Canadians to Be Allowed to 'Pick and Pay' TV Channels

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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This week, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) made a historic ruling that will change the way Canadians view cable and satellite programming. By the end of 2016, the Canadians will be able to pick and pay favorite individual channels to add to a low cost basic package. Suddenly I have the urge to move into The Great White North. :D

It is about setting out a roadmap to give all Canadians the freedom to choose the television content that meets their unique needs, budgets and realities.
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MajorDomo said:
By the end of 2016, the Canadians will be able to pick and pay favorite individual channels to add to a low cost basic package.
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"Low cost basic package" in the US would be $19.95 + $14 equipment fee + $8 taxes and fees + $6 ala carte package option + $6/channel

Can't wait!
 
As great as this is for a choice, I am not a fan of the government forcing cable & satellite providers to do this.

Canadian television viewers will no longer be forced to pay
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No they fucking aren't forced to pay, when the fuck did premium TV channels become necessity in life?
 
As great as this is for a choice, I am not a fan of the government forcing cable & satellite providers to do this.
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With all the shit the government pulls, this is pretty minor. The cable companies sure aren't going to do this on their own. Can you imagine Comcast doing this on their own cause they care about their customers? Bullshit. I could hang with this in the US any day to only pay for what I watch. A novel concept.
 
This is all fine and dandy, but I can't see the US companies allowing Cable companies to sell only one of their channels if it isn't bundled w/ other channels they own
 
FireBrd said:
This is all fine and dandy, but I can't see the US companies allowing Cable companies to sell only one of their channels if it isn't bundled w/ other channels they own
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So you think they'll pull out of the Canadian market entirely? Yeah, that seems likely.
 
sfsuphysics said:
As great as this is for a choice, I am not a fan of the government forcing cable & satellite providers to do this.


No they fucking aren't forced to pay, when the fuck did premium TV channels become necessity in life?
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Try this on for size:

Just as cable and satellite consumers aren't "forced" to pay for skazillions of channels...why are cable and satellite providers forced to sell their wares in a manner that quite honestly no one wants?

Cable Company B could right now break the market of a la carte and make a killing because that is what people want. No one does. Because that would be competition and all the cable monopolies agree not to compete with one another like that.

The consumer wants a la carte. Isn't the customer always right? If the asshole cable providers refuse to cater to anything people actually want...why shouldn't Evil Big Government step in and give them a legalistic dope slap? Because if free-market economics worked IRL, the bundling companies would go out of business.
 
i can't wait to see their bullshit excuses when people here in the US see it working for Canada, and start asking "why not here"

"because it would interfere with our CEO buying a new yacht because a $10k a night hooker died in his old one" (while true) probably wouldn't be what they tell the public.
 
collegeboy69us said:
i can't wait to see their bullshit excuses when people here in the US see it working for Canada, and start asking "why not here"

"because it would interfere with our CEO buying a new yacht because a $10k a night hooker died in his old one" (while true) probably wouldn't be what they tell the public.
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"Cable Channel Death Panels".

You heard it from me, first.
 
I recently moved, had my mother living with me for a few years. We had the full cable with all the trimmings, well I only watch 3 or 4 channels.. I told Comcast if they could find a deal for me to keep a package with them that, with internet and phone would be under $140, and they wouldn't do it. Basically they wanted what would have amounted to $50 just to be able to have them in HD and wouldn't budge, even though I told them anything over $140 and I just wouldn't be able to eat for the whole month.

I told them to come get their box and I didn't need cable TV any longer. I cut $95 a month off my bill, and just kept internet and phone. Fuck them. X1 completely blew goats anyway.
 
even when the result is good people are still scared of government. Grow Up people.
 
They will just charge more for internet, what a waste.
 
if everyone chooses only specific channels then I guess many of the channels with lower viewership will cease to exist due to lack of revenue. Could be siginficantly reduced channel choice in future.
 
MajorDomo said:
This week, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) made a historic ruling Suddenly I have the urge to move into The Great White North. :D
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I wouldn't sweat it. Our current government is inept as it is corrupt. Their last bold move to lower cellphone rates resulted in increases across the board. No doubt the cost for individual channels will be excessive or they'll start really raping people on internet pricing. Most ISPs have recent increases prices while lower monthly bandwidth quotas. I except more of the same.
 
One day, I hope, people will realize that a la carte does not mean cheaper. It simply means a la carte. I have no delusions that the content I like to watch would cost as much if not more a la carte than it would in a bundled package.

