Cutting The Cord In Canada

So, you have heard all about "cutting the cord" from your TV provider and are jumping onto the IPTV bandwagon? Why not? Everyone is doing it and they are saving loads of money. But if you are living in Canada (or even the UK for that matter) its a bit more complicated and just a tad illegal (at the moment anyway). But that is not stopping hundreds of thousands of Canadians from moving to IPTV and saving a truckload on their TV services.

What is IPTV?

IPTV is just a way of receiving ("streaming") your TV services through your internet rather than through a dedicated cable and cable box or satellite dish. It stands for Internet Protocol Television. It's much like how home and business telephone services run - (VOIP or Voice over IP) all through the internet rather than through it's own dedicated line. All the big TV service providers are offering this now as a mainstream service and moving away from having it through its own dedicated cable. But of course, here in Canada, there is a hefty price tag that goes along with it along with your internet service. And those prices just keep skyrocketing. Monopoly & Money Grab Many don't realize that Canada has the highest rates in the world for TV and Internet services along with mobile phone data plans. Why is this? To be blunt, we have a monopoly of companies that are the greediest bastards on the planet and take full advantage of us. No, I am not just a bitter "Canuck" (although in this regard I am). But seriously, this is fact.

Back in the '70's,'80's, '90's and even early 2000's, if you wanted a home telephone service or television service here in Ontario, there was only one company to call. Bell for telephone and Rogers for cable TV. Shaw Communications handled the western provinces and northern Ontario. And that really hasn't changed. With the introduction of the Internet, that didn't change much either. Now there are 3, Rogers, Bell and Telus (the "Big 3") for this service. And for mobile phone plans, again, the same 3 companies. I am not going to go into detail of all of this history as I will completely loose focus on the main topic of my post. So, to sum it all up in a nutshell, while the Canadian government reluctantly stepped in to make a ruling that there cannot be Monopoly control for these services several years ago (and more recently for cellular), and ruled that there must be a competitive market, thus forming smaller business for these services, it really changed absolutely nothing. As the main infrastructure for these services were all built by the monopolies, the smaller businesses did not have the funds to build their own infrastructure and had to "rent" the existing infrastructure to still try and sell their services. As you can imagine, this didn't let the small businesses make enough money and have all but completely been swallowed up by the big corporations, Bell, Rogers and Telus. While some businesses for TV and internet services are still surviving in small pockets locally, the cellular market is a different story. All of these small companies like Fido, Public Mobile, Koodo, Wind, Virgin, and Chatr are all owned by one of the "Big 3", Rogers, Bell and Telus. How in the world is this not a monopoly? For a bit of a laugh before you continue reading this post, check out this video from a sketch comedy group, Extremely Decent, that sums up these facts quite nicely and with an immense amount of truth behind it. *Warning Vulgar Language*

"Black Box" of IPTV Now, back to the topic of my post. If you remember back in the 80's and 90's, satellite TV was hugely popular. And of course, these services costs got quite excessive for the average homeowner. So, the black market developed "The Black Box". Underground computer programmers developed a little reception box that took the encoded satellite signals and un-encoded them, thus now giving you access to all the satellite TV channels for free, after a small $200 fee to the programmer. Of course, the Satellite companies caught on and would change the code so the illegal boxes didn't work anymore so you would have to take your little black box back to your programmer to have him put in the new decryption data, pay a small reprogramming fee to them, and you were all set. This is almost exactly what modern IPTV has come to - at least in Canada. The World Wide Web With the advancement of the Internet over the past several years, it has offered us an amazing way to communicate, get and transfer information. It has given us endless amounts of possibilities and we now so heavily rely on it for just about everything. Yes, it will even wash your dishes, turn your lights on, control your thermostat. stream videos from YouTube, post of Facebook, stream movies and TV, and most importantly, allow me to sit here in my onesie sipping coffee (yes, I am a grown man wearing a onesie - its a Star Wars onesie so... its justified) and post on this blog for all of you to read. 😁 Today, we all enjoy a world with Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, Crave, the new #Disney+ (or whatever service you use) and watch Movies and TV Series in the comfort of our own homes on our Smart TV's, computers and even on our mobile devices for a small monthly fee. Thankfully, us Canadians can do that too, even though the media libraries are not as extensive as in the US - yet we pay the same amount (but I won't get into that now).

