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disillusion
@teksavvy.com

disillusion

Anon

Vertical Intergration: The coming storm

So the internet gatekeeper was allowed to control both the distribution system and the content. CTV.ca, which offered online viewing for all (complete with commercials), has started requesting you sign in with a broadcast service provider to access shows online. I have been OTA for quite some time and CTV is one of those OTA accessible broadcast channels. Bell was allowed to purchase this content stream, along with others and are poising themselves to lock up this perfectly legal access online to prop up the floundering broadcast system and force "On the Go" contracts. Absolutely wonderful.

BACONATOR26
Premium Member
join:2000-11-25
Nepean, ON

BACONATOR26

Premium Member

It's not necessarily because of vertical integration, they are just hoping to cash in on streaming service and keep you tied in to television service at the same time. Course that won't stop those that want to get the content elsewhere. And they own the rights to the content so they are able to dictate how you access it through them.

Having said that I do believe CTV will still allow you to access the content even if you choose OTA when you sign in.

mk1_416
@start.ca

1 recommendation

mk1_416 to disillusion

Anon

to disillusion
I got a popup a few days ago asking which provider I am with. I simply selected the antenna option and have no signing in or anything else to deal with.
taraf
join:2011-05-07
Ottawa, ON

taraf to disillusion

Member

to disillusion
*shrugs* I doubt they'd block it off completely. More likely, they'll go the route that some other broadcasters have gone -- I've been watching the current season of Lost Girl online from the Showcase website, and they have inserted commercials into the stream, as if I were watching it live. Honestly, I don't object to it... I'm not paying them in any way for the service, and if they want me to sit through a few minutes of commercials in order to keep it free, that's kind of the point of commercials in the first place.

I'm possibly being stupidly optimistic here, but I figure Bell's not going to block it behind a paywall, but they may insert advertising into the streams of people who don't subscribe to their services as a way of monetizing it.

I don't think they're stupid enough to try blocking it completely, because they know full well that somebody's just going to hook up rabbit ears to a DVR and put it on a torrent within half an hour of the broadcast anyway.

Dissillusion
@teksavvy.com

Dissillusion

Anon

Click for full size
And the paywall begins!

aaah drool
@videotron.ca

aaah drool

Anon

said by Dissillusion :

And the paywall begins!

About a week or two ago, Bell stated that in 18-months Canadians will need to double-authenticate to watch any content online in Canada.

Double authenticate? Whatever could that mean?

Will it work if you enter and IPTV player like Vmeida, or Colba IPTV, Or Zazeene (just to try and see if you can enter those as your TV subscription)?

Does one have to authenticate on the Bell Canada website? If so? Do you have a screen capture of the authentication process?
aaah drool

aaah drool to Dissillusion

Anon

to Dissillusion
Just tried none of the IPTV providers work.
Videotron doesn't even work.

Bell says they have to become members for it to work, and then you have to create some sort of account with Bell telling them who you are.

F that. If you sign up, then chances are Bell privacy polices apply to me and this in turn "creates a business relationship" which in turn will circumvent the new anti-spam laws (not to mention how they will profile anyone with their tracking crap).

Just don't bother going to CTV anymore. Simple as that. Get your content else-where.

Now not only did Bell state the other week that Canadians will have to double authenticate to watch any content in Canada, they also called on the gov to increase fines for piracy and to toughen laws when one gets content out of their geo-specific area (in other words, criminalizing getting American IP's to watch content that by passes this Bell garbage).

Bell wants content locked up tighter that a nuns knees.

It recognized Vmedia, ColbaNet and Videotron (but they have to pay Bell to be partners and whatever else).

Acanac's Zazeen was not recognized as being any type of valid IPTV service.

Cord cutter get no content. Too bad for them. And if BEll has their way based on their speech the other week, cord cutter who do get content should be tossed in jail and heavily fined.

Aaah, the love of Bell... *drool*

milnoc
join:2001-03-05
Ottawa

milnoc to Dissillusion

Member

to Dissillusion
The biggest losers will be Canadian productions. You can easily find most American and other foreign shows on BitTorrent. Not so with most Canadian shows. They're not considered worthy of any piracy efforts whatsoever.

And remember that the Canadian entertainment industry is corporate welfare heavily subsidised by our tax dollars. We've already paid for those shows, but now we can't watch them anymore.

If we've ever watched them at all.

aaah drool
@videotron.ca

aaah drool

Anon

Milnoc, I think you resa, JF, and Mr. "just ok" Klass should start something. I know you have a bit of knowledge in this since you had your own TV thing going.

