Flashpoint Number One on CBS and CTV…

Holy crap did I read that right???

I did…  according to the Globe & Mail more than eight million Americans tuned in for the season premiere of the made in Toronto police drama Flashpoint.  Flashpoint was greenlit back during the writers strike, but was later given the timeslot of death: Fridays @ 10.  Well it would appear that no one bothered to tell the viewers that this was a crappy time slot, because not only did over 8 million tune in to watch.  CBS and CTV both scheduled a re-airing of the program on Sunday, before the overnights had been released.  The Sunday broadcast picked up another 5.6 million viewers which is great news for Canadian Television!

The even better news however is that CTV, the home network for Flashpoint picked up over a million viewers for its broadcast making it the most watched show in Canada.

Way to go FLASHPOINT!!!

If you missed either airing, you can watch the episode on CTV’s website in Canada, and CBS in the states!

Technorati Tags:
CTV, Canadian Television, CBS, Flashpoint, watch flashpoint online, Flashpoint 1×01, Flashpoint Pilot

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Flashpoint Premiers on CBS, CTV & Online…

**Update**

As of July 15, 2008 The ratings are out for Flashpoint in the US and Canada!  Check it out here

**Update**

Back during the writers strike, when it seemed like such a strike would continue into perpetuity CBS made the courageous decision of buying a show produced and set in Toronto.  That program is Flashpoint.  Flashpoint, a new hour long drama is a co-production of CTV and CBS is being described as a different type of cop show.

This blog exists for the purpose of promoting both Canadian Television, and television accessible to Canadians online, this program’s premiere is like a gift to me.  While not having seen the show yet, I will reserve judgment until later, but am happy to say to my Canadian viewers that you can watch the episode in its entirety HERE and to my American readers HERE. I’ll be heading off to do that in a few hours!

Let me know what you think of it.   It’s great the you can watch flashpoint online in either the US or Canada.  Lets hope this is the taste of things to come.

Technorati Tags
Flashpoint CTV CBS Canadian Television Canada Toronto Cop Show Scorpio

Bill C-10 : The Movie

Back at the end of February I wrote an article about the Canadian Government’s desire to grant itself the power to censor any and all productions the government found ‘offensive’.  The article ‘Canadian Government Seeks Right to Censor Telefilm Projects‘ was followed by Evangelist takes credit for film crackdown showed the lunacy of the idea. (which I am sure has passed by now thanks to the largely ineffective opposition) While writing my article on the new CBC video player I came across this little clip which us Canadians would have found quite funny (and did actually). I present it to you to share with you Rick Mercer’s Brilliant idea for a new movie.

A warning, the following video contains NO Graphic Content, or Course Language…

more about “Bill C-10 : The Movie“, posted with vodpod

C-10 Bill C-10 Stephen Harper Rick Mercer Canadian Television Comedy

CBC’s NEW Video Player…

The whole point of ye olde blog here was to help people find more high quality programming to watch on this here internet. (you know what they got on that internet?)

While browsing the net today I came across some new programming to watch.  As you have read in the past I am just gushing over CTV’s webplayer, here and again here, in all the excitement I kind of ignored the CBC’s new offering.  I am not entirely sure when it came online.  My LIST of stuff to watch included va

rious CBC product, but I nearly missed their new player.  The new player, works in Firefox 3, haven’t tried it yet in Ub

untu, so someone will have to check that out for me.  The look is clear, and clean, and very modern.  It actually looks a lot sharper than the CTV site (Sorry Johnathan) but I wonder if it is cross platform.  Check it out my MacOSX and Ubuntu friends.

Currently the CBC player seems to only show clips of stuff, although I found myself enjoying many of the Rick Mercer and Air Farce clips, it will be interesting to see this player mature and add content.

You can connect to the CBC Player HERE

In the meantime, enjoy this clever little bit from the Rick Mercer Report:

more about “Rick Mercer – CIBC Telethon“, posted with vodpod

CBC Rick Mercer Rick Mercer Report Canadian Television Online TV Videos Video CIBC CIBC Telethon

CTV & ABC Sign online content deal….

