Canada's online magazine: Politics, entertainment, technology, media, arts, books: backofthebook.ca

Politics, tech, media, culture and more, from a Canadian point-of-view

  • Politics
  • Media
  • Culture
  • Science and Tech
  • Living
  • Arts and Books
  • Features
  • The Video
You are here: Home / Media / None for you, Mr. Canadian

None for you, Mr. Canadian

01/16/2008 by backofthebook.ca 1 Comment

By Frank Moher

I have lately begun to feel that I am ten again, and living in Edmonton in 1965. In those days, we had two TV stations, CFRN and the local CBC outlet. It was also in that year that I first travelled to California with my family to visit our American cousins. Besides Disneyland, our relatives had colour TV and good shows. Not crappy Canadian shows like “Chez Helene” and “Royalite Windfall,” but shows like “Captain Kangaroo” and “American Bandstand.” It’s possible we got “American Bandstand” in Edmonton, but it would have been in black-and-white, and that would have sucked.

Forty-some years later, it’s 1965 all over again. A revolution is going on in TV programming and delivery, but here in Canada we can only look on. Or rather, we can’t look on, as most of the programming in question isn’t available to us.

Take hulu.com, NBC’s venture into YouTube’s territory. Pissed-off with YouTube for some corporate reason, NBC decided to open up its own video streaming service. Try to use it, though, anywhere outside the States, and you get this:


“Unfortunately this video is not currently available in your country or region. We apologize for the inconvenience.”

Humph.

So, I try to find a way to download the first season of the TV series “Jericho” for my wife for Christmas. Yes, I could buy the DVD, but the point is I don’t want to have to leave my house or acquire a piece of plastic to do this stuff. I find, to my delight, that the internet TV service Joost carries a bunch of episodes. Great; that means I don’t even have to download it. But no, even though Joost has staked its success on being an international service, here in Canada we’re not allowed to watch “Jericho.” I wonder if they get to watch it in Guam.

This leaves me to steal it via a torrent download, then rip the file to some format playable on my computer, hence streamable to my TV. Note, though, that I am ready and willing to pay for the content; please, makers of “Jericho,” take my money! Note, too, that I don’t really want to spend hours transversing various video codecs just so I can put a damn TV show on my TV.

Double humph.

The reason we can’t access these shows in Canada is something called “geo-bounding,” by which their availability is restricted based on your computer’s i.p. address. This, in turn, has to do with various distribution agreements. Which would make perfect sense, if the Canadian carrier of “Jericho” made it available online. But as far as I can tell, no Canadian network even carries yon show anymore. So who’s going to be out of pocket if I, a Canuck, watch it on Joost?

What’s that, you say? Watch it on the CBS website?


You get the black screen of death above, and a spooky female voice saying “This content is currently unavailable.” Mercifully, she doesn’t add “To you, Mr. Not American.”

What’s that, you further say? It’s just a TV show, and not exactly Emmy-material at that? Get a grip? Yes, but this is a labour-of-love, remember. I’m downloading it (or trying to) for my wife. She likes it. So I’m motivated. But I might be able to better put things in perspective if the same restrictions didn’t apply to all the other means of delivery I’ve tried for this and other content. iTunes. Xbox. Amazon. Even Zune. All extremely slim pickings for anyone who doesn’t come from the right digital neighbourhood.

I may have to go down to my sister’s in Seattle and download a bunch of stuff and bring it back. Do I have to declare bits and bytes at the border? Whatever, I’ll do it. But I’m telling you: it’s 1965 all over again.

Filed Under: Media Tagged With: Canada, internet, new media, online media, online video, television

Subscribe to BoB by e-mail or RSS

Comments

  1. Fyoder says

    01/20/2008 at 8:36 pm

    You could try an anonymous web proxy of some kind, but messing around with joost I notice that some things are not allowed for Americans as well, such that going that route you might need a handful of anonymous web proxies in different countries, and they would have to permit multimedia files which not all do.

    For anything remotely popular it’s much simpler to get it via torrent. If they whine about ‘piracy’, well, regard them with as much respect as they have for their customers (and would be customers).

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Google+
  • Living
  • Politics
  • Media
  • Culture
  • Arts and Books
  • Features
  • The Video
Fire sale sign

Fort McMurray: Shopping time!

By Brady Tighe We’re now officially in the aftermath phase of the northern Alberta wildfire crisis. The fire is long gone, and everyone with a home to return to is back in its … [Read More...]

Nathan Cullen

Electoral reform: Hashtag fresh thinking

By Alison@Creekside The most interesting and innovative idea to come out of the first meeting of the all-party Special Committee on Electoral Reform, or ERRE, was Nathan Cullen's suggestion, … [Read More...]

Trudeau on quantum computing

The Trudeau gush fest is getting old

By Jim Henshaw There have been several bewildered as well as angry accounts coming out of the USA lately about how little media time has been spent covering the Democratic Presidential Primary … [Read More...]

Rick Meyers in Nanaimo Pride Parade

My friend, Rick, at the Pride Parade

By Frank Moher On this dreadful day, I don't want to write about the shootings in Orlando. I want to write about my friend, Rick. Rick lives just outside of Nanaimo, a city of about 80,000, … [Read More...]

Stephen Colbert on Late Night set

Triumph of the drama nerds

By Frank Moher Two drama nerds have recently moved into high profile positions. Before I name them (or perhaps you’ve already guessed who they are; or perhaps you’d like to scroll down and look at … [Read More...]

From “Our Rape Blog”: Shooting the Moon

Originally published on Our Rape Blog, the author's account of the aftermath of a violent sexual assault. By Mary Fraughton Have you ever played Hearts? It’s a card game. For our purposes, … [Read More...]

First Nations defending Lelu Island

The video: Lelu Island: “They will come.”

From Creekside: The B.C. provincial government is trying to green light the construction of a massive LNG terminal on Lelu Island in the Skeena Estuary -- Pacific Northwest LNG, backed by Malaysian … [Read More...]

Google

Follow Us!

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter

RSS CBC News



Recent Posts

  • Fort McMurray: Shopping time!
  • From “Our Rape Blog”: Shooting the Moon
  • Electoral reform: Hashtag fresh thinking
  • The fish hotel
  • Hatred on an Alberta golf course
  • The video: Lelu Island: “They will come.”
  • My friend, Rick, at the Pride Parade
  • Our selective sympathy
  • The Water Bomber, The Frogman and The Great Canadian Novelist
  • Komagata Maru: The story behind the apology

Tags

9/11 Afghanistan Alberta bad behaviour books British Columbia business Canada Canadian military Canadian politics CBC celebrity computers Conservatives crime environment family film G20 Globe and Mail internet Jason Kenney journalism Justin Trudeau law Liberals Maclean's music National Post NDP newspapers oil sands online media Ontario Quebec RCMP religion sports Stephen Harper television theatre Toronto U.S. Vancouver women

Archives

The Video: Lelu Island: “They will come.”

Pages

  • About
  • Privacy

Copyright © 2023 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in