Cutting the cord

[EldrickOnIce]

Oops. Should have clarified.
There is a beta cast entire screen from the chrome browser window. I think you click the gear or something?
It works, but not excellent for Kodi.
Kodi casts superbly from an Android tablet with localcast or similar.
I pretty much exclusively use the standalone box though, but would use a tablet without hesitation if I had to.
Cheers

[HotHotHeat]

I want to point out a hilarious yet sad reality of TV in Canada.

So this new show 'Between' is being advertised by CityTV as a hot new show only available through them.

Here's the thing.. It's a Netflix original. SO this show, which is produced by a third party who then sells off broadcasting rights in each country, is a Netflix ONLY show in the US, and a CityTV show in Canada.

I guess one could blame Netflix Canada for not willing to put up the money City was, but this is the sort of thing Canadians hate.

Two more things:

Yes, I have US Netflix.

This show looks terrible, so at least we're not missing out on something good.

[fredr123]

Originally Posted by HotHotHeat

I want to point out a hilarious yet sad reality of TV in Canada.

So this new show 'Between' is being advertised by CityTV as a hot new show only available through them.

Here's the thing.. It's a Netflix original. SO this show, which is produced by a third party who then sells off broadcasting rights in each country, is a Netflix ONLY show in the US, and a CityTV show in Canada.

I guess one could blame Netflix Canada for not willing to put up the money City was, but this is the sort of thing Canadians hate.

Two more things:

Yes, I have US Netflix.

This show looks terrible, so at least we're not missing out on something good.

All the networks gloat like that to varying degrees. Global's Got It! I always found it strange that they would be so proud of all their programming that they were getting from somewhere else. They seemed to take a lot of pride in their lineup despite the fact that they produced a negligible amount of the shows they were promoting. Congratulations. There are rules and regulations that restrict American networks from freely broadcasting their own programming in Canada that allow you to purchase those shows and air them on your own networks that may not even exist were it not for those same regulations. Good job, good effort.

[Igster]

Originally Posted by HotHotHeat

I want to point out a hilarious yet sad reality of TV in Canada.

So this new show 'Between' is being advertised by CityTV as a hot new show only available through them.

Here's the thing.. It's a Netflix original. SO this show, which is produced by a third party who then sells off broadcasting rights in each country, is a Netflix ONLY show in the US, and a CityTV show in Canada.

I guess one could blame Netflix Canada for not willing to put up the money City was, but this is the sort of thing Canadians hate.

Two more things:

Yes, I have US Netflix.

This show looks terrible, so at least we're not missing out on something good.

This is complete crap. Why Netflix would not have "their" shows completely across every Netflix platform is beyond me. They don't do this with House of Cards or Orange is the New Black, etc. but they are now doing it with other shows? Ugh. Every single show IMO should be "North American" rights and none of this American/Canadian crap.

[EldrickOnIce]

It's might be a Canadian content thing?
Which is not a Netflix thing but a CRTC thing

[accord1999]

Most likely it's a show developed by City; who then shopped the US/international rights and Netflix picked it up.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by HotHotHeat

I want to point out a hilarious yet sad reality of TV in Canada.

So this new show 'Between' is being advertised by CityTV as a hot new show only available through them.

Here's the thing.. It's a Netflix original. SO this show, which is produced by a third party who then sells off broadcasting rights in each country, is a Netflix ONLY show in the US, and a CityTV show in Canada.

I guess one could blame Netflix Canada for not willing to put up the money City was, but this is the sort of thing Canadians hate.

Two more things:

Yes, I have US Netflix.

This show looks terrible, so at least we're not missing out on something good.

It's a co-production between Rogers (City) and Netflix. Both are involved in funding its production: http://www.thewrap.com/netflix-teams...drama-between/

That sort of deal happens all the time for Canadian productions. It's hard to finance a decent show with only Canadian funding, so they get other international partners. It's likely that Rogers was the first company involved and Netflix signed on later to get the international rights. It's really no different than a show like Orphan Black which is co-financed by Bell and BBC America. The only reason you noticed it this time was because one of the companies is a streaming service instead of a traditional broadcaster.

Netflix has done those sorts of deals on shows from other countries, like the Ricky Gervais series, Derek. There are also some shows that are the opposite, and air on a traditional broadcaster in the States but on Netflix in Canada (NBC's Hannibal is one).


We're likely going to see more of this sort of thing in the future.

[Raekwon]

With data caps coming in I found this to be interesting from Telus.

Subscribe to Unlimited Data Usage for $30/mo – or just $15/mo if you also subscribe to any TELUS TV service.

That's pretty reasonable I think.


Link

http://www.telus.com/en/ab/get-help/...verageEmlLnk5b

[rubecube]

Bahahaha...cry moar, Bell.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/bell...ling-1.3099972

Watching U.S. Netflix in Canada by using location-hiding services such as VPNs is stealing and needs to be more frowned upon, the new president of Bell Media says.