Before I begin I must say a quick hello back to the readers. I haven’t posted a real entry since March 23, well over a month ago. I was really enjoying my blogging but the rigors of a difficult job made it impossible to continue for the past month. I have since started a new job that will afford me my life back, and that means I can return to the blogging I have been enjoying so much.

It’s actually been quite frustrating because I know for a fact tat SO much has been going on that I like to blog about. Well, I guess I might as well get started…

As many of you know I am a huge fan of CTV’s online video project. They are available on all platforms (that I have tested, Windows, Mac OS & Ubuntu Linux) and use their service a few times a week to enjoy my episodes of The Daily Show…. (You hear that sponsors? I only watch tv online, so start advertising there!) The problem with the CTV portals however has been a limit on their main shows online. CTV has the Canadian broadcasting rights to (among other things) Lost, Desperate Housewives & Greys Anatomy, these shows are CTV’s main staple programs, and until now were not available online. They also had the right to Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which they did show online thanks to a deal with Fox. CTV now boasts over 30 million streams a month.(1) Not bad for a country of 33 million!

“We’re finally up over 130,000 unique visitors a day to our new video players!”

Jonathan Keebler, Technology Manager for CTV Digital (2)

This of course is great news to all who enjoy viewing television online, but bad news to companies like Rogers, Bell & now Cogeco(3) who make money on cable & satellite services. It is no wonder that these companies are actively working against allowing people to view content online and are limiting bandwidth.

More on this next time.

(1) Robertson, Grant. “CTV, ABC strike online drama deal.” globeandmail.com. 25 April 2008. The Globe & Mail (CTV Globe Media). 26 Apr 2008 <http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080425.wr-online26/BNStory/Front/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20080425.wr-online26>.

(2) Keebler, Jonathan. “How our servers are doing.” CTV Digital Media Group. 14 March 2008. CTV Globe Media. 26 Apr 2008 <http://blog.ctvdigital.net/index.php/2008/03/14/how-our-servers-are-doing/>.

(3) Geist, Michael. “Vuze Study Points To P2P Interference From Cogeco.” Michael Geist Blog. 21 April 2008. Michael Geist. 26 Apr 2008 <http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/2855/125/>.

technorati tags: television, internet, ctv, abc, linux, ubuntu, cogeco, bell, rogers, throttling, lost, desperate housewives, grey’s anatomy

The CBC Embraces DRM Free Bittorrent….

Holy crap… seriously, did you read this?

According to Michael Geist Blog, which by the way, is probably my favourite blog on the net, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation or CBC will be releasing its new season of Canada’s Next Great Prime Minister online, the day after it airs through bittorrent.  The kicker?  The file will be:

“…high-resolution version via peer-to-peer networks without any DRM restrictions. “
Excerpt from the Michael Geist Blog

Unfortunately for millions of Canadians, many ISPs here including Rogers & Bell Sympatico are using traffic shaping, that may make downloading the content difficult, or nearly impossible.  Downloading this program would be a great way of using your Videotron 50 Meg download connection (as long as you don’t hit the cap)

Great news to Linux users as well!!! Because its not wrapped in some DRM wrapper you two can enjoy it. Add to that all the other CBC content that is available on their site from the news, to their various shows and you’ve got some enjoyable entertainment.

One would hope that other broadcasters and content producers take note of the CBC expierement.  As well, what could this mean for jPod?  A program that was actually viewed online by more people than tuned in to see it on TV?

—-UPDATE—-

The CBC is distributing the Torrent on mininova!  (seriously…)  To download the torrent and enjoy the first network program legally released online click HERE

Technorati Tags: CBC, Michael Geist, Geist, jpod, Canada’s Next Great Prime Minister, bittorrent, drm, drmsucks, Rogers, Bell, Sympatico, traffic shaping, linux

Caprica LIVES!!!

