap opera Empire will soon have to look elsewhere to watch it in Canada as the TV series is being dropped from its prime-time TV slot and is moving to Shomi. The streaming video service says it has acquired the exclusive Canadian rights for the final half of the show’s second season, which begins airing March 30 on Fox. The deal was made after Empire was dropped by Canadian television network City, which carried the show last fall. Shomi says each episode will be available within 24 hours of its original U.S. airing. Canadians will still be able to catch the series on Wednesday nights through the Fox network feed offered by their cable or satellite provider or via an over-the-air antenna. “You take the opportunities when they come, and this was a great opportunity to shift the series,” said Marni Shulman, head of Shomi’s content and programming. Along with Shomi, streaming competitors are in pursuit of shows that aren’t wanted by the major broadcasters, Shulman said. It’s hard to ignore that many of the series rejected by Canada’s biggest TV channels are also led by minority casts.