I wonder what George Burgers reaction to this is? Someone should IM him and point him to this link.

milnoc
join:2001-03-05
Ottawa

milnoc

Member

I can tell you there's no point in launching an independent channel in Canada anymore, not unless you're "partnered" with one of the incumbents, which wouldn't make you independent anymore, but instead make you the incumbent's bitch.

I'd rather try my luck with more accessible outfits like YouTube and Netflix.

Dissillusion
@teksavvy.com

Dissillusion to aaah drool

Anon

to aaah drool
The sad thing is, the online streaming comes complete with commercials which, as far as I am concerned, should be openly available as the commercials is supposedly paying for the content. If I am to pay to access this content, then I want it without any commercials.

milnoc
join:2001-03-05
Ottawa

milnoc

Member

Even worse, while the streams of the shows often fail for unexplained reasons, the commercials always work perfectly.

HiVolt
Premium Member
join:2000-12-28
Toronto, ON

3 recommendations

HiVolt

Premium Member

LOL, they can all suck my fuzzy nuggets... I'll get em elsewhere WITHOUT commercials.

so their loss.
JMJimmy
join:2008-07-23

JMJimmy to milnoc

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to milnoc
said by milnoc:

The biggest losers will be Canadian productions. You can easily find most American and other foreign shows on BitTorrent. Not so with most Canadian shows. They're not considered worthy of any piracy efforts whatsoever.

And remember that the Canadian entertainment industry is corporate welfare heavily subsidised by our tax dollars. We've already paid for those shows, but now we can't watch them anymore.

If we've ever watched them at all.

What shows are you having trouble finding? I've never had trouble finding any Canadian production I've had interest in.
Trentelshark
join:2002-12-11
London, ON

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I noticed this the other day after the CTV app on my iPad was updated. Like another user mentioned I can select VMedia as my provider but they "aren't partnered" with Bell according to the message. The kicker is the only shows I watch on CTV are broadcast in the US, so I always have the option of obtaining it that way and if Bell gets their way, that will be halted as well. They're trying to force us into an option (Bell, Rogers, etc) that has OnDemand which was always what, 3 or 4 days behind on Rogers?

This is all getting a little out of hand and everything combined is clearly a means to stop cord cutters from getting the content online. However as others have said if I go through the commercials, which always worked (when streams would shit the bed for no reason) I'm not exactly getting it for free...the marketing groups will see it as a view unless ad block software is halting these in other cases?

Jackorama
I Am Woman
Premium Member
join:2008-05-23
Kingston, ON

Jackorama to milnoc

Premium Member

to milnoc
said by milnoc:

Even worse, while the streams of the shows often fail for unexplained reasons, the commercials always work perfectly.

^That is so true.^ If you notice the ads are always 4 or 5 of the same one in a row.

It's so true that I have been watching some of those shows on American and UK network sites with Firefox and an addon called Media Hint. No setting to change or fuss with and the video always works. Also Ad Blocker works with them. This is an option for people who don't or are afraid to torrent, etc. Also, because the CBC player sucks most of the time (Corrie fans know what I'm saying). If you need the code for Corrie for watching in the UK when using Media Hint, then pm me.

Today I was just watching W5 on the show's website instead of the CTV web player and had no problem watching the show. Instead of the network sites, going to the show's website will stream the show. For now, anyways.

elwoodblues
Elwood Blues
Premium Member
join:2006-08-30
Somewhere in

elwoodblues to milnoc

Premium Member

to milnoc
said by milnoc:

Even worse, while the streams of the shows often fail for unexplained reasons, the commercials always work perfectly.

Astounding isn't it.

Dissillusion
@teksavvy.com

Dissillusion to Trentelshark

Anon

to Trentelshark
I agree that they are trying to lock up content to prevent the cord cutting, to protect their broadcast cash cows. North America is so back asswords. In many European and Asian countries, you subscribe to internet service, and many providers include TV broadband or IPTV as an add-on for free.
Dissillusion

Dissillusion to JMJimmy

Anon

to JMJimmy
One series that I searched for in torrents, is listed at CBC but streaming never worked for me (content cannot be found) is the Canadian "Who do you think you are?". I haven't look at it on the CBC site lately tho, so it may be working now. Not sure.
Dissillusion

Dissillusion to elwoodblues

Anon

to elwoodblues
Yep, so, so true. I think it's because the commercials are from a different set of servers which are probably so much more robust than the shows servers.

jtl999
join:2012-11-24
canada

jtl999 to milnoc

Member

to milnoc
Reminds of about youtube on Shaw Cable.
jtl999

jtl999 to aaah drool

Member

to aaah drool
Link to the article?
JMJimmy
join:2008-07-23

JMJimmy to Dissillusion

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said by Dissillusion :

One series that I searched for in torrents, is listed at CBC but streaming never worked for me (content cannot be found) is the Canadian "Who do you think you are?". I haven't look at it on the CBC site lately tho, so it may be working now. Not sure.

