And now, for something completely different.
From CBC News:
About 200,000 Canadians cancelled their TV subscription last year, but the industry managed to offset that loss by charging their remaining customers more for their service.
That's one of the main takeaways from a Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission report Wednesday that looks at the financial health of Canadian cable television, IPTV and satellite television companies.
The broadcast regulator says the overall number of TV subscribers dipped from 11.4 million in 2014 to 11.2 million in 2015. Upstart Internet Protocol television companies — such as VMedia, Primus, Zazeen and ViaNet TV — saw double-digit increases in their customer numbers during the year compared with the previous year.
But those small increases on the margins weren't enough to offset deeper cuts at conventional cable and satellite television companies.That's not a sustainable business model, guys. Just saying.
In order Canadian cable TV news, Bell Media is finally planning to give otherwise law-abiding Canadians some reasonable way to watch Game of Thrones without having to pirate it. Kinda.
Also from CBC News:
In a surprise move, Bell Media has announced it will air the first season of Game of Thrones on CTV next month.
Many Canadian Game of Thrones fans have long complained that the hugely popular series is difficult to access legally — because Bell made it available only to top-tier cable subscribers.
But now viewers can tune into Season 1 with just basic cable or even without a subscription — if their TV antenna picks up Bell's CTV network.
[...]
"This is their version of an olive branch," observes Daniel Bader, senior editor with the tech site Mobile Nations.
But will the olive branch be enough to appease angry Thrones fans who felt shut out? Meghan Sali, with the consumer advocacy group OpenMedia, doesn't think so.
She calls the offer of Season 1 a "piecemeal, throw-you-a-bone," move — a move she says won't please anyone who religiously follows the series and yearns for a way to legally access current episodes without a pricey cable subscription.By now, you'd think that these slow-moving giants would smell their looming extinction in the blowing winds, but that doesn't seem to be happening. Raising prices can only offset lost customers while they still have some; raising prices is a good way to lose more customers. It's short-sighted and self-defeating.
The same applies to finally broadcasting GoT's first season... at a tine when their already-lost customers are busy downloading the sixth season from the Pirate Bay. They're holed below the waterline, and bailing with a spoon. It's just not good enough.
I keep thinking that they have to get this, that they have to come to understand what's actually happening, but they keep not getting it. Reality is that which persists regardless of what your wishes. If the big cable companies want to have a future, then they need to stop with the wishful thinking, and start grappling with reality, before they do go extinct.