Your observations when visiting UK from Canada !
#136
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 14,227
Re: Your observations when visiting UK from Canada !
Which means you're not watching it, you're watching bits and pieces of it via the internet and mainly watching Canadian TV from the sounds of it. The internet is the internet, TV is TV. (Even if you happen to be using the internet on your TV).
My experience is from sitting down of a night in front of Canadian TV provided by Shaw cable that it is superior to being sat in front of a TV with service provided by Sky or the supposed "freeview" which isn't free.
My experience is from sitting down of a night in front of Canadian TV provided by Shaw cable that it is superior to being sat in front of a TV with service provided by Sky or the supposed "freeview" which isn't free.
#139
Forum Regular
Joined: Sep 2011
Location: Epsom, er no, Toronto...
Posts: 141
Re: Your observations when visiting UK from Canada !
In Ireland they think it's an amusing documentary
people slate the BBC in the UK but when it comes down to it you get 8 TV channels and 8 radio stations all for about 10 per month - there is something for everyone and to top it off there are no adverts and no commercial tie ins (something I am so greatful for with two young children).
you also get the iplayer and probably the best all around website on the internet.
it's one thing I think I am going to miss the most when I move over - my other half (canadian) reckons it knocks the spots off anything available in canada.
people slate the BBC in the UK but when it comes down to it you get 8 TV channels and 8 radio stations all for about 10 per month - there is something for everyone and to top it off there are no adverts and no commercial tie ins (something I am so greatful for with two young children).
you also get the iplayer and probably the best all around website on the internet.
it's one thing I think I am going to miss the most when I move over - my other half (canadian) reckons it knocks the spots off anything available in canada.
#140
Slob
Joined: Sep 2009
Location: Ottineau
Posts: 6,342
Re: Your observations when visiting UK from Canada !
1) How expensive this place is. The ten pound note appears to be the standard unit of currency for buying anything.
2) Man Lab is way better than anything on North American TV.
3) Public transport. It exists.
2) Man Lab is way better than anything on North American TV.
3) Public transport. It exists.
#141
Re: Your observations when visiting UK from Canada !
I'm amazed how often I get one (or even 2 or 3) in change. Back in the UK it seemed I'd get £1 and £2 coins rather than a fiver. Why doesn't the same happen here with $1 and $2 coins?
#142
Re: Your observations when visiting UK from Canada !
Just more stuff on that I'm okay with watching generally speaking. I mean like last night there were a couple of sitcoms on and Rick Mercer which were watchable, none of them are on in the UK. I don't watch Modern Family btw.
#143
Re: Your observations when visiting UK from Canada !
Like I said, having visited for two weeks and turning on the TV and being sat in front of it, couldn't find much in the channel guide to watch.
#144
Re: Your observations when visiting UK from Canada !
- same program in the two countries, which has more adverts?
- news, which network has more foreign correspondents, the BBC or whatever the Canadian stations are called?
#145
Re: Your observations when visiting UK from Canada !
But I'm comparing what I get on Shaw with what I'd get in a similar manner in the UK. I'm not comparing the BBC with CBC.
Plenty of news sources here, e.g. BBC World, all the American networks, I quite like watching TV5 actually as they have the French news and also Swiss news.
The BBC is not the only thing in the world, I never understand this comment about the ads, but then I hardly watched the BBC in the UK other than the news and Top Gear. And everyone has a DVR nowadays anyway, just record it and start watching it a little bit later and FF through all the ads. Just simply not a problem.
And anyway, I was watching The Big Bang Theory in the UK and OMG the ad break in the middle lasted ages because they still have to make it cover half an hour. Longest ad break I can remember, it was something like eight minutes.
Plenty of news sources here, e.g. BBC World, all the American networks, I quite like watching TV5 actually as they have the French news and also Swiss news.
The BBC is not the only thing in the world, I never understand this comment about the ads, but then I hardly watched the BBC in the UK other than the news and Top Gear. And everyone has a DVR nowadays anyway, just record it and start watching it a little bit later and FF through all the ads. Just simply not a problem.
And anyway, I was watching The Big Bang Theory in the UK and OMG the ad break in the middle lasted ages because they still have to make it cover half an hour. Longest ad break I can remember, it was something like eight minutes.
#146
Re: Your observations when visiting UK from Canada !
Why didn't you FF through all the ads? It's simply not a problem.
#147
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 14,227
Re: Your observations when visiting UK from Canada !
I have two main ways of viewing TV programs
1 - I PVR stuff and then play it back from my cable box and watch it on my TV.
2 - I download it from the iplayer website and watch it on my TV (PC is connected to the TV and I use windows media centre for playback)
In both cases:
- I'm sat on sofa with a remote looking at the TV.
- I'm viewing content designed for television.
- I'm effectively using some kind of computer to process a stored video file.
The only Canadian show I watch regularly is the local news which although an hour long is reduced to about 20 mins by skipping the adverts and not being interested in north american sports. It's sometimes even shorter when the mawkishness reaches excessive levels.
#148
Banned
Joined: Jul 2011
Posts: 1,088
Re: Your observations when visiting UK from Canada !
Lucky you, living in Ontario, then. I'm in Alberta. The questioner did ask us for our personal experience.
However, I'd disagree on crime rates. Homicide rate in 09 for Canada was 1.85 per 100,000 of population. In UK it was 1.17. That's 58% less. I would not call that "broadly similar". But, again, I live in Edmonton, homicide capital of Canada. Homicides so far this year 44, and at least half of them caused by knives. So, living where I do, I have every reason to be concerned about knife crime.
Maybe knife crime is lower in Ontario, but if you've never seen any on news reports, that says more about your attention span or the standard of news reporting than crime statistics. If there is really no problem where you are, it is a mystery why Ontario MP Gord Brown went to so much trouble to put a bill through imposing a minimum sentence for knife crime in 2009. The news reports still on Google suggest that not just he, but the Kingston police chief were very concerned about knife crime at the time.
Frankly, if you think there is no police corruption in Canada or the UK, or you perceive no problem with poor Canadian policing, you are doing more than wearing rose tinted glasses. Presumably every time there is a news broadcast that you can't avoid hearing, you put your fingers in your ears and go "la la la" until the nasty facts go away.
However, I'd disagree on crime rates. Homicide rate in 09 for Canada was 1.85 per 100,000 of population. In UK it was 1.17. That's 58% less. I would not call that "broadly similar". But, again, I live in Edmonton, homicide capital of Canada. Homicides so far this year 44, and at least half of them caused by knives. So, living where I do, I have every reason to be concerned about knife crime.
Maybe knife crime is lower in Ontario, but if you've never seen any on news reports, that says more about your attention span or the standard of news reporting than crime statistics. If there is really no problem where you are, it is a mystery why Ontario MP Gord Brown went to so much trouble to put a bill through imposing a minimum sentence for knife crime in 2009. The news reports still on Google suggest that not just he, but the Kingston police chief were very concerned about knife crime at the time.
Frankly, if you think there is no police corruption in Canada or the UK, or you perceive no problem with poor Canadian policing, you are doing more than wearing rose tinted glasses. Presumably every time there is a news broadcast that you can't avoid hearing, you put your fingers in your ears and go "la la la" until the nasty facts go away.
#149
Banned
Joined: Jul 2011
Posts: 1,088
Re: Your observations when visiting UK from Canada !
while i tend to agree that UK TV is better, it is more of a case of the best of the worse...and if one basis emmigration on TV......