Free Television Online ? Tou.tv Update.
Francophone service Tou.tv has decided to offer extra content to their subscriber. But again it appears that some people will get this content free and some people will need to pay $6.99 per month for the service.
Now rebranded as ici.tou.tv, the Radio-Canada affiliate will offer their extra content free to Telus and Rogers subscribers but this commercial free content will only be available as a subscription to everyone else.
Personally I used the service to catch up on Radio-Canada Television programs La Facture, L’épicerie, Découverte and La Semaine Verte whenever I missed an episode of these series. But now I don’t know if the service will remain accessible on my Smart TV, as is, or if it will only be able to access a few episodes because I am not on Telus or Rogers.
The site is currently in beta so details are light. But it appears that users might already be limited to one or two seasons worth of episodes online.
I have checked the recordings for the aforementioned series and they appear to be limited to the most recent season, which is acceptable. But hopefully they are not considering further cuts to the free content.
I have noticed that they have added quite a few Pierre Richard films so I’m a bit tempted to take advantage of their $3.49 offer, which is valid for three months. And I’m sure if they were to offer more films from TV5, TFO and Telé Québec I would possibly consider subscribing. But I’m guessing they will take some time to get the site up and running at full speed.
Is Free Television Being Phased Out ?
Do you guys remember when we were first told that off air television broadcasts would go digital and that more people would be getting free television using antennas ?
Do you remember when we could watch television programs for free online legally through the Canadian network web sites ?
Well, if you want proof that the cable and satellite companies don’t want people to “cut the cord” you just have to look at the current status of television in Canada.
It started with Global Television in my area.
I had decided to stop paying $7 plus tax per month for extra outlets and although I was able to receive Global Television clearly for months, it has suddenly disappeared one summer.
Apparently the owner of the network decided to reduce the strength of the transmission so now an external antennae is required. But this was of course no problem because I was able to access television programs online via the network’s web site.
Then a few months back I noticed I was no longer receiving CTV, which had a strong signal until then.
I am located within 15 kilometers from the broadcasting tower for both stations so there was no reason for my loss of CTV as well. But like Global Television, CTV is also owned by a cable or satellite provider so I had assumed that they also reduced their off air broadcasting strength. And again I decided to stick to on demand and online broadcasts until I get an external antenna.
By then I had switched from Rogers Cable to Bell Fibe TV so I was mostly just watching television programs on demand for free, just like I has done with Rogers. But since Rogers had purchased the rights to the hockey broadcasts there appeared to be issues relating to what could be viewed by what subscribers online.
Now Canadians are being asked to login their cable or satellite provider accounts to view television programs on the major network sites. And the selection of programing is currently limited to the networks owned by their provider.
Bravo.
Personally I think we should be able to get our local channels off air and online based on our IP address.
There should be enough advertisement revenue there for networks to profit on and cable and satellite providers could always give people access to specialty networks and on demand programming.
We should be progressing off the problematic off air VHF frequencies and move stations to UHF like most American networks have.
Phase 3 of the “Let’s Talk TV” consultations at the CRTC will begin in April with the publication of details on the public hearing scheduled in September. And from the government’s response last Budget Day, it appears that our cable/satellite channels may get unbundled.
Hopefully this will not be more expensive for consumers, a concern we should all share because these companies have been hiking their rates excessively over the past few years.
The Friends of Canadian Broadcasting estimated in Oct 2013 that many of Canada’s cable companies had hiked their rates from 81% to 96% since 2002 ; Almost five times inflation. And Forbes believes the model is unsustainable so we’ve got to wonder what exactly we’re going to be subjected to as consumers.
Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty had mentioned that “cable-TV companies have become like utilities because there are only so many providers that offer the service in a certain region” in an interview with the Wall Street Journal last October so perhaps the current government is considering regulating them. But I guess we’ll only know for sure after the public hearings in September.
By the way, you can access information in regards to the previous phases of “Let’s Talk TV” on the official CRTC web site, which includes comments from the public.
Pono Music – A Week Later
It’s been a week and the response to Neil Young’s Pono Kickstarter project has been incredible.