First off, I must just say that in the real world I am in the middle of opening a new 15,000 square foot store, and I have been there pretty much every day, all day, so I have not had the opportunity to do any research, or blogging really at all this month, but this was just too good.

Battlestar Galactica fans have been patiently (and in my case impatiently) waiting for almost a year for the continuation of our favourite program Battlestar Galactica to begin its fourth and final season.   This past week however, we were given another gift.  The official announcement from SciFi that Caprica, the Galactica prequel set 50 years before BSG was to be made.  Production begins this spring on the pilot movie in Vancouver and the series could follow.

Awesome??  YES!

The show will be different from the original Galactica.  Ron Moore who worked on Star Trek: The Next Generation, and then Deep Space Nine commented that Star Trek series are relatively the same, but Caprica will be very different from Caprica.

“This is really more of a sci-fi Dallas,” Moore said. “It’s a political story, a family story. It’s about the creation of the Cylons, and it’s about a company. It’s planet-based. It’s very character-oriented, very serialized and very much about the characters. It’s a whole different genre, and that’s what makes it exciting.

Excerpt from SciFi Wire: March 20, 2008

This should be good!  Ron Moore has said he will be ‘very involved’ with the production of the pilot, but that it is too soon to say whether or not he will be involved in the series.  The gang also discussed the re-introduction of new webisodes to follow as well!

Technorati Tags: television, scifi,, battlestar galactica, bsg, caprica, ron d moore

CTV Does it again…

Hail, hail, all hail Jonathan and Linux users rejoice!

As an Ubuntu user I am constantly rewarded to the site of “Your OS is not supported” when I try to watch video online, well, one more site has fallen away from that list with CTV’s new online player for its MAIN CTV Network!!  And in my opinion (which is based on minutes of in depth research) it is all thanks to Jonathan and his team over at CTVDigital!

He’s moved the next version of the CTV online portal away from silverlight, and over to a more user friendly open system that works on more than just windows.  This makes CTV’s improved portal now available for:

Discover Channel
The Comedy Network
TSN
CTV

Once again, CTV is showing us that it cares about Linux and Mac users and isn’t interested in creating a windows only, internet explorer only, sliverlight running crapfest.

Sadly however, some shows are viewable to users running windows only under silverlight.

Some of our shows on CTV have Microsoft DRM due to prior agreements. Trust us, we know it’s irritating on Macs and Linux. A lot of us use Macs at home, so we get it. But without Silverlight support for DRM (yet), there’s no way for us to display those videos on non-Windows operating-systems.

Jonathan – Excerpt from his blog posting March 7, 2008.

He goes on to politely ask that the hate mail be limited to a bare minimum.  I myself have dropped down to just three angry rants per week now (kidding).  Clearly this is a person who understands there is more to computers than just XP.  (Vista doesn’t even count)  In my view, he and his team are worthy of our support, thanks and praise.

Shows like Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles are still not supported on Linux, being wrapped in a nice Microsoft DRM wrapper and shows like Lost are still not available at all.  I would hope that CTV’s team could get their butts in gear and license that content as well.  But that has nothing to do with the technical side, and everything to do with the money-men.  (and women…. )

I am sure its because of people like him [Jonathan] that CTV is even looking at alternatives to silverlight, and its locked down architecture.  Thanks Jonathan!  Keep up the awesome work.

This is a follow up piece to earlier great work CTV has done that I talked about here

Technorati Tags: silverlight, silverlight sucks, ctv, discovery channel, tsn, comedy network, terminator, sarah connor chronicles, linux, ubuntu, drm, drm sucks,mac, Jonathan Keebler

Sarah Connor Chronicles at an End?

Monday brings us the 2 hour season finale of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I had always intended this blog to be about television programming that I enjoy as well as the topics I’ve covered so far, I just haven’t had the chance.

