“Big Brother” tells us What to Watch !!
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I’m proud to be from Canada. I’ll be the first on to jump up and defend a good Canadian TV show. The definitive word there is “Good”. But I don’t like being told by the Canadian Government, what to watch, told why I should watch it and even when to watch. This falls under the department of the CRTC which is somewhat like the FCC in the US.
YouTube, as you know, is the place for you to find clips from all your favourite TV shows. Yes everyone in Canada logs on and enjoys those great clips. Mind you some of the big studios have threatened massive lawsuits so YouTube has decided to take a few down and replace them with a “Sorry” message. Fox and NBC have now launched www.hulu.com but I find, that the clips for some of the greatest TV shows, are only available in the US. When Canadians go to play a clip all we get is a “Sorry” message. Why? It’s because the CRTC are blocking those clips to protect Canada’s TV Shows…they don’t hold any Canadian content. Recently in China it came out that China’s Communist Government actually have the power to block any and all Internet News reports on the Tibet demonstrations from around the World. So the Chinese can’t log on to Google or find any information on the Worlds view on Tibet. Not much difference between the CRTC and the Chinese Government is there?
I found a great blog about the whole question of HULU and Canada. You can check it out at The Market News plus they have some really good gadget news too. Feel FREE to send a link to this blog to the Government of your choice. Thanks for the read
Bryan Cox
March 20, 2008 at 5:09 pm
[...] JJ Hawkins [...]
March 26, 2008 at 3:24 pm
This is the second article I have seen which references the incorrect idea that sites such as hulu.com have their videos, etc blocked into Canada by the CRTC. This is not the reason.
When NBC, for example, sells one of their shows to a Canadian network, such as Global… Global then has the rights to broadcast the program in Canada. With that ‘purchase’, basically then Global would have the rights to Internet broadcast of it as well (or have to pay a fee for the extra rights).
Sites such as Hulu.com blocking access from Canada purely has to do with contracts and business agreements. If NBC were to post, for example, Heroes online to Canadians, then Global, who may hold the rights to broadcast in Canada, would be losing out. If an agreement were made, the two could work something out where #’s of views from Canada could be tracked and then Global could get a ‘cut’ of the pie, etc.. or something.
While I think that the CRTC goes overboard in many areas, this is not one of them. (If I am wrong, forgive me, but I am pretty sure this is simply a case of who has purchased rights for broadcast in what country, etc). While it bugs me some times when the Global signal is pushed onto the NBC channel (when programs are on at the same time), I do understand the business practices at work here. It’s not just ‘Canadian Content’, but contracts, etc. (If it were simply Canadian content, then the networks here simply would be told they can’t buy the programs from the US).
Just my opinion.
November 12, 2008 at 6:23 am
Absolutely right, John. This is not censorship. It has to do with copyright laws, the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) and how the networks choose to monetize syndicated shows. For example, on Hulu, all the ads market American products and American companies. Some telco companies like AT&T and T-Mobile would not benefit from airing their ads (which pay for the free broadcasts of certain shows on Hulu) in Canada. As such, Hulu–not the CRTC–judges that they should block IP address pings from Canadian ISPs. Americans pay for the shows they watch by viewing the ads online. The products don’t apply to Canadians therefore they don’t get them. It’s that simple.
There’s is a workaround for this, however. Even in Canada, one can acquire a US IP address via a free vpn program. For more information google, “hotspot shield troubleshooting blog” (without quotes).