They have now surpassed US$4 Million when their original goal was US$800,000. And many of their first Pono players have already sold out.
The official Pono Music site has been updated with a special video from Neil Young along with additional information on the player and music service.
By the way, a second VIP Dinner and Listening Party with Neil Young has been added to the project. This event will again happen in New York.
Important Message For PC Users
Microsoft will be ending their support for XP on April 8th, 2014.
This means that you have a month to upgrade to retain support for your PC.
Their will be no new security updates, non-security hotfixes, free or paid assisted support options or online technical content updates for this operating system so upgrading to Windows 7 or Windows 8
is recommended.
Please note that an upgrade to Windows 8.1 is provided free to those upgrading from XP or Vista to Windows 8
and that file backups are recommended prior to upgrading.
Canada Post Update
New community mailboxes will be introduced to these communities this year :
- Calgary (Postal codes starting with T2B, T3J)
- Fort McMurray (Postal codes starting with T9H, T9J, T9K)
- Winnipeg (Postal codes starting with R2P, R2V)
- Oakville (Postal codes starting with L6H, L6J, L6K, L6L, L6M)
- Kanata (Postal codes starting with K2K, K2L, K2M)
- Rosemere (Postal codes starting with J7A)
- Lorraine (Postal codes starting J6Z)
- Bois-des-Filion (Postal codes starting with J6Z)
- Charlemagne (Postal code starting with J5Z)
- Repentigny (Postal codes starting with J5Y, J6A, J5Z)
- Lower Sackville/Bedford Area (Postal codes B4A, B4B, B4C, B4E, B4G)
Instead of nine individual square compartments, these feature sixteen individual rectangular compartments per mailbox so more addresses can be serviced per mailbox. And some mailboxes that don’t feature a mail slot and parcel compartments will have more individual compartments.
A picture of the new community mailboxes can be found in the Community Mailbox Backgrounder (PDF). Comments and questions in regards the new community mailbox will be accepted at feedback.canadapost.com.
By the way, you have until the end of this month to stock up on domestic “permanent” stamps at 63 cents. The domestic postage rate for letters under 30 grams with be 83 cents on April 1st in booklets, coils and panes and $1 per stamp when purchased by single unit.
Rates in general for domestic and international letter mail will be going up on April 1st, 2014. Light parcel rates had gone up in mid January.
Suspended Membership Phishing/Hacking Scam
There appears to be a new Netflix scareware scam going around and I thought I’d inform you as to how it works.
Basically victims are sent a fake email directing victims to a fake Netflix site where members are asked to enter their email address and password.
Once entered this information is captured by the criminals and victims are then forwarded to another fake page claiming their account had been suspended.
This fake page then urges victims to call an 800 number to reinstate their membership which actually directs individuals to a call center in India, where fake Netflix technicians are waiting to continue their con.
When victims call this 800 number they are told that their computers have been taken over by hackers and are asked to download software to remove the hackers and/or clear their computers of viruses.
This software enables the fake Netflix technicians to access your computer and all the sensitive information found on this computer’s hard drive. But access to Netflix and your sensitive information is not the only objectives of this scam.
Victims who have gone through this process are also asked to pay for the privilege of being violated.
They are asked to pay for the clean-up, a five year membership for an anti-virus program and a five year membership for a firewall.
In exchange for payment by credit card the fake technicians offer a coupon code for a discount on Netflix membership. But not only do they request credit card information for payment but also ask their victims to send photo identification to them.
This information of course enables them to steal identities, as well as to defraud their victims through their credit card. And Netflix members will not likely be the only target because it can be adapted to target any online membership.
The best defense against this scam is to ignore the links and phone numbers provided in these emails and contact a company directly via their web site.
If there are real issues with your account at a particular company their customer service department should be able to help you.
I bookmark the sites I access the most in my internet browser and use those links instead. And using spam filters on your email also helps because some filters will keep these phishing attempts out of your inbox if enough people label it as spam.
Most webmail sites have spam filters and you can install free spam filters for your PC by clicking on the following logo :