The torrents are out there, I was able to find episodes 1-4 and 10 without any difficulty. I can't link it for obvious reasons but they are out there. Kickass eh? Also, the stream does work - it might be Adblock that's preventing you from viewing them
taraf
join:2011-05-07
Ottawa, ON

taraf to Dissillusion

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The only part that insisted I have a subscription service was the "watch live" button for CTV 1 and 2. When I tried watching back episodes of SHIELD a few minutes ago, it asked, and I told it I had antenna service.

I had to disable adblock plus, but as long as I'm getting it for free, I don't really care....

Dissillusion
@teksavvy.com

Dissillusion

Anon

Some episodes are still available for viewing, but if you look at a specific shows episode listings some have a padlock in the play/arrow icon. Last week it was "antenna service", this week it's "some episodes are locked", next week it will be all episodes are locked.
MaynardKrebs
We did it. We heaved Steve. Yipee.
Premium Member
join:2009-06-17

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said by Dissillusion :

I agree that they are trying to lock up content to prevent the cord cutting, to protect their broadcast cash cows. North America is so back asswords. In many European and Asian countries, you subscribe to internet service, and many providers include TV broadband or IPTV as an add-on for free.

But as you correctly noted, the incumbents here now own the content.

The CRTC really screwed the pooch by allowing that shit to happen.

Google "Paramount anti-trust" if you want to find out how the Americans fixed their content/distribution problem back in the late 1940's. Oh hell, here's the link »en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Un ··· res,_Inc.

The US, unfortunately, has has backslide on this since they allowed Comcast/NBC to go through.

Judges back in the day had balls, unlike the petit bourgeois CRTC bureaucrats of today.
taraf
join:2011-05-07
Ottawa, ON

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said by Dissillusion :

Some episodes are still available for viewing, but if you look at a specific shows episode listings some have a padlock in the play/arrow icon. Last week it was "antenna service", this week it's "some episodes are locked

That remains to be seen... it's quite reasonable for them to restrict streaming to just the most recent episodes... they don't have to offer streaming at all, really. A few short years ago, if you didn't have a PVR, you were screwed... there was no online streaming, on demand with a subscription service cost money (even for stuff like the latest episode of Survivor), and it's a very thin minority of people who had both antenna service and a PVR set up to record it. The fact that they offer any online streaming at all is an improvement over the state of things 5 years ago. Besides... they just raised the overage price for their own plans to $4/GB, and the average size of an hour long episode in HD is 1-2GB... I think they already figured out how they're going to monetize cord cutters.

Ultimately, they're in business. This is really no more onerous than the fact that there's commercials in it at all if you have a pay TV subscription. That's what should really get your goat -- if you're paying Bell for your satellite or FibeTV hookup, and on paper at least, Bell's paying CTV for the rights to rebroadcast their network, why, then, do they need to sell advertising as well?

elwoodblues
Elwood Blues
Premium Member
join:2006-08-30
Somewhere in

elwoodblues

Premium Member

said by taraf:

I think they already figured out how they're going to monetize cord cutters.

If I'm going to pay to watch online, I'll subscribe to Hulu Plus or Netflix , oh wait, that'll be illegal soon. NM

Putting aside where I get my "linux distros" from,

Ultimately, they're in business. This is really no more onerous than the fact that there's commercials in it at all if you have a pay TV subscription. That's what should really get your goat -- if you're paying Bell for your satellite or FibeTV hookup, and on paper at least, Bell's paying CTV for the rights to rebroadcast their network, why, then, do they need to sell advertising as well?

It doesn't work that way, rights are sold, primary broadcast rights (the time it airs in the US), secondary rights, (put on a speciality channel) and web rights, (on the Internet).

So in this case Bell Media would have bought the rights and sold it to CTV and CTV2). It's a shell game money out of one pocket into the next.
DanteX
join:2010-09-09

DanteX

Member

Bell owns CTV so why would they sell to CTV?
mr weather
Premium Member
join:2002-02-27
Mississauga, ON

mr weather

Premium Member

Accounting purposes.