Protectionist TV In Canada?

[Darkman]

Monday, November 27, 2006

Protectionist TV In Canada?

These protectionist policies cheat millions of Canadian television viewers in order to protect a small handful of others from competition. A free market here would benefit Canadians as a whole.

Protectionist TV In Canada? - WSJ.com: "You can't get the Tennis Channel in Canada. Almost as distressing, you can't get HBO, MTV, ESPN, Showtime, Nickelodeon and a number of other popular U.S. channels.

More precisely, you can get these channels here, but you have to hook up with one of the many distributors who quietly sell equipment that allows the pirated reception of a U.S. satellite-television service, namely Dish Network, run by EchoStar Communications. Either that or you have to pay your bill using a U.S. address, to make the satellite-television company think you are in the U.S. Both are illegal....

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( The entire article is at the following source: http://amateureconblog.blogspot.com/2006/11/protectionist-tv-in-canada.html )

[FTA Michael]

It's the "localism" theory advanced by "local" OTA broadcasters in the US, except writ large in Canada. The Canadians believe that if they were to throw the gates open, their culture would be quickly overwhelmed by US programming content.

A lot of the programming on those US channels are available on various Canadian channels, which are sometimes sister networks to their US big brothers. This blog entry sounds like just another guy trying to feel good about lying to get access to different networks.

[speedmaster]

A lot of the programming on those US channels are available on various Canadian channels, which are sometimes sister networks to their US big brothers. This blog entry sounds like just another guy trying to feel good about lying to get access to different networks.
For the record, I'm in the US and a paying Dish Network subscriber.

[Darkman]

HEHE.. (you found your way here pretty quick) :D

Welcome to DBSTalk, by the way, speedmaster!! :)

[Greg Bimson]

Nothing new about this anyway.

Each channel in Canada must be approved by the CRTC, and follow strict guidelines about delivering "Canadian Content". Just to show how convoluted it is, I think "Jeopardy!" is considered Canadian Content, because Alex Trebek is Canadian.

HBO, ESPN, MTV, and Nickelodeon have some counterpart in Canada, either owned by the same company, or setup by another company to follow with the Canadian Content regulations.

And that is specifically why HBO, ESPN, MTV and Nickelodeon are unavailable to Canada. Just like History Channel Canada, BBC Canada, DIY Canada, HGTV Canada, Food Network Canada and TSN are unavailable in the United States.

[Darkman]

speedmaster,

Some discussion on this is also Here:
http://forums.canadian-tv.com/showthread.php?t=25889

[FTA Michael]

Welcome, speedmaster!

As I said, the blog entry sounds like what some Canadians say to justify what in their case is truly illegal :eek2: to do, and I've read more than a few of those posts from our northern brothers. There are benefits and drawbacks to every system; nothing's ever going to be perfect ... unless they put me in charge. :lol:

Let us know if there's anything we can help you with. :welcome_s

[speedmaster]

HEHE.. (you found your way here pretty quick) :D
Welcome to DBSTalk, by the way, speedmaster!! :)
Thanks! :D

I used to visit here once in a while some time back. Thinking about getting a "tivo"-like device from DishNetwork, May need to poke around here a bit more to learn the details.

[Richard King]

I got a call today from a Canadian (eh?) who has a second house in Sebastian (just up the road from me). He wanted me to install his BEV system for him. He is a snow bird who lives here 3 months of the year before heading home to the cold northland and said that he has everything set up with BEV for billing locally. I find it interesting that BEV will bill for a system installed in Florida, and in fact, have a special package for delivery here yet Canada won't allow American services there. I turned down the install as I have too much going on right now, but it would have been interesting to get the details.

[James Long]

It would be nice to see the bill ... with an accurate American address on it ... for service from ExpressVu. I'd expect that he's either using his own Canadian address or is using a broker.

[Richard King]

He said that they have a "hometown service" of some kind. It may have been that other Canadian service who's name escapes me at the moment, but he sounded legit. He said they even sent him a dish to the address here.