Good and finally.

 

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/cable-changes-timing-1.3326645

 

Canadian consumers should have basic package for $25 and choice for rest of channels

Cable and satellite providers must provide skinny basic packages priced at $25 a month to every consumer by March 1, 2016, the CRTC says.  The federal broadcast regulator laid out a timetable Thursday for changes to ways television signals are distributed across Canada.

 

In addition to the basic $25 package, cable and satellite providers must move to a pick-and-pay system or offer small bundles of channels, also by the March 1 deadline. They must offer both by Dec. 1 of next year.

 

The basic package must include channels on the CRTC's mandatory distribution list, including CBC, CTV and Global, a group of U.S. channels and aboriginal and minority English or French language channels. The U.S. channels usually would be CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX and non-commercial channel PBS.

 

At least 10 of the channels must be local or regional, including the community channel and the proceedings of the provincial legislature, if available.

 

TV viewers will then be able to supplement this with either individual channels or small bundled channel packages.

 

The CRTC ruled last year that consumers should have access to more choice in their cable and satellite packages as well as cheaper basic packages. This is the first announcement of the deadlines for those changes.

 

Some critics of the new regime say consumers may end up paying more for fewer choices, depending on how the cable companies bundle and price individual channels or packages of channels.

 

And some specialty broadcasters worry they'll be left out in the cold if their signals aren't bundled with popular or must-have choices.

I literally watch about 7 or 8 channels. TSN, Sportsnet, and whatever channels are showing football. Also Modern Family when I get home from work, I think that's Fox.

 

No "party down south"?

 

Lol.

 

There is so much crap on TV.

We watch a ton of current stuff on regular TV, and most of it is available through streaming sites, but I still like my Telus satellite for live sports (best HD going) and the PVR is nice, too. I guess I'm old school, but I don't think I'll ever be a cord cutter. We have TVMC and use it for movies.

I literally watch about 7 or 8 channels. TSN, Sportsnet, and whatever channels are showing football. Also Modern Family when I get home from work, I think that's Fox.

No "party down south"?

Lol.

There is so much crap on TV.

I've never heard of party down south. Calculating. You must mean South Park. Yes I watch that sometimes I suppose.

So I'm bringing back this old thread.  Have any of you checked out the new $25 packages?  They're still finding a way to screw us.

Bell has nothing but Canadian stations, no ABC, NBC or CBS.  No TSN unless you buy some package.

MTS's doesn't look so bad, except again, no TSN.  If you want TSN you have to buy a $17 "essentials" package.  Half of the stations in the essentials package I don't even want.  Seriously MTS, get rid of the baggage and lower the price on the TSN package.

Shaw's package is ok as well, although I believe it's the same thing for the TSN.  I just looked at this one briefly because we don't get it outside the city.

Rogers I didn't bother looking at because we don't get that either here, but I heard it was crap as well.

Apparently they're making them do something else with their packages by Christmas time.  Someone mentioned something to me but I don't recall the exact details.

Meh.  isnt the point to provide X amount of TV to people who cant afford large packages?  Mission accomplished.  Cable isnt a right.

5 minutes ago, Logan007 said:

Apparently they're making them do something else with their packages by Christmas time.  Someone mentioned something to me but I don't recall the exact details.

By Christmas, every single channel has to be available as a stand alone option so you won't be forced to buy bundles.

3 minutes ago, bigg jay said:

By Christmas, every single channel has to be available as a stand alone option so you won't be forced to buy bundles.

I didnt realize that Friday was a holiday or I could have got day tickets.  Oh well.

If you think cable companies are going to do anything that doesn't result in maximum profit for minimum services you're fooling yourselves. They're all pirates. 

13 minutes ago, The Unknown Poster said:

I didnt realize that Friday was a holiday or I could have got day tickets.  Oh well.

Movie thread?

I'm just saying, no matter what kind of "deal" they try and give us, we're always going to get screwed.  This $25 thing just seems like a big BS to quite customers.  Canadian TV and Internet is so expensive.

I was reading some people's comments about how they were trying to call Bell to switch over to the $25 plan and the reps kept pushing them to stick with what they had.  Sounded like the reps were being real pricks about it too.  Not sure if the other company's were doing the same.

Bell actually instructed it's staff to downplay the skinny package although their package is so horrid that it doesn't take much to downplay it!

The other companies (afaik) aren't going that far, they're just making it harder to find the info on their websites.

Bell kinda sucks,  i got like 700 channels and maybe watch 20 of them,  cuz the other 680 are either the same channel but from a different area of the country, same channel but HD, french, PPV or channels i dont watch anyways like CNN, or the antique channel.  I miss playing MTS games with my remote during commercials or when waiting for something to come on. best $5 add on ever

24 minutes ago, bigg jay said:

Movie thread?

damn it!

33 minutes ago, 17to85 said:

If you think cable companies are going to do anything that doesn't result in maximum profit for minimum services you're fooling yourselves. They're all pirates. 

Private business.  They want profit.  if I owned a hot dog stand, I'd want to provide decent hotdogs.  But I'd want you to pay as much as possible for them.

