Ubalblog

[  Mood: Fed Up WIth Life ]
[  Currently: Listening to CBC Radio ]
So today I was listening to the House, a CBC show on National politics. They had an interview with someone from Shaw Communications, one of the Canadian cable companies that services primarily the western provinces.

I found the interview fascinating. Especially when he complained that Canadians are the number one dowloaders of video in the world. Yet he didn’t want to acknowledge the cable companies role in that.

1) It takes up to a year to get some shows/movies up here in Canada via legitimate methods. So when buzz builds about a show like Burn Notice and we have no where to get it from, Canadians turn to the Internet to find it.

2) Since the introduction of Netflicks and Hulu in the US, illegal downloads have DECREASED in our neighbours to the south. As iTunes has proven, if you give people legitimate access to media, the vast majority of them will take it.

3) Telecom companies profits are doing nothing but climbing, yet they want Canadian citizens to subsidize their infrastructure even more. Even though they already get tax breaks and incentives from the Government to do so. Which means I am already paying for their infrastructure upgrade. Now they want me to pay a second time.

4) The cable companies have ATROCIOUS service. I have a HD PVR that I rent from Rogers. I have had to have it replaced three times as it builds up a memory and starts dropping recordings. One look at my service record and they know this. Technicians have as much admitted to me that Rogers is renting out second-hand/reconditioned PVRs and know they are unreliable. Yet the first thing that customer services says to me when I call to complain again is "it must be on your end" let’s check the line. So when Netflicks comes to town, the possibility of better service makes my ears pick-up.

So you can understand why I given the above, I have little sympathy for them. They, like the music industry before them, know that they will have to change to meet the challenges brought by new technology. And they don’t want to. They are comfortable surrounded by their money and market shares. And monopolies. And they want their buddies in the Government to keep it that way.