Streaming TV in Canada
Does this post make me look like an entitled, white, middle-class, man-child?

Allow me to preface this post by saying I do not condone media piracy. Content creators deserve to get paid fairly for their work, regardless of how it is delivered to your home.
I am a die-hard cord cutter. I cancelled my cable package with Rogers over 6 years ago and I’ve never looked back. I signed up for Netflix streaming as soon as it was offered in Canada, and I have an OTA antenna with 4 channels for watching the occasional live broadcast.
In the last few years, there have been regulations made to the cable TV industry to make things a little more customer-friendly. Things like minimum packages for $25 and smaller channel bundles are meant to relieve the pain of paying for a ton of channels you don’t want, just to be served up advertisements every 3 minutes. These are steps in the right direction, but since the industry is largely regulated by former industry executives we can’t expect much from them if we want big changes.
Step in streaming services. Netflix shook things up in a big way, and now everyone wants a piece of the action. The web is the current way to deliver content, and has been for some time. The cable industry is going to suffer the way of the music industry if they don’t get on board.
Now that we are all up to speed, what follows is a rant of my experience struggling to legally stream content in Canada.
HBO NOW ($20)
Let’s start with HBO since winter is coming and a certain series is in the news a lot and at the front of everyone’s minds.
In the US, HBO has its own streaming service called HBO NOW. It’s roughly 15 USD a month and includes a huge library of current and legacy HBO shows and movies. Outside of Netflix, this is the streaming service I want most. Some of my favourite shows are by HBO, and many movies I didn’t know they made/licensed. If you want to watch the latest GoT episode as soon as it’s released, this is the way to do it in the U-S-of-A.

HBO NOW is accessible only in the U.S. and certain U.S. territories.
However, in Canada, all HBO streaming rights are owned by Bell Media. This deal was put in place years ago, and it means that HBO won’t/can’t sell directly to consumers in the North, they have to go through Bell.
There are ways to work around the region-locking of HBO NOW by using a VPN or DNS proxy, American credit cards, and lying on the sign-up page. It means that for a brief time, you could pay 20 CAD to have unlimited access to HBO content until they cancel your account for violating the terms of service.
It’s unfortunate, because I would willingly fork over $20/month for HBO NOW in Canada. But if I have to use a VPN and risk getting my account suspended, I’ll have to pass.
HBO Canada ($$$)
Bell will tell you that it’s never been easier to watch HBO in Canada. They have a separate service called HBO Canada that at first looks promising. Until you get to the sign-up page, that is.

HBO Canada is included with your subscription to The Movie Network. Also included with your subscription at no additional charge (through participating TV providers) is TMN GO, giving you instant and unlimited access to the best of HBO Canada on your favourite devices.
*Package and channels may vary by service provider.
Based on the details above, here’s all you have to do:
- sign up for a cable package with your service provider ($$)*
- sign up for cable box rental, or buy one yourself ($)*
- sign up for The Movie Network ($$$)*
Actual prices not shown, because that amount of research seems like work and I’m not working on a Saturday.
Seems easy enough, right? I’ll just cancel my cell phone and car insurance so I can afford to watch Silicon Valley every Sunday. As long as I have something to talk about at the water cooler, taking public transit and using messenger ravens is totally worth it.
Maybe if I win the lottery, and decide I don’t have enough scheduled programming crammed between advertisements this would be a more viable option.
Shomi ($9)
Shomi was a short-lived web streaming service provided by Rogers Communications. Since Rogers is one of the major cable providers in Canada, their service had licensing for many popular programs and seemed worth the 8.99 CAD a month, especially with the backlog of older series my fiancee would rewatch. The best part: it didn’t require a cable subscription! Thank the heavens it’s about time the big telecoms realised the direction streaming media was going.