I get annoyed with providers sometimes too.  But the market bears what it bears.  Prices will fluctuate due to competition.  Churn is a big problem.  People jump back and forth trying to take advantage of new customer deals.  Thats never felt worth it to me.  I've been with the same provider for years and years (although I intend to change when I move later this year).

I had Bell once when it was hardwired into a building I lived at.  One Christmas, it snowed and we lost TV for a couple of days.  Now that aggravated me.  We can control a robot on Mars but we cant get me a TV signal when it snows.  In Winnipeg.  So no Satellite for me.

Seriously, all I want is TSN so I can watch Football during the summer/fall/winter.  Stupid TV.

Me too, I'm looking forward to seeing what it'll cost for just sports channels next winter.  We literally do not watch anything but sports off our cable box right now.

The price of internet is going to sky rocket.  

A lot of people are going to be going to go to minimal cable and supplement the TV shows they watch with some kind of Netflix or streaming equivalent (other services, pirated, or whatever).

The expenses of the cable companies are not going to go down nor will their expected profits.

If they lose a bunch of income from column A (TV) and everyone moves to column B (internet), all the money they used to charge from column a will now get charged to column B.

Just now, Rich said:

The price of internet is going to sky rocket.  

A lot of people are going to be going to go to minimal cable and supplement the TV shows they watch with some kind of Netflix or streaming equivalent.

The expenses of the cable companies are not going to do down.  

If they lose a bunch of income from column A (TV) and everyone moves to column B (internet), all the money they used to charge from column a will now get charged to column B.

Definitely.  The idea of cutting cable sounds good when you can have Netflix and maybe one other service and get everything you want.  But every network and provider is going to have their own streaming service.  In the end, it will be just like cable except instead of paying one price for 100 channels, you pay 20 times for 20 streaming services.  And since that is "premium" it will cost more.  And ofcourse if you want to watch super HD and everything in your home is on the internet, then you're going to pay more for internet access too.

Everything is going to be Internet delivered eventually.  I attended a work meeting a couple of years ago and I think they said people have an average of 13 connected devices in their home and everyone said no not a chance.  But then they began adding up their cell phones, ipads, laptops, desktops, TV's, blu ray players, ipods, etc.  And the forecast was for something like 30 connected devices in each home in the next few years.

My parents' washing machine is connected.  Refrigerators are connected.  The door lock.  Thermostat.  Lights.  Everything will be connected.

i wonder how that will affect rating and commercial money for TV shows if everyone switched to netflix or kodi...ect where you can watch the program anytime, not live and commercial free.  Ive been watching a few old movies recently on youtube trying to pass out like Cyborg, king of kings,  side kicks (yes with chuck norris lol)  and they started cutting into the movies with random commercials.  i wonder if this eventually happens with netflix

2 minutes ago, Taynted_Fayth said:

i wonder how that will affect rating and commercial money for TV shows if everyone switched to netflix or kodi...ect where you can watch the program anytime, not live and commercial free.  Ive been watching a few old movies recently on youtube trying to pass out like Cyborg, king of kings,  side kicks (yes with chuck norris lol)  and they started cutting into the movies with random commercials.  i wonder if this eventually happens with netflix

I doubt it.  Netflix was such a masterful idea and they have so many subs that they dont need commercials to make money.

CBS is banking on a new Star Trek TV series to be the cornerstone of of their streaming service, All Access.  But All Access also has commercials which is going to really aggravate people.

oh yeah i forgot netflix makes you pay to subscribe, or at least did at one time?  interesting enough yesterday i watched SNL with Jonah Hill, then last weeks (i think?) episode with Melissa mccarthy and during the mccarthy SNL i watched a commercial in the middle of it.  that was the first time ever ive seen a commercial on Kodi and ive watched a lot of tv off it

In the end, it is just another cable company shell game:

Offer people run of the mill channels in a "skinny package".....withhold the channels that people would really want to watch - call them "premium", and overcharge you for those.....

but hey, they did their duty, and have complied with the CTRC "demands"

Gah.

 

4 minutes ago, Taynted_Fayth said:

oh yeah i forgot netflix makes you pay to subscribe, or at least did at one time?  interesting enough yesterday i watched SNL with Jonah Hill, then last weeks (i think?) episode with Melissa mccarthy and during the mccarthy SNL i watched a commercial in the middle of it.  that was the first time ever ive seen a commercial on Kodi and ive watched a lot of tv off it

That would be because whoever uploaded the stream, forgot to cut it out.  It happens occassionally but it has nothing to with Kodi itself.

53 minutes ago, bigg jay said:

Bell actually instructed it's staff to downplay the skinny package although their package is so horrid that it doesn't take much to downplay it!

The other companies (afaik) aren't going that far, they're just making it harder to find the info on their websites.

A big part of their strategy will be to make it so inconvenient and unattractive to switch packages that 95% of their customers won't bother.

And (at least for them) it will work.  Of the 26 channels in their bundle, Bell has included 10 french channels, the weather channel and legislative channels like CPAC so right away the number of channels people might actually watch is cut in half.