Oink

QI or Uncle? I believe Uncle is brand new.

Alan2005

QI. Haven't seen this uncle thing. Is it any good?

Oink

Its alright. Nothing great but funnyish. I'll watch it again.

Novocastrian

There used to be something called "The Man from Uncle". Is this the remake?

Tirytory

Is VPN better than Smart DNS? We didn't think we could afford to slow down our internet connection so opted for Smart DNS. Well I didn't, my husband did..

BristolUK

Is youtube watchable? There's a lot on there. Maybe use it to catch up?

bats

See post 15.

haggis88

Best advice is get into Ice Hockey, there's a lot of it on TV

I also like "Much Music", "Peachtree TV" and "Global"

I maxed out the sports package for a reason though...i like sports, so have all the TSN, Sportsnet and random other channels like "Gol" which has Bundesliga and SPL games

Steve_

And everyone is going to tell you that it's crap but it's no worse than anything in the UK imo.

There are four main networks in Canada, CBC, CTV, CityTV and Global.

CBC would probably be best described as the Canadian equivalent of BBC1 and CTV the equivalent of ITV1. Global seems to broadcast mainly NBC shows from the US and CTV and CityTV broadcast mainly US shows from the other US networks. CTV does occasionally have a few homegrown sitcoms and such, but only CBC has significant amounts of Canadian content.

As for the hockey comments, Rogers has bought the rights to NHL hockey, CBC will be allowed to broadcast it for four more years and then that's it.

If you live near the border you can get various US channels OTA.

haggis88

i thought it was just TSN that had lost the rights and CBC Hockey Night In Canada was going to be allowed to continue as a "goodwill gesture" (read: PR Stunt).

It doesn't affect us that much here in the west as Sportsnet (Rogers) have all the channels for hockey anyway (SN West, SN Flames, SN Oilers, SN Pacific), its in the east where you have TSN Sens, TSN Leafs and TSN Habs where they'll be most affected by the change

at least that was my understanding!

Steve_

The whole reason why Rogers bought the rights was because so many people are giving up on cable TV, from what I recall the story was CBC could still do it for four years. http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl/...deal-1.2440326

And that's a CBC story, so they're putting the best spin on it. Translation: they don't want the Govt. sticking their nose in, so they'll let CBC broadcast a few games until they think they can get away with getting rid of CBC.

Personally I can't get into hockey, I did try quite hard, I like it more than soccer but only CFL really resonates with me from a Canadian standpoint. The thing that puts me off hockey is (a) having three periods and (b) all the stupid immature dust-ups between the players.

Steve_

Oh another weird thing about Canadian TV is that you get tax credits for making shows in Canada and even more of a tax credit in certain provinces (such as Ontario and BC) if it has "Canadian content" so as a result you have these weird shows that don't mention where they really are so they can be broadcast in the US but they mention Canadian things in them to get the tax credit.

For example, Rookie Blue and Saving Hope. We all know they're set in Toronto but they don't explicitly say it.

Alan2005

People really watch this shit?

Oink

No.

BristolUK

Maybe the worst is as bad as the worst UK TV - much of it is the same stuff - but what about the best?

Take away the North American shows that are remakes of overseas productions and there's really not as much good stuff as there is good, original, stuff on UK TV.

Of course it's all subjective and taste related. But just in the last couple of years, what north american stuff might be touted by supporters as comparing with The Hour, Doctor Who, Broadchurch, The Fall, Downton Abbey, Sherlock etc

These are not my favourites. I've not even seen some of them. But they get mentioned so often by so many and I don't see anything like such admiration of north american produced TV.

The US may lead the way for sitcoms.