At a keynote speech at the Telecom Summit in Toronto on Wednesday, Mary Ann Turcke said Canadians who skirt copyright laws by finding ways of accessing digital content hurt Canadian culture and jobs and need to stop.

"It has to become socially unacceptable to admit to another human being that you are VPNing into U.S. Netflix," she said, "like throwing garbage out your car window — you just don't do it."

Rather than pushing for more regulation from government or the CRTC to ban the practice, she called on the industry to work together to root out the problem, and to insist that Canadians frown on it the same way they would many other types of illegal activity.

Canadian television produces $6 billion a year to Canada's GDP and employs 125,000 people.

"Not only does society not scold anyone for stealing content — we feature 'how to' articles in our national newspapers educating the masses on how to get around copyright law."

[MickMcGeough]

Originally Posted by Raekwon

With data caps coming in I found this to be interesting from Telus.

Subscribe to Unlimited Data Usage for $30/mo – or just $15/mo if you also subscribe to any TELUS TV service.

That's pretty reasonable I think.


Link

http://www.telus.com/en/ab/get-help/...verageEmlLnk5b

Free is even more reasonable...

Retentions offered me unlimited data for free (for 6 months) almost immediately when I called to cancel, citing data caps.

[MickMcGeough]

After a couple of months with HBO Now I'm 100% convinced that this is the path forward for delivering premium media content to subscribers.

Showtime appears to be following suit in July: http://www.engadget.com/2015/06/03/s...ervice-launch/

AMC next?

[MickMcGeough]

Also the NFL and Yahoo have an agreement to stream a live regular season game for free this year: http://www.engadget.com/2015/06/03/n...ve-stream-game

Assuming this is being treated as a "pilot", but I can't see why broadcasting games free online wouldn't still deliver the same tremendous ad revenue-per-viewer that the NFL collects via TV network distribution. Surely the networks would prefer exclusive rights to the content and the NFL would lose those royalties - it will be interesting to see how that shakes out.

[MickMcGeough]

Also the NFL and Yahoo have an agreement to stream a live regular season game for free this year: http://www.engadget.com/2015/06/03/n...ve-stream-game

Assuming this is being treated as a "pilot", but I can't see why broadcasting games free online wouldn't still deliver the same tremendous ad revenue-per-viewer that the NFL collects via TV network distribution. Surely the networks would prefer exclusive rights to the content and the NFL would lose those royalties - it will be interesting to see how that shakes out.

[EldrickOnIce]

Originally Posted by MickMcGeough

After a couple of months with HBO Now I'm 100% convinced that this is the path forward for delivering premium media content to subscribers.

Showtime appears to be following suit in July: http://www.engadget.com/2015/06/03/s...ervice-launch/

AMC next?

I agree completely.
Let me purchase exactly the content I want, that I can watch where and when I want. It shouldn't have taken quite this long to get to this point, and who knows when we will actually see this legally in Canada.

[EldrickOnIce]

Originally Posted by rubecube

Bahahaha...cry moar, Bell.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/bell...ling-1.3099972

Well, it is illegal.
Probably
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/04...n_6994960.html

[Igster]

Originally Posted by EldrickOnIce

Well, it is illegal.
Probably
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/04...n_6994960.html

Regardless, we as Canadians should continue to get the content we want. We pay the same amount for lesser content and we're supposed to be happy with that? We pay the same amount for lesser content so Canadian companies can buy the content to provide to us through other methods which in turn end up costing us even more money and through different mediums.

Doesn't all of this just seem wrong?

Consumers get bent over while large Canadian corporations keep raking in the money.

[EldrickOnIce]

^ I don't disagree exactly.
And I suppose it would be a better choice for me, ethically, to do that instead of simply 'taking' the content (that they won't let subscribe to) for free.

[MickMcGeough]

I'm sure it's already been discussed at some point here, but I'd love to hear people's recent experiences with "internet-only" providers like TekSavvy and Distributel.

1. I'm assuming they're reselling services from the big guys. Is that right?
2. Are we talking near 100% uptime? Any stability challenges?

From what I see it's in "no brainer" territory. I'm looking at dropping my $125/mo 25mbps (250GB max) + hardly-watched-TV for a $45 unlimited 25mbps plan. Anything else I should know?

[Yellefan]

Teksavvy (through Shaw) has been garbage in Alberta for several months now. If you only need it in the day it's great, but at night congestion is pretty bad.

I think if you go with DSL it's fine.

[EldrickOnIce]

Does Primus offer high speed in major cities in AB?
Here on South shore Montreal, we have 50mbs true unlimited from Primus (served on Bell backbone).
It has been very reliable in the 4 months since switching. It was bundled with home phone, so I don't know the price of Internet only, but combined was just $60/month before taxes, during a Costco promo.