Yet, we still have our live TV services through our monopoly. And if you want most channels, other than network channels, you have to pay extra. And, like almost everyone, who has an HD TV, you must pay extra to have these channels in HD. So, the average cost with taxes and fees and cable box rental, is, at the very least, about $100.00 a month. To get all the channels (english) they offer with all sports and movies you are going to pay almost $400.00 So, as you can see, we get screwed. And it doesn't matter who you are with...it's the same thing. Enter IPTV. The New Black Box Canadians are tired of getting screwed. Thus, the huge drive to find a much more cost effective alternative. Oh, that's right, we don''t have any. Or at least, not legally. While we cannot do anything about our Internet costs (we are forced to pay through the nose to have what is now considered an essential service), we need to take full advantage of it's offerings and capabilities. Television networks now broadcast TV episodes on the internet which is great. However, as most of the big popular shows are on US based networks, Canadians are limited once again and cannot view US network TV content this way. We can only do this through Canadian networks. We can watch some US based content through these networks but it is very limited and it is nothing like the full availability they have in the US. With the capabilities of Smart TV's, streaming media devices, computers and phones - all using the internet, we can now get around this. There are a few streaming media devices like Amazon Firestick, Nvidia Shield, Google Chromecast, Android Boxes, Roku and Apple TV, to name a few, and we can use these to not only organize our own digital media content but stream many Internet based services as well. There are many providers out on the Internet providing streaming Live TV services. Some media feeds are free and you can use an app to gather all of these random feeds (called "scraping") for you to watch but the more preferred, and reliable method, is using a provider that subscribes to all the available services and rebroadcast these feeds in there own offered service. They store theses servers and main infrastructure services in Europe where the laws are quite lax so nobody gets in trouble. The next step is to find a solid provider who provides excellent service and TV feeds, install the app or watch through your internet browser and you now have over 2,000 channels, from around the world, that you can now watch for as little as $15 a month. Yes, that's right, $15 a month compared to over $400. Long Arm of the Law

Yes, this is pirated TV and illegal. But it sure can be tempting when looking at the cost differences. And, how can you get caught? The provider would be the one in trouble not the end user correct? For the most part, yes that is correct. However, the provider may hand over your information in the event of a lawsuit (as a demand within the lawsuit) and there is a possibility that you will now be fined as well. But, for the most part, it is the provider they are after, not the end user.

Here in Canada, our Internet providers monitor such a type of activity. If they are monitoring your activity and see you are streaming services from an unregistered providers, they will throttle your services and send you a severe warning saying that if you continue, you will be fined and face possible jail time. If you receive such a warning, then you had better stop because they take this very seriously. And rightly so. So, now you are going to ask the big question, how do you ensure you don't get caught? To answer this question I will touch on a point mentioned earlier. Netflix in Canada does not offer the same content as it does to our US neighbours. Their media library has far more titles than we do here in Canada. Again, Canadians were frustrated that they were paying the same fee yet getting access to much less content than US customers. VPN So, to end this frustration, many use an existing technology, that is very legal, that allows you to form an encrypted tunnel through the Internet called a VPN (Virtual Private Network). This software is almost as old as the internet itself and is used heavily in businesses to provide secure remote access to their infrastructure. Today, with the severe threat of Identity theft and hackers looking at ways to steal your information, many home users are now using #VPN's to protect their data and identity. You have probably seen one of the many advertised products on TV and the internet. And yes, to answer your upcoming question, this is highly recommended for your home network!

One of the abilities of a VPN is that it connects you to any VPN server in the world that you want, making your traffic look like it is coming from that locale. So, if you wanted to use the US Netflix library, you would just run the VPN to one of the listed servers in the US, and presto change-o, you are now showing as a US based client and you have access to the American Netflix. Of course, #Netflix caught onto this after some time and now block access to their service library through VPN...for the most part. As it's very hard to implement this type of blocking (which I won't get into the technical aspect of the why's and how's) it's still possible to do this...or so I have heard anyway. So, to get back to our #IPTV service and our Internet provider watching your every move... welcome VPN with a loving embrace. The whole purpose of a #VPN is to completely secure and hide all of your data that is being transmitted through the internet. Everything is fully encrypted through this tunnel with a highly secure encryption algorithm that nobody is going to be able to break (nobody has been able to crack it yet in all these years and nobody will). In now implementing a VPN on your home and mobile devices, nobody, including your Internet provider, can see what you are doing. And again, let me reiterate, VPN's are fully legal and encouraged to use for all of your data and devices! I highly recommend them for your everyday computing as identity theft and the stealing of your information is a huge problem for anyone connected to the internet. Hands Are Tied If you are living in the US, so many legal IPTV offerings are out there and they are very decently priced - just like their mobile data plans and Internet plans. But here, we have nothing - other than our monopoly, and us paying whatever amount they seem fit to charge. And here is the real kick-in-the-nuts (to put it very bluntly). Sony, Sling (we all see their funny commercials as of late), AT&T Now, CBS All Access, Direct TV Now, Hulu, and many others all offer US customers 30-50+ Live TV streaming channels (with more as add-ons) and movie streaming for a very reasonable cost. None of them are allowed in Canada. No Live TV streaming is allowed in Canada. Now why in the world would that be?

You guessed it...."The Big 3". If that type of streaming is allowed in Canada, they will loose subscribers. They are fighting this in courts! To add more fuel to the fire, back in Steve Jobs' last days with Apple, they were developing the Apple TV. Not the Apple TV we know today...an actual television screen with cable and satellite signal decoding abilities built in. 'Say goodbye for the need of a cable or satellite set-top box' was their proposed slogan. Implementing this technology would be a huge plus! Who do you think was 1st on the bandwagon to nix that idea, and fast. "The Big 3". Others, even in the US followed suit. Money would be lost for all companies who require you to have a monthly fee (or outright purchase), set-top box to obtain their services. The world never saw the Apple Television. It is evident just how much power the cable monsters have. Thank goodness, the On-Demand services are being allowed here in Canada. Of course, the big one, Netflix, has been here for a while. But we have others, like Amazon Prime, Crave, You Tube Premium, CBS All access (without the live streaming), and the new Disney+. There are many Canadian networks that provide On-Demand as well (again-without live streaming) BUT - guess what? Almost all of them require you to have a cable or satellite subscription to be able to view them. WTF? Though, this type of restriction isn't just limited to Canada, even some of the US big networks have the restriction to have a current cable provider subscription to view their on-demand content. So it seems, cable providers need their piece of the action. Conclusion Canadians are at the mercy of the "Big 3", for now anyways, and for some time to come. Whether things change or not... is completely up in the air. You can find some legal IPTV providers and a few independent providers of cable service but you really aren't saving much as they have to pay for all the licensing and for renting off of existing infrastructure. However, if you do some really smart research, you may save at least $20-$50 depending on your needs. As On-Demand is becoming quite big now, and you are willing to not watch something as it airs, then you could really save just by going with services like Netflix, Disney +, Amazon Prime, Crave, CBS All Access and soon Hulu launching in Canada, you will be able to watch just about all of your favourite shows albeit it delayed but a few hours or couple days. But if you are a sports fan, news fanatic or like watching the Olympics you need a cable/satellite/IPTV provider subscription. In reality, you could subscribe to all of these on-demand providers and still be paying less than a "Big 3" cable subscription. Add an HD OTA (Over The Air) antenna (one-time cost at about $70) that plugs right into your TV and you can get about 40-50 live channels including the big network channels. "Black Box" Tips If you are thinking about skirting the law and taking your chances, I am nobody to stop you. Neither am I going to recommend on a public forum that you should go this route. That would just be stupid of me. But if you are determined to go this route, I will give you some sound advice from my 20 plus years experience in the technology industry. Purchase a solid VPN service. Do not cheap out on this as this is your complete safety system. They offer solid industry standard encryption to keep you completely safe and offer several super easy tools to enhance and customize the service. Express VPN, Nord VPN, IPVanish and Cyber Ghost are amongst the top. Get a solid and reputable IPTV provider that will not sell out your information in the event that they have a sudden lawsuit to deal with. No matter what IPTV provider you choose, purchase the subscription with Visa or Master Card gift cards. Your payment information is not tracked this way. Get a good solid media streaming device to run the service on. #Nvidia Shield, Roku, FireStick or the IPTV providers Android box or MAG box. If buying an Android box on your own, there are literally hundreds of them out there so, do your research on the best bang for the buck. Well, that's 1 Point of Vue. Good luck fellow Canadians, on whatever path you choose. Feel free to comment below with questions or share on what path you have chosen and how it works for you.