With all of the recent changes on the Canadian television landscape, its hard to tell what is currently going on. On September 1st, the CRTC ruled that Cable, Satellite and IPTV services would have to remit a 1.5% fee to the new “Local Programming Improvement Fund”. At the same time, the CRTC also opened the door for “fee for carriage” which basically translates to around $6/month per household to pay for the channels that currently, and will continue to show commercials! So the recap, you will be paying more money per month for television service in Canada, but you will not bet getting anything in return.
Keep reading after the jump….
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It looks like AMCHD is now available on Shaw digital cable. I’m not sure when it became available, but I believe that it was sometime in the last couple of days.
No word on what packages you need in order to get AMC HD, or of it’s just a preview. I’ll update the post as I learn more about it. If you have any info, please post it in the comments.
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Hugh at Digital Home has released his updated report listing what HD channels are available to Canadian consumers. I look forward to this report, but I find my self starting to feel as if the grass is greener on the other side of the country (I’m on the west coast), especially considering that Cogeco is now offering 25 HD channels in their Ontario line up.
[My commentary on the report follows after the jump]…
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apeman HDTV, home theatre, rants, shaw, tech, video
Hugh at Digital Home has his list of HD channels available in Canada up. its current up to April 2007, and its worth a look if you are looking at switching from Cable to Satellite or otherwise.
The main reason for the update to the list appears to be the addition of HDNet to StarChoice and Shaw Cable’s lineup. (not too surprising, StarChoice is owned by Shaw). Bell has had HD for a while now, and they still appear to be the HD leader in Canada.
I’m not expecting to see many new HD channels this year, Bell is expected to focus on upgrading to MPEG-4, adding additional bandwidth for HD channels, as they try to stay ahead of the Cable, and IPTV providers.
apeman HDTV, PVR, articles, expressvu, home theatre, news, shaw
Well today is December 20th, and that means that Showcase HD and National Geographic HD have launched in Canada. If you subscribe to Rogers Digital Cable, Shaw Digital Cable, or Star Choice Satellite, you can recieve both of these new HD channels.
Notice someone missing? Bell ExpressVu does not yet have National Geographic HD, or Showcase HD. Currently, both channels are expected to launch on Express Vu sometime around Feburary 28th 2007. This comes as a surprise that Express Vu has not launched these two channels, given that they are sure to be quite popular, and even more surprising because Express Vu is the High Definition leader in Canada.
I’m not sure what Bell is thinking, but they must have their reasons. Even after the addition of these two new channels to the competitors line ups, Express Vu is still in the lead with the most HD channels in Canada.
One more thing, Kenny vs. Spenny is going to be shown in HD.
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Alliance Atlantis, who owns National Geographic Channel, and Showcase has announced that the HD versions of these two channels will launch to Canadian consumers on December 19th.
Rumors abound that claim that Food TV HD, and HGTV HD will also launch soon, both of these are also Alliance Atlantis channels, and were granted their HD license ammendment on July 6th 2006.
For you Leafs nuts out there, Leafs TV HD is now available on Bell ExpressVu channel 848. I do not subscribe to thi’m stis channel, so I cannot comment.
Personally, I’m still waiting for Bell to make HDnet available to subs.
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Its a good question, and Digital Home Canada has posted a great guide as to which channels are available, and which TV providers they are available from. As expected Bell ExpressVu and Rogers Cable lead the pack with the most HD channels available.
Have a look at the guide if you are curious.
apeman DVR, HDTV, expressvu, home theatre, news, shaw
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