I'm all for a la carte choices and I'm sure there are a lot of people that would go for it, but I have no doubt that the vast majority of the public would end up choosing a bundle anyway since most people don't just watch one or two channels and believe it or not, there is a value to them.
 
griffinhart said:
One day, I hope, people will realize that a la carte does not mean cheaper. It simply means a la carte. I have no delusions that the content I like to watch would cost as much if not more a la carte than it would in a bundled package.
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Perhaps... depending upon how many channels you actually want. The guy who pays $70/month for TV because he can't get enough of those shitty SyFy movies probably will not be paying more than that per month to get SyFy a la carte. Now if you wanted ALL the really popular channels, then yeah maybe it would. But in the same vein as HBO Now, you're paying $15/month to watch HBO as a streaming service (more than that if you factor in the cost of internet) if someone just wants HBO, they're not going to have to pay for that $70/month pacakage, just because that's a requirement to get HBO which then costs another $12/month

They'll still get you elsewhere, I don't see HD programming coming down, they'll still charge you a premium access fee to see stuff like you're not wearing dirty ass glasses that you should have gotten a new prescription for 20 years ago, they'll still charge you a rental fee for your equipment, they'll still find a way to throw in some "recovery fee" tax in there as well.
 
Skripka said:
The consumer wants a la carte. Isn't the customer always right? If the asshole cable providers refuse to cater to anything people actually want...why shouldn't Evil Big Government step in and give them a legalistic dope slap? Because if free-market economics worked IRL, the bundling companies would go out of business.
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Absolutely true.

What these cable companies do currently is not truly free-market principle. In a true free-market system, you would be able to buy what you want in the market with your money. These cable companies make you pay for things in a package you don't even watch. Why should you pay for what you don't want simply because it is part of that package? Costs are dictated by supply & demand between the seller (cable company/supply) and buyer (consumer/demand). Once the costs are dictated, free-market capitalism means that you can buy what you want with YOUR money.

The only issue I see is this can make smaller channels go out of business. There will not be new channels coming into the mix if they have limited budget to start with. It takes money & resources to run these channels (i.e. channels will die if they have 2000 monthly subscribers globally paying $1 month.. That's $24k a year). Right now, they all get percentage of money through these packages that everyone must pay for. This would kill all the small channels, which means the larger companies with greater viewership profit from this even more. The rich would get richer.

I guess capitalism has its pros and cons. Eventually, it reaches the point where large corporations rule with their riches. The rest of us get screwed. Is there ANY political or economic system out there where the rest of us don't get screwed? lol.. Seriously, everything must have checks & balances, even the economic system. That's the only thing that works - checks & balances for political system & supply & demand for economic system
 
This would have been awesome 5 or more years ago. Glad it's finally happening but why did it have to take so long? I've already moved on.
 
What a unique idea;paying for what you actually want, instead of being forced to pay for what you would never watch.I guess worldcorp doesn't entirely own Canada yet.Verizon is Ma bell in disguise.Guess who will win in the USA?
 
Unexploded said:
Our current government is inept as it is corrupt.
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what do you mean current government??? they've all been inept and corrupt! that's a proud canadian tradition you're talking about there. our politicians of late have been making me proud upholding our most sacred tradition.
 
Wow, I hope this happens in the US one day, if ever.. I would only watch Discovery Channel on cable..
 
THRESHIN said:
what do you mean current government??? they've all been inept and corrupt! that's a proud canadian tradition you're talking about there. our politicians of late have been making me proud upholding our most sacred tradition.
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I hope you're joking.
 
My innate cynicism tells me that:

ocellaris said:
"Low cost basic package" in the US would be $19.95 + $14 equipment fee + $8 taxes and fees + $6 ala carte package option + $6/channel
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This formula will hold true on this side of the border.

I just can't see it reducing a cable bill. I guess I could see it killing off the hundreds of channels that are just file servers barfing up re-runs from the primary channels, but the per channel rate will sky-rocket to compensate.
 
There's someone excluded from these discussions that won't have it. The Media outlets. Hollywood & New York or whoever you want to call them get a huge fucking cut and have been this administrations best supporters. This ain't going to happen. The cable companies can just charge more per channel and make their money. Its hollywierd that will take it on the nose. the television industry would go over 50% umemployed in a year or two. Probably much more than 50%. They won't let it happen.

Be coincidence the media industry isn't a huge cash filthy industry in Canada like in the US and much of their TV is imported anyway so surprise, that's why that happened there.
 
This isn't going to convince me to come back to 1950's era "cable TV" with with "channels" that constantly spew content in "timeslots".

I quite honestly only really watch TV while I'm cooking or when I feel sick, Netflix is more that enough for me.
 
jpm100 said:
Be coincidence the media industry isn't a huge cash filthy industry in Canada like in the US and much of their TV is imported anyway so surprise, that's why that happened there.
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Hey, it's not true that most Canadian TV is imported... Only the good shows are imported, we have a large legally-mandated (not a joke) Canadian television industry that makes tonnes of unwanted period dramas about the 1800s, news shows, documentaries about things people don't care about and awful low-budget sitcoms and dramas.
 
oh, hell yes! I hope this works out, tired of paying extra for channels I got no interest in.
 
hafnium911 said:
Wow, I hope this happens in the US one day, if ever.. I would only watch Discovery Channel on cable..
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well, dude, exactly, welcome to my world! Rogers charges me $10 just cause I wanted that one channel... Not only that, in order to get this package, I had to sign up for the highest cable plan! They did give me a nice discount though, otherwise I would probably bail a long time ago.
 
