scrubbedexpat091

The TV networks are for sure, but the cable companies just keep jacking up the internet rates, so I am not sure they will hurt, they will just focus on other things like internet and cell phones, and less on TV.

Seems as cable subscribers drop, internet rates go up. Internet cost now is more then cable cost ever was...for us.


Its too bad the subscriber service never made it to the US, it may have done okay if they could access that market, seems the cable networks there fought it though and won by saying they would pull BBC America, guess BBC America was worth more to BBC?

Steve_

I'll be interested to see if BBC Canada and various other totally crap channels survive the new CRTC "a la carte" rule that comes into force in January (I think).

I know I'm not going to be subscribing to it.

The only thing I ever watch that is from the BBC is Top Gear and that was getting a bit dull, maybe I'll watch it again if the new presenters are any good.

not2old

don't know if this has been covered before or not - is anyone with a DNS or VPN or using any other internet method, watching British TV from TVcatchup?

TVCatchup - Watch Live TV And Never Miss A Show Again!

Catch Up TV: the best TV shows to watch on demand - Telegraph

scrubbedexpat091

There was just an article yesterday on CBC I think about the ala carte pricing and channels surviving or not surviving.

Wonder if all the French channels we are forced to currently get can survive? I know I will drop them if I can save money.....

In the end I think we will end up paying more for less as they drop various networks altogether... or as the article suggested and which Shaw has already done, just raise internet prices to make up the loss of cable TV.

BristolUK

It asks me to consider disabling adblocker. I acknowledged the message but didn't disable but it wouldn't work, presumably as I hadn't disabled adblocker.

If I have a need at some future point it might be worth a go but there are so many free options it's not necessary.

jimf

According to the article below the basic package has to be offered by March 2016. I've never heard of the basic channels mentioned and it looks like CBC isn't included in the basic bundle outside of Quebec and that's the only Canadian channel I watch.

CRTC rules cable companies must offer pick-and-pay channels, $25 basic package - Politics - CBC News

It could be time to get an antenna and ditch cable completely. How would you get the football channels without cable though?

BristolUK

On a similar note...

When MediaHint stopped being free and when Chrome and Firefox removed it from their available add-ons (presumably at the same time) it continued to work while it was in my add-ons.

Last year I had reason to re-install Firefox and I lost MediaHint, but with a little googling I found I was able to download an old version and install it back into Firefox add-ons.

Sadly, the latest Firefox update now disables it and offers 'remove' rather than have it just sit there disabled.

Apparently there is a way to override this but Firefox has a "here be dragons" warning when you follow the process. Aside from me not really understanding the process there was virtually a 'promise' that something else would be problematic.

It's not a massive issue. First off, MediaHint taken officially does only cost about $3 a month. I've had a look and there are elements of the install process I'm not sure about.

Secondly there are numerous alternatives including watching 'live' via other sites, not least FilmOn in at least half a dozen variations or watching/downloading the streams that appear within a couple of hours of broadcast and certainly by the next day.

Where I would miss MediaHint is in two small areas.

I generally watch 2 or 3 English football matches on a Saturday on Canadian TV channels with the odd NBC broadcast thrown in.

But I still like to watch Match of the Day on BBC as a supplemental.

Of course, I don't want to see highlights of what I already saw, so I allow the programme to run for about 20 minutes and then using BBC iPlayer I use the 'restart' feature and then cut out the parts I don't want, leaving previously unseen highlights and manager interviews.

Is that worth paying for? Not really. Not when I could simply watch live and just do something else for the parts I don't want.

The only other time I will miss MediaHint is where I could go on iPlayer and watch something without downloading it.

This has the benefit of watching without having to save it onto the computer.

Is that worth paying for? Not really, since I'm not short of storage space and once seen it'll be deleted anyway.

Nevertheless I'd still like something free or with a one time only fee just for the convenience.

In the meantime, I installed Tunnelbear but that has a limit and might only work for MOTD twice. Unless the limit is per use or the limit can be 'renewed' by means of uninstalling and reinstalling.

Danny B

I got a new AppleTV for Christmas (the latest one with built in storage) and when I turned it on I signed in with my UK iTunes account and entered my unblockus DNS (which is configured for the UK).
Within minutes I had downloaded the BBC iPlayer app and was watching Christmas TV. Just about to watch the New Year Sherlock special.

Tangram

Same here, pretty sweet

quiltman

Well, since internet here in Philippines is normally slow, streaming can be a bit hit and miss. I have tried Hola, tunnel Bear and one other VPN but stutters like crazy. About 2 years ago I discovered Filmon.com
This is free to stream at SD and is perfectly legal as they licence all the programs. since my wife is an Emmerdale Fan and she ain't getting up at 3.00am to watch it, I now subscribe to Filmons recording. For $9.99 a month I get 11 hours of recording capability which lets me "record' the programmes we like - such as the 6 o'clock news for example, then either stream them or download them to suit us. So my wife watches last nights Emm at 7.00pm here, just like back in UK - except of course it's a day behind. Even with a slow connection I just set up to download and leave the PC chugging away in the morning. Worth every cent! They have over 600 worldwide TV channels available - some quite wierd ones as well! The upshot is we miss nothing we would have watched on UK TV , albeit a day later. Many of the items we like never make it onto torrents either so this gives us the best of both worlds. This evening we have watched last nights news, War & Peace,and Endeavour.Oh and I download Match of the day for my son!

quiltman

Oh, forgot to say that once you've watched or downloaded a programme, you can delete it from your Filmon guide and the time becomes available to record something else.

scrubbedexpat091

I am actually a bit worried about this pick and pay. We pay $41 for cable and get like 150 ish channels, while we only watch about a dozen on a regular basis, if we had to pay $25 for basic and then per channel, I don't see it being cheaper then $41 we currently pay.

If anything the price of internet is what costs a small fortune, the cable TV portion of our bill keeps going down, while the internet portion keeps rising.

I have no complaints about the price of TV, $41 is a decent value for what we get.

Alan2005

How many old apple TV's do you two have lying around in drawers?

Tangram

I have an ATV3 in the upstairs lounge and the bedroom and now an ATV4 in the family room with all the surround sound gear, so I have a spare from the family room only

Just bought some lovely cherry Polk Towers and a sub....lining up which movie to watch first. Only tried music so far and Floyd sounds amazing

sharkus

As soon as the iPlayer app appeared on the tvOS App Store I grabbed a copy to see if Unblock-us would work, and as others have stated, so far it does appear to work

I'm quite happy with my Netflix and unblockus setup, have been using it for a few years and the only things I really miss is F1 coverage via TSN, and (Ask) This Old House. The latter I can and have watched using the apps on the apple TV, the former, well, I downloaded a couple of last years races, but didn't bother with most. Which is unusual as I usually would watch them all. Not sure what I'll do this year for F1, perhaps just not bother? (I really wish they would come out with a decent streaming service, I'm sure people would happily pay for good quality and legal streams of F1 races, plus advert free as well)

One other advantage of Netflix is that I gave my 3rd gen Apple TV to my girlfriend, and signed her into my Netflix account. As you can be watching on up to two screens at a time (can expand it to four by paying more) then I can be in my apartment and she can be in hers and we can use the same Netflix account. Not bad for around $8 a month.