Why Canadians Won't Be Able To Go Diamond on Xbox Live

One of the main highlights at the recent 2011 E3 trade show was the announcement by Microsoft to turn Xbox live into a subscription television service that would compete against cable and satellite TV companies.  The new service dubbed as Xbox Live Diamond by video game gossip web sites will feature dozens of channels of streaming video content which includes many shows that appear on broadcast networks, cable channels and premium channels was well as shows made for the service. 

For in Canada hoping to subscribe to the service as an alternative to existing cable or satellite TV will be sitting there hoping for a very long time.  As many know online video services get held up at the border for years at a time as companies that hold Canadian broadcast and Internet streaming rights refuse to reliquinish those rights to sites as Hulu, and as a result some of those sites have never launched in Canada and don't plan to ether.  One exeception is Netflix which is available in Canada but with a line up that is far more limited than the Netflix offering in the United States. 

Even for a deep pocketed company such as Microsoft, launching any online video service north of the 49th parallel will be a nearly impossible task, given recent history with Canadian rights holders in the past.  When Microsoft launched the Zune music player in Canada in 2008 it was without access to the Zune Marketplace online music store.  Canada's music industry wouldn't make a deal with Microsoft to sell music downloads to Canadians.  When Microsoft added subscription service with Zune Pass, Canada's music industry still didn't budge and Canadians were left without all you can eat music downloads for one monthly price.

Since most of Canada's media is owned by cable and telephone companies that are the companies that most Canadians buy Internet service from.  Since online video has the potential poach cable and satellite TV viewership, Bell, Rogers, Telus, and Shaw are doing everything they can to protect cable and satellite TV business.  Since Bell, Rogers and Shaw are the Canadian rights holders to most video programming from the United States, they are highly unlikely to resell Internet streaming rights to Microsoft no matter how much money big M brings to the table.  For Canadian gamers Xbox live will continue to be just for online gaming and won't be the reason to kiss their traditional cable or satellite TV provider good bye.

Are Saskatoonians Uninterested In Saving Their CBC Stations?

As previously announced by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Saskatoon along with Moncton, New Brunswick, London, Ontario, and Lethbridge, Alberta are going to be losing CBC televison stations (Both English and French) on August 31st.  It is mandatory in these cities for television stations to turn off existing analog transmitters and start up digital transmitters or go off the air forever.  Minority language over the air broadcasting is also scheduled to get deep cuts as French language stations in English Canada and English language CBC stations in Quebec will cut to static. 

Many in affected communites are taking action to keep CBC available for free to all viewers.  Protest rallies have already taken place in London and Moncton.  Municipal politicians are lobbying CBC executives and federal politicans to get digital transmitters built rather than the planned end of over the air broadcasting by the CBC when August draws a close. 

Although there is activity in affected communites, in Saskatoon however there has not been any rallies, no lobbying federal politicans, there hasn't even been a single mention in the media about the digital TV transition or that CBC television will soon get the ax.  While it may seem that there is a slim chance  to save the over the air broadcast from CBC stations in the affected communities, if Saskatoonians don't do anything to try to save their local CBC station, then they won't get get anything when trying to turn on CBC television on September 1st.

CPCC Demands Right To Pick Canadian Pockets Even Further

The Canadian Private Copying Collective, the non government agency that makes Canadians pay 21 cents every time they burn CD's is asking the Copyright Board to charge a levy on the memory cards that Canadians use in their digital cameras and distribute the money raised to the recording industry. 

While memory cards are often used in cell phones that can play MP3 files, the majority of memory cards are used in digital cameras, devices used for the creation of intellectual property.  Even though memory cards can be used to store music files even those that are bought and paid for legally, USB flash drives are more often used to copy music between computers, the CPCC proposal does not mention USB flash drives just memory cards. 

This isn't the first time that the CPCC proposed charging a levy on memory cards.  About five years ago after the CPCC's levy on iPods and other MP3 players was dumped into the grave by the federal appeal court the CPCC sought to have levies charged on blank DVD's and memory cards.  Now that the Copyright Board is now comprised by more Conservative leaning bureaucrats, the Canadian Private Copying Collective will most likely be sent packing, as they should be for good.