Discussions

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/free-tv-android-box-court-roger-bell-videotron-1.4029874?cmp=rss  
 
It shouldn't be any surprise that these boxes are becoming more popular, and that the providers are fighting back.  
 
I would gladly pay a reasonable price for streaming all programming (new and old TV shows, movies, sports, news, etc.), or for the same content from the cable providers. However, the content from the cable providers is expensive.  
 
Part of the blame is with the cost of the production of the content itself. Do the athletes really need to be paid that much? Does it really cost tens of millions of dollars to make a movie, if you take salaries out of the equation? Do actors need to be paid that much? Take the Big Bang Theory for example. The three main actors are each paid $1,000,000 per episode! There are 24 episodes per season, so that is $72 million paid for these three actors themselves for one season. Who pays their salaries? In part, it comes from advertising for products that you and I purchase, and also from you and I with our cable subs:criptions. I'm sure that most of us could live quite well on a million dollar a year salary! Most of us already do that with considerably less. Why can't these overpaid actors and athletes do the same?  
 
The cable companies don't help their case either though. We pay a lot of money for their product. We have to put up with sun spots, or no service during storms. If our hardware fails, we can't copy recorded content on to replacement hardware. The hardware isn't exactly top notch either.  
 
Copyright restrictions are also to blame. Do I need to say anymore than Netflix Canada and Netflix USA?  
 
IMO, a lot of these Android boxes would probably disappear if there was a good, reasonably priced service available.

Android box is a game changer. Digital rights are a new term.  
 
Yet any canvas artists music or band deserves to be paid. I hear the rights now belong or could belong to them and their family for 50 years after death.  
 
That may be true but probably not world wide.  
 
Athletes do not need to be sky eye bucks but when the Network or team is raking in coin because of them;I ask who deserves the money?  
 
The content provider/mix athlete and team owner. Maybe the company that built the hardware/system up so they can get some. There is enough hands out for the end users money. Shebear did it right by going skinny cable. Vote with your paid dollars.

80$ cable, 60$ internet, 50$ home phone, 30$ cell, 25$ radio. 245$/mo for one person, insane. Must have sucker written on my forehead. 30 million Canadians boycotting services might make things right. Canadian Tire sells Kodi Boxes for 200$''s. Kodi''s a free app, good luck squashing it. The android boxes are a predictable reaction from fleecing the masses.  
 
Edited by S.V.S., 2017-03-19 22:59:46

If cable providers had systems in place for everyone to use, not just their paying cable customers, I'd be more inclined to pay for it.  
 
These service providers could so easily set up a system where consumers could pay for the shows they'd like instead of a package deal and have it stream-able. As long as they aren't greedy about it, people would be willing to pay it(looking at you HBO charging $20 a month). 2-4 dollars for an episode of your favorite show, commercial free, or something like 15 dollars for a season. And not one of these half seasons that seems to be the new trend.  
 
Netflix is a great model of how this could work, and there's no reason why these providers don't have something similar.

It comes down to what your willing to pay for. Baseline. There is some risk involved, or skill required when your wanting to look into streaming. Or you'd have to decide to go without certain levels of accesibility if you don't want to access certain titles for free.  
 
I'm pretty sure all media goes into public domain after ten years. But, are you willing to wait ten years to watch your favourite episode of big brother? haha!  
 
Personally, I don't watch enough TV to justify a cable subscription. Even when I used to, there's never anything on all of those channels I wanted to watch.  
 
The Kodi TV boxes and downloadable app's work pretty well too! They've got hacks for them, where you can access any and all TV and movies. But, that takes a level of expertise I have yet to comprehend fully.

How does the Kodi box work? when you buy 1 box, will it work on all TVs in the house? or do you need 1 box per tv?

1 box/tv, 35$'s ea off amazon. If smart TV, dwnld app directly to TV, or phone or pc, don't really need a box. Kiosks at summer fairs sell them etc. It's the hack that gets installed that's bad, stealing is always wrong.

LoadedGun said "It comes down to what your willing to pay for. Baseline. There is some risk involved, or skill required when your wanting to look into streaming. Or you'd have to decide to go without certain levels of accesibility if you don't want to access certain titles for free.     I'm pretty sure all media goes into public domain after ten years. But, are you willing to wait ten years to watch your favourite episode of big brother? haha!     Personally, I don't watch enough TV to justify a cable subscription. Even when I used to, there's never anything on all of those channels I wanted to watch.     The Kodi TV boxes and downloadable app's work pretty well too! They've got hacks for them, where you can access any and all TV and movies. But, that takes a level of expertise I have yet to comprehend fully. "

From your post: [i]"I'm pretty sure all media goes into public domain after ten years. "[/i]  
 
This is what I mean when I say creative rationalizations. In Canada the litmus test is 50 years after its creator's death, or the last of its creators' deaths if there was more than one:  
http://copyright.ubc.ca/guidelines-and-resources/support-guides/public-domain/  
 
In the US its more than that:  
http://copyright.cornell.edu/resources/publicdomain.cfm  
 
Re "risk", "skill", "level of expertise", etc. Could you not use all of these same words to describe the person that stuffs a chocolate bar or blu-ray in their jacket pocket when nobody's looking at a department store?

Adam said "    LoadedGun said "It comes down to what your willing to pay for. Baseline. There is some risk involved, or skill required when your wanting to look into streaming. Or you'd have to decide to go without certain levels of accesibility if you don't want to access certain titles for free.     I'm pretty sure all media goes into public domain after ten years. But, are you willing to wait ten years to watch your favourite episode of big brother? haha!     Personally, I don't watch enough TV to justify a cable subscription. Even when I used to, there's never anything on all of those channels I wanted to watch.     The Kodi TV boxes and downloadable app's work pretty well too! They've got hacks for them, where you can access any and all TV and movies. But, that takes a level of expertise I have yet to comprehend fully. " From your post: [i]"I'm pretty sure all media goes into public domain after ten years. "[/i]     This is what I mean when I say creative rationalizations. In Canada the litmus test is 50 years after its creator's death, or the last of its creators' deaths if there was more than one:   http://copyright.ubc.ca/guidelines-and-resources/support-guides/public-domain/     In the US its more than that:   http://copyright.cornell.edu/resources/publicdomain.cfm     Re "risk", "skill", "level of expertise", etc. Could you not use all of these same words to describe the person that stuffs a chocolate bar or blu-ray in their jacket pocket when nobody's looking at a department store? "

A more accurate analogy would be: Would it feel right to take a free chocolate bar from someone who acquired them in an unsavoury way... Which is a lot different than walking into a store and pocketing it yourself.  
 
Or even better purchasing a know stolen good from a local website because the deal is too good to be true....  
 
Just food for thought.

While I agree it is wrong to stream copyrighted material, under current Canadian law it is not illegal to do so. http://legalite.ca/legal-news/online-free-tv-is-technically-legal-in-canada/

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/youtube-streaming-netflix-canada-u-s-hbo-1.4039694  
 
If we can't legally get it here, people will get it illegally, or in the grey area as RobertMarks stated with his link.