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The problem in Canada is that Bell Media owns the Canadian distribution rights to many of the popular programs that aren't already available via services like N
by randomdata 14y ago
The problem in Canada is that Bell Media owns the Canadian distribution rights to many of the popular programs that aren't already available via services like Netflix.
Even if everyone in the USA agrees with you, Bell won't. They have far too much money invested in TV broadcasting technologies, and too little tied up in Internet infrastructure. There's no real upside to them providing you the content online, because not only will they'll lose their broadcasting revenue, but you'll fill up their oversubscribed tubes, making their internet services more costly to operate. A token fee for the program isn't going to offset that.
- chii 14y agoAnd basically, people who would've otherwise paid that "token fee" instead pirates. The tubes get clogged up either way (after all, if they oversubscribe capacity, it will come back to bite them one way or another). All i m saying, and i think most people agree, is that their cost/benefit/profit analysis of the situation hinges on the false assumption that consumers have no way of obtaining the content in their own way (via piracy or waht not). and this is increasingly not the case.
- randomdata 14y agoVery true, but they can get away with tricks like throttling and caps for illegitimate activities. There will always be some pirates no matter what, but most people are way too busy to concern themselves with jumping through all the hoops. It doesn't matter if the pirate would have given you $10 for content when you made $30 off the person who didn't pirate your content. I do agree that the time will eventually come, but it is wholly up to the consumers. So long as we continue to fund the TV infrastructure in a big way, there is no incentive for the business to change.