Rogers, which appeared in front of the CRTC today to tell them it’s a bad idea to make crazy-profitable cable companies give money to on-the-brink TV broadcasters, says the whole CanCon problem is moot because it’s developing a Canadian version of Hulu which will feature CanCon.
There’s only one hitch: You have to be a Rogers cable subscriber to use it.
Perhaps CBC got it wrong, or Rogers executives are using a stretched analogy, but they seem to be talking about video on demand over digital cable, not online video.
UPDATE: This post makes it clearer: Rogers wants to setup online video in a walled garden format where you’d have password-protected access to programming based on what you’ve subscribed to on their cable system.
People in Quebec who have Videotron Illico digital TV get lots of video on demand. Plenty of TV shows can be viewed for free on the service, provided those TV shows are owned by Quebecor. Quebecor owns Videotron and TVA, so you only see TVA shows on the service.
That doesn’t sound to me like it’s solving the new media problem.
The day I find a working cluestick I’m going to look up where every telecom and big media executive lives so I can bash them over the head with it when they come home.
Ugh.
if the CRTC can’t control the Media… or the Media Companies rather… i think the time has come to disolve it or at the very least get it out of the business of regulating content beyond adult content and age ratings…