Re: Canadian TV
 

Well mick, i guess i can do some minor though not insignificant comparisons....the standard of adverts i see here on tv 'sucks'!... for want of a better word.
like the business news on CTV being sponsored by some ignorable company named badboy! which am still unsure what they do :) most of them seem to be companies local to toronto, with films shot in their backyards!!

i long to see those carlsberg, stella type ads shown in the Uk!

Re: Canadian TV
 

The fact that what you seem to miss is the ads says all you need to know about TV on both sides of the Atlantic! Ads are certainly not as sophisticated in Canada, thats for sure.

FWIW Badboy is a well known company in TO (even a country boy like me knows that!) It is run by "colourful" ex longtime toronto Mayor Mel Lastman, sells furniture. This is the kind of info you need to know about life in Canada that you wont find in the guidebooks!

Iain

Re: Canadian TV
 

That fool was actually elected!

Re: Canadian TV
 

Many fools get elected....just look south of the Border:eek::scared:

Iain

Re: Canadian TV
 

thanks for the info. anyway! next time i see the Badboy ad. it'll seem more meaningful i guess! :)
but still in a financially imp. city like TO they could atleast have a more relevant business to sponsor such programs.
i guess its the bottomline that must have mattered!
thanks anyway.

Re: Canadian TV
 

Who's better than bad boy? Nooooooooooo body :rolleyes:

Re: Canadian TV
 

Heck!! that's a lill' bit better than;

its not Auto....its Atto!! :D

Re: Canadian TV
 

The news of cecilia's death is a sad one that every parent fears, as you all know her body was discovered after 5 months in Mississauga. I think there is more to this story than meets the eye, and i hope whoever did this, is caught sooner.

Could something have been done to solve this earlier?

Re: Canadian TV
 

Wasn't she abducted from her bedroom? That's what strikes me as odd. Most missing kiddies get snatched from the street.

That poor girl and her family...
I have 3 kids myself (all young 'uns) and this sort of thing terrifies me. I hope she didn't suffer. RIP.

Re: Canadian TV
 

Don't know about the rest of you folks, the most annoying commercial is any MCDonald's commercial or any car commercial that has no point, it just shows cars driving around for 28 seconds and then the company logo.

Am sure these companies are spending loads of money on these adverts, but i doubt people are buying their cars based on the adverts they saw on TV. Have you noticed how the furniture store ones are always having one day sales with no GST &PST, and when you get there, they tell you a different story.

PowerMac G5 'Fastest Computer' TV Advert was Banned in the UK last year, just because they ( apple mac ) claim its the fastest in the world. I must admit that baby is fast, but then again, you can make your PC fast just by adding bits and bobs to it.

Surely there must be some adverts that really get your goat, lets have them. Someone already mentioned BAD BOY, i don't know if its the commercial or just Former mayor Mel's son that is annoying :rolleyes: WHO'S BETTER THAN BAD BOY? The Brick and Leon :lecture:

Re: Canadian TV
 

Interestingly, there was a program on TV last night called 'The funniest adverts in the World' which was British.

According to this program the British ads are the best because the Brits like humour in their ads to catch their attention and they don't mind poking fun at themselves. Being able to identify with the advert works.

Meanwhile, the American side of the market prefers direct sales and straight-talking hence the adverts are pretty awful.

I think the TV situation's pretty good these days.

When I first came to this country I thought TV was an absolute wasteland. I wasn't a big fan of U.S TV when I lived in Britain so I found adjusting really hard and spent a fortune on British videos and had my multiregion VCR working overtime.

But in this day and age, there's lots and lots of choice. And if you're willing to spend a bit extra on digital (justify it as not much more than you'd pay on your licence fee) you can get even more.

Here in Ontario there are two TV stations that have no ads and play a smattering of British programming, plus interesting Canadian/American public service programming like documentraries - TV Ontario and PBS Buffalo.

Then the CBC have a few good documentaries of their own and a couple of funny satirical comedy shows like 'This Hour Has 22 Minutes'.

CBC News both on the main network and on CBC Newsworld is pretty good quality for national and international news.
If you get digital cable you can also get BBC World (if you really miss British news you can watch BBC newscasts on the Internet too).

CITY-TV available even with an aerial here, usually has two full-length popular movies on every night - albeit riddled with ads.

On a channel called Sportsnet (on regular basic cable) you can get two British football games every Saturday - one live and one on tapoe delay immediately after. They're the games my relatives in Britain either have to get Sky to watch or go to a bar. If you subscribe to digital cable you can get even more choice on Fox Sportsworld. Sportsnet also show quite a lot of rugby.

Specialty cable stations like Showcase and Bravo (arts), often air British dramas a bit too edgy for TVO or PBS like 'Queer As Folk' as well as quality HBO series from the U.S like The Sopranos and Oz.

If you get digital cable or satellite then you can also get more stations. BBC Canada, the BBC's entertainment channel here although afflicted with lifestyle shows like 'Ground Force' over the past two years has aired such diverse programmes as 'Babyfather',
'Attachments', 'League of Gentlemen', 'Only Fools And Horses', 'Dalziel And Pascoe' etc. BBC Kids also has 'TOTP', 'Dr. Who' and 'Thunderbirds'.

In addition we get The Documentary Channel, for more well-made documentaries, The Independent Film Channel for more edgy movies - but that's just us - there's everything from The Book Channel to The Game Show Channel, stations that only show vintage U.S sitcoms etc. etc. Plus if you do like U.S TV you can watch all the networks and 'Friend' repeats until you're blue in the face.

15 years ago I also listened occasionally to the BBC World Service on short-wave. Now I can listen to any BBC radio or other radio around the world on the Internet whenever I like. A lot of shows are even archived, so you can listen to them when you want.

So again in comparison to 15 years ago, it's pretty good. I think whatever you're looking for, a lot of it's there, you just have to search around a bit.

I hardly watch anything as it so bad, apart from 24 and Nikita which I love.

I am a massive tennis fan but the networks here hardly show a thing compared to the US and Europe. Sometimes if there is a match on ESPN I go to a sports bar and watch it. And TSN have the cheek to say that they show a lot of what ESPN do.

I download quite a few British programmes from the internet and they are great quality and up to date, for example Eastenders is 18 months behind and I am currently downloading today's episode.:)

Last year we were stuck with the Buffalo feeds on CBS, NBC etc etc and they are really bad because if some kind of sport is advertised on CBS like tennis then you cannot guarantee it will be shown, I was tuning into the Miami tennis final last year and they were showing a cooking programme!

Luckily we moved and with our satellite package we can choose what feed we have, and we have Detroit which is a lot better.

Yes the Wimbledon coverage is really irritating too.

The U.S commentators call it "Wimpleton" or "the big W".

I don't think you're in much luck if you're a cricket fan either.