The Sarah Connor Chronicles, (SCC) for those of you who have not seen it yet begins a short time after Terminator 2, our heroine, the very lovely (really very lovely) Lena Headey, is in hiding, protecting her son, played by Hero’s Thomas Dekker from the evil robotic killing machines from the future. This time, instead of a soldier from the future, or Arnold, John sends back a really hot Terminator to look after him. Obviously thinking with his head (Hmm… if I were a teenage boy, who would I rather have protecting me from an unstoppable killing machine in human form him… or… oh yeah, her… yes yes… )

Of course, all of this leaves us in a bit of a pickle… how do we get our heroes up to the present day…. sweet, the hot robot from the future has a time machine. Ok, so its a little sci-fi hockeyness… Just let it go and enjoy.

After the action packed pilot, which I loved by the way, the show continues to exude a high energy and adrenaline pumping story line that leaves you wanting more each week. Originally scheduled to have a full 22 episode season, the series is breaking here with a 2 hour finale. The question however, will it be back?

With the exception of The X-Files, (which if you ask me was a complete accident on Fox’s part that this show even lasted long enough to find an audience) scifi has not faired well on our fair and balanced friendly network.

In fact, one might question whether Fox’s inability to commit to scifi is what drives people away in the first place. Remember Harsh Realm? And how that never bothered to end? Space Above & Beyond? What about Firefly… no? That’s because Fox canceled them all.

Terminator however is different. While those programs relied heavily in scifi, Terminator seems to be relying more on the action adventure component. It’s this I believe that makes it so much fun to watch. With the loss of 24 for the year, it was really feeling like Terminator had that manic feel.

I strongly hope that our friends at Fox look at the merits of the program and bring it back again. It may be time for netwoks to stop looking at shows as a season, but more as a series. How many episodes do we need to tell our story. If we need to, lets do them in shorter bursts, 8, 10, 12 eps a year. I’m ok with that, as long as we are treated to the full story.

Terminator raps up tonight on Fox, and CTV (in Canada) at 8pm Eastern.

Those of you in Canada that want to catch up, can do so by checking out CTV’s broadband network. A warning, the CTV portion still requires Microsoft Silverlight, so Linux users will need to use …. alternate means to see the shows.

Technorati: CTV, firefly, fox, fox network, harsh realm, lena headeym, sarah connor chronicles, Silverlight Sucks, space above and beyond, summer glau, terminator, terminator the sarah connor chronicles, thomas dekker, x-files

CTV IS WONDERFUL!!!

CTV IS WONDERFUL!

Ladies and Gentleman… Boys and Girls!!! CTV ROCKS! Why you might ask?

I wrote a fairly popular little entry a while back entitled Silverlight Bags Another One, where I talked about Microsoft giving the Library of Congress in the US 3 Million Dollars to switch their website, and certain exhibits over to Silverlight. My worry has been that more sites may go the way of Silverlight, which locks up users and creators inside of Microsoft’s envelope. And sadly, those of us with Linux are stuck without a letter opener. (Anyone catch that clever little pun? No? We’ll move on)

As I have written, CTV uses Silverlight to power their broadband network, which has meant that I have not been able to enjoy The Daily Show with John Stewart. Yesterday I was reading another blog that I enjoy (Wayne D’s Blog) and he was talking about The Discovery Channel’s new video player that supported Linux. I click over, and start enjoying an episode of Daily Planet, when suddenly it occurs to me that this is a CTV Site. I looked around the site and found THIS and to my surprise I see that The Comedy Network is now being added as well. I popped on over, and am pleased to say that I was able to enjoy an entire episode of the Daily Show, online, in Linux, for the first time ever.

This means, I can enjoy the programming, from a legal, legitimate source that can be monetized by the broadcaster in the form of advertising.

I would urge you all to head on over to CTV’s new beta player, check out their videos, then comment on how things worked out for you, and let us know too! Post your links to clips and shows you like.

Sorry, most of this marterial is available to Canadian viewers only….

Actually, I’m not sorry, we’ve been shut out of US content for years,

Let’s all celebrate by watching this short clip from The Daily Show

Technorati: ca, Canadian Television, Comedy Network, Comedynetwork, CTV, CTVGlobemedia, Daily Show, Internet Television, IPTV, John Stewart, Silverlight Sucks, