DISQUS

Mail the CRTC Now! · 1 year ago

I downloaded the show but my download was incredibly slow because of Bell Canada. Bell in their fear that video over the internet will chip into their TV business have started limiting bandwidth to their customers and 3rd party resellers, they throttle torrrents etc. So in anti-competitive act they sought to make legal internet video distribution look slow and cumbersome.

Bell abused their monopoly to try to force other players like content providers (CBC) from reaching their audience.

Even worse, Bell impeded the dissemination of Canada culture.

CRTC Please do something!

Yikes · 1 year ago

Dont count Rogers out... They were the first to throttle\cap etc..

:) · 1 year ago

Just so you know, the pirate bay is a great tracker, but one thing it doesn't do is record the amount of people who send the "complete" flag at the end of a download.

Great job, by the way :)

ZeD's Dead · 1 year ago

CBC didn't actually have to look to Norway for innovative ideas.

They could have just spoken with some of the producers from ZeD, which was offering programming via torrents back in 2005. (That's something like 25 years ago by internet dating btw)

http://zed.cbc.ca/go?POS=1&CONTENT_ID=23491...

But unfortunately the program was canceled, the plans burned, and everyone laid off... this despite the fact that a team from Current TV (Al Gore's network) paid a visit to Vancouver to learn how the user upload model worked, and then applied it successfully to what has become a profitable network.

Dave · 1 year ago

Hopefully the CBC will add more programs for Bittorrenting.

For Canadians abroad like me who live in countries with developing Internet systems, the Windows Media streaming feeds made available for The National and The Fifth Estate are simply at too high a bitrate to watch. "Buffering" every 30 seconds. (The old RealVideo feeds abandoned a year ago were much more robust.)

If these programs were made available as divx torrents people like me would be able to watch them. I note that a few Fifth Estate documentaries are already (illicitly) available as torrents and they rate among the most popular documentaries on the net. I bet many of those downloaders are outside of CBC's broadcasting range.

Assuming the CBC isn't trying to sell tonight's news to broadcasters overseas, who could object?

webrex · 1 year ago

I was ready to check the download but connection is pretty slow. anyway its a great idea and hope CBC will increase the broadcasting range.
I personally liked the idea "Businesses always want to measure the success or failure of their project and legitimately so"..

thanks for posting

www.webrexia.com

Simon · 1 year ago

To "beg the question" doesn't mean to demand that a question be asked. It means to assume the answer to a question and therefore is an example of bad logic.

Russell McOrmond · 1 year ago

I just wanted to add my "thanks", as well as a link to the BLOG article I wrote on the experiment.

http://blogs.itworldcanada.com/insights/2008/03...

Todd Sieling · 1 year ago

What a great move, and big thanks for sharing the process from the inside on how it came to happen. I wonder if it's better to just jump in with ads included, if that indeed is going to be the future for programs distributed through bittorrent. Setting up the expectation of an ad-free, just like the illegal stuff experience kind of sets people up for something different from what we know the future offerings will look like.

That aside, congratulations on bringing a radical change into a large organization. That's hardly ever easy, and it rolled out in a great way. Awesome job!

Michelle · 1 year ago

I'm proud that the CBC has done this. I just hope that other networks will begin to follow in their footsteps and start releasing these shows "officially" via BitTorrent. Another show that I'd love to see them post online is 'Little Mosque on the Prairie', which has turned out to be a hit around the globe.

dot · 1 year ago

This is a great step and the timing seems right for the marketplace. You can tell the market is ripe when the in-laws start asking "how-to"... lol.

Regarding the first comment about Bell and throttling torrents - not only is it anti-competitive but it stinks of big brother and I don't like it one bit. Since Friday my download speeds have dropped significantly.

I pay for a service, Bell should have no right to dictate how I use that service - torrent technology is not illegal last time I checked.