However, it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Here’s a short summary of my sign-up process.
- Create account online.
- The second sign-up screen won’t load for me to provide my credit card. Try relaunching Chrome, still not working.
- Try the sign-up process again in Internet Explorer. Seems to be working now. Shake head in disbelief.
- Finish sign-up process in the worst web browser.
- Sign in on Chrome.
- Pick some content from the list. Sons of Anarchy. Heck yes!
- Flash required to continue. Are you fucking serious!? It’s 2016.
- Try playback in IE since it’s the only browser where Flash isn’t disabled by default. Seems to work, but I’m not going to use IE, nor my desktop for watching shows, so whatever.
- Install Android app on my phone. At least I can cast to my Chromecast if my phone is handy.
- Look for Android TV app for my Nexus Player. Doesn’t appear to be one, that’s a drag.
- Look for Roku app. Doesn’t exist either? That can’t be right.
- So my watching options are limited to phones and tablets (with casting where supported) or Flash in a browser?
- Fiancee doesn’t want to use her phone to browse shows. I don’t blame her.
- Cancel service.
Rogers has since shut down the service.
CraveTV ($8)
CraveTV was my most recent attempt to pay for streaming media in Canada, and it prompted this post.
Bell Media made a competing streaming service to go head-to-head with Shomi and Netflix. Similar to its competitors, it does not require a cable subscription and still includes loads of content licensed for broadcast in Canada by Bell Media. It even has some HBO content!
Recent blockbuster shows aren’t available, or are limited to older seasons, but there still seems to be more than enough content for $8 a month. I spend more than that on Starbucks!
Unfortunately, it seems CraveTV shared a similar sign-up experience as Shomi. I’m noticing a trend.
- Create account online.
- Hmm, sign-up page unavailable with adblocker.
- Disable adblocker, refresh page.
- Fill in personal details and submit.
- Field is mandatory. Please fill missing data.
- I’ve filled all the fields, what am I missing?
- Put a space in my postal code.
- Field is mandatory. Please fill missing data.
- What field?! All the fields have data! Help me out here!
- Start over, fill same fields with same data.
- Success. Thank fuck.
- Browse content. Letterkenny obvious first pick.
- Flash required to continue. Spit my coffee on my keyboard. It’s 2017 now.
- I will not cater to sites that require Flash at this point. Even if it works like a dream with Flash or in another browser, it’s not going to happen.
- Browse to Play Store for Android Phone and Android TV apps.
- Android is here, but no Android TV support. I’ve been down this road with Shomi already.
- Install the Android app on my phone.
- Sign-in not available with adblocker. I guess it doesn’t like my home network security settings.
- Disconnect from wifi and sign in over LTE.
- Sign-in screen is definitely a webpage cropped into the app. Seems legit.
- Sign in anyway. Password filler doesn’t recognise form fields. What a pain.
- Enable non-wifi playback in settings since I’m still using LTE at this point.
- Pick a recent episode of Ray Donovan. A man of few words.
- Unknown error. Please try again later.
- Seriously? This is a brand new phone, running latest Android. Not rooted, not using an adblocker, not even on my home network.
- Try another show.
- Unknown error. Please try again later.
- Try again the next day.
- Unknown error. Please try again later.
- Watching on my phone apparently is never going to work.
- I guess casting to my TV is out of the question too in that case.
- Web browser is out of the question, because Flash.
- Do I contact support? Or will that be a waste of time as well?
- Cancel service.



I tried to use your service, Bell, I really did. It feels like you don’t want me to use your web service and would rather I just sign up for a cable package.
Conclusion
Streaming TV and movies in Canada is a sad state of affairs. Bell and Rogers have a monopoly on streaming rights of content, but seem content to force customers to a cable package, or a streaming service that doesn’t work.
I know Canada is a very small market. Our population does not bring in enough revenue to justify proper product development and the money can be better spent to line the pockets of executives. But why would they offer a half-finished product at all? Seems like an empty gesture so they can advertise that they have legal streaming options, even if the reality is a broken service that customers can’t use.
Bell has been very quick to target pirates of their shows and movies, and in their letters they suggest that legal streaming options are available. Now while I can’t condone piracy, I would say to Bell and Rogers:
How do you propose I watch new episodes of Game of Thrones, for example? CraveTV is a broken piece of shit, not to mention that it does not include the series in question. I would have to get a second mortgage to afford the minimum cable package plus movie network. So what are these options you suggest?
Thank goodness for Netflix and Amazon Prime Video (even if APV is only available on some platforms, at least it works without Flash).