THRESHIN said:
what do you mean current government??? they've all been inept and corrupt! that's a proud canadian tradition you're talking about there. our politicians of late have been making me proud upholding our most sacred tradition.
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I'm a realist, I expect politicians in positions of power will typically find a way to line their own pockets, but the Harper Government has managed to eclipse all previous contenders combined exponentially.

From multiple cases of election fraud; to spending a billion (tax) dollars on self-promoting advertising; to spending $260 million a year on social media spin doctors and forum sock-puppets; to flooding the country with half a million temporary foreign workers to drive down wages; to using the RCMP, our intelligence services, and Revenue Canada to go after their opposition; to selling billions in weapons to Saudi Arabia. Weapons currently being used on people protesting for democracy (their own citizens and citizens in Bahrain;) to spinning up their own fake news services to push out propaganda; and one of my favorites selling our sovereignty to China, for the next 31 years, they're able to override our municipal, provincial, and federal laws if they get in the way of their profits. As well as sue us for damages in secret. Hell of a trade deal.

Anyway,the list goes on, and on and on... I could literally spend the next month typing up misdeeds and probably only hit half of them. I'll spare us both that fun.

Here is a little more info to review or ignore as you see fit:

http://fipafacts.ca/

http://www.thestar.com/opinion/comm...octor_payroll_rivals_that_of_the_commons.html

http://behindthenumbers.ca/2011/04/27/harpers-attack-on-democracy-itemized-by-lawrence-martin/

https://harperwatch.wordpress.com/

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...i-arabia-shrouded-in-secrecy/article22547765/
 
It's really hard for me to believe some of you actually think the cable companies actually own or control the programing. THEY DON"T!!!

The cable companies provide the wire to your home; they spend millions to purchase programing from other big companies to sell to you, the customer.

Go look up what Discovery actually owns. Go look up what HBO actually owns and on and on.

For those huge conglomerates to suddenly decide to offer you each channel as a separate entity you actually think it would be cheaper????

Like it or not commercials have paid the way since day one of TV so for those of you who want commercial free programing you are going to pay a fortune per channel because those conglomerates are not going to take the hit dollar wise.

Imagine for a moment how much simple access to the net will start to cost if this happens.

Worse, imagine the US government controlling everything you see more than they do now.

I find it really hard to understand how few people really understand the whole business model as it stands...:eek:.
 
It's just too bad we get consistently screwed on everything else associated with telecom in this country.
 
Quix said:
Hey, it's not true that most Canadian TV is imported... Only the good shows are imported, we have a large legally-mandated (not a joke) Canadian television industry that makes tonnes of unwanted period dramas about the 1800s, news shows, documentaries about things people don't care about and awful low-budget sitcoms and dramas.
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You mean you don't set your PVR to record reruns of "North of 60" on CBC?
 
BillR said:
It's really hard for me to believe some of you actually think the cable companies actually own or control the programing. THEY DON"T!!!

The cable companies provide the wire to your home; they spend millions to purchase programing from other big companies to sell to you, the customer.

Go look up what Discovery actually owns. Go look up what HBO actually owns and on and on.
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Say what?

-HBO is owned by Time-Warner of Time Warner Cable. Has been that way for over 30 years. Time Warner also owns Turner Broadcasting which owns CNN/HLN/TBS/TNT/Cartoon Network, TWC also owns DC Comics and a few others to name a few.

-Your ESPNs are owned by Disney, which is owned by ABC. ABC also owns the History Channel and all its affiliates....they also own the Disney Channel and all its affiliates. And A&E.

Same thing with Comcast aka NBC.



You name a cable channel, it is owned by a shell company of a (monopolistic) cable-ISP. The Cable companies are the media IP owners and media providers. Don't start with the poor-cable-company-caught-in-the-middle act. It is all an act. The cable company makes your programming to start with, and YES they do own the rights to it most of the time.
 
I would love to get a la carte. I currently pay about $80 for the TV part of my cable bill. I only watch 2 non local channels. I would be willing to pay up to $30 each a month for those channels (plus the $12 per month fee for the DVR). I couldn't possibly see ANY a la carte price be that much per channel.
 
sfsuphysics said:
As great as this is for a choice, I am not a fan of the government forcing cable & satellite providers to do this.


No they fucking aren't forced to pay, when the fuck did premium TV channels become necessity in life?
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We were forced to pay for channels we didn't want. If I wanted the History Channel only, I usually had to pay an extra $10 for a package that had channels that I didn't give a shit about. Now I can simply order the History Channel, no filler, no B.S.
 
fs123 said:
if everyone chooses only specific channels then I guess many of the channels with lower viewership will cease to exist due to lack of revenue. Could be siginficantly reduced channel choice in future.
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Good. I don't want to subsidize crap that I don't watch anyhow.
 
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