🚀 go-pugleaf

Tiberius Fugg <fugg@sp3754.com> wrote in article
<32a4bb09.126434243@206.250.118.110>...
> Did ya notice that the antenna now says' "AlphaStar" ?
> Yes , they "broke it off",
> but TeeCom did it because ExpressVu could NOT get CRTC approv.
> So , TeeCom started AlphaStar (the following is only IMHO) to 
> prove to the CRTC that the system is viable (and to make some cash :) 
> 
> BTW - TeeCom has applied to the CRTC for a permit for AStar Canada !
> but , only the mounties know if it will happen ... 

Actually, if I remember the order of events here. Basically, ExpressVu used
TeeCom for months on end as the excuse that they didn't have their receiver
ready, and kept on coming up with more excuses for why they couldn't get
anything going. Eventually TeeCom, which owns part of ExpressVu, just
started AlphaStar in the US and therefore has already delivered that they
can't be the reason for not delivering on ExpressVu.

Among the problems that ExpressVu is having is the fact that there is
little space on the Canadian sats because of the whole Anik fiasco. Add to
that the fact that the cable companies don't want the stations to move from
Ku to C because that would open up space for ExpressVu to compete agains
the cable stations.

I'm still trying to figure out what's really happening with the CRTC. Take
a look at what's happening in Montreal at the moment...

1. Videotron is buying the cable system that provides cable to the
allophones and anglophones of montreal. This is the same company that for
years have told me that because I'm in the minority I don't have a right to
get bettter service. I live in Canada and yet unless I get DirecTV, I will
not get to see MuchMusic. I can't see Family Channel. I don't get to choose
if I want WTN. And Vision isn't available either. Yet, 90c of the monthly
fees I pay for cable are for RDI (the French equivelent of NewsWorld) that
I find totally repugnant, anti-English and racially prejudice.

2. TQS, one of two french private networks (there are two public networks
in French), is being bought by Videotron and melded into TVA, the other
public french network. There are promises that they will be kept
independent and will compete. But how could they compete if they are owned
by the same company (in fact, TVA will own TQS). Further, they say that
Quebec isn't big enough for two private networks.

3. Videotron is trying to convert their Quebec City CBC affiliate to a
CanWest/Global affiliate, with repeater stations in Montreal and
Sherbrooke. I haven't figured out a few things about this whole deal. Why
would CanWest/Global want to set up in Quebec city instead of Montreal?
There are few anglophones in Quebec city in any case. Why use a backdoor to
get to Montreal? Why not just set up a station in Montreal. Secondly, if
Quebec isn't big enough for two private French networks, why would it be
big enough for two English private networks. The English are a much smaller
market in Quebec. And why would CanWest Global's feed come to Montreal from
Quebec city? I mean, Ottawa is many kilometres closer to Montreal. And
further, Videotron has maxed out it's system in Montreal anyway, they
aren't able to add any more channels because they haven't invested the
money to get their equipment up to date. They have to take channels off to
add new channels. Where would they put the channel anyway? Probably take
away one of the two PBS stations that we have. Let's see, for $25 a month I
get: CBS, ABC, NBC, PBS(2), CTV(2), CBC, Newsworld, YTV and CMT. That's all
the English stations that I get (well, their's the parliamentary channel
that no one has ever watched, and there is the ethnic channel, and the
public channel, but we are talking about stations that more than 25 people
watch at the same time). Let's see, that's 11 channels in English on basic
cable. Of that, two are Montreal channels that I could pick up with rabbit
ears. That's $25 for 9 channels, or $2.78 per watchable station.

Compare that to DishNetwork in the US, that offers America's Top 50 for
$300 a year, that's U$25 a month or C$33.75 -> or 67.5c a channel. Seems
like a real bargain to me!

Oh, and before someone starts talking about the pay-TV, you have to use a
non-standard decoder called a Videoway (no universal remote works with it,
and until about 3 months ago, you couldn't program it to change channels
for recording from it!) It's $7.95 a month for a machine with the
technology of an old Apple ][+. Yes, it works to run games too, but those
old Apple ][+ games! Oh, and the $7.95 doesn't include any channels, that's
just for the converter that until a few months ago was too much trouble for
the company to bother translating the information on it (and what they did
translate was funny to read because no one proof read it!)

I don't care if it's PowerDirecTV, ExpressVu, Shaw, Echostar, Dishnetwork,
AlphaStar Canada or even a really long cable running from the border,
something has to be done about living in the most cable backward place on
earth. Don't give me excuses, don't give me apologizes, don't tell me that
it's going to cost me $500 more to have DSS instead of cable. Prove to me
that you really want my business by stopping to use the CRTC as an excuse
(I'm sorry, I don't think the CRTC requires you to be rude to me on the
phone, to limit English stations, to provide the most banal of video
decoders, and customer service that when you tell them that you are
disatisfied tells you that you have no choice because you live on the wrong
part of town and can't have the good cable company (What will they say now,
that they will own the good cable company - to run it too into the ground).

I'm tired of the whole argument. I want a choice, I want it now, I'm
willing to pay for it, and I don't want excuses. That's the point. Four
companies now have licences for DSS and not one has anything to show for
it. As far as I'm concerned, if you can't get it up, it's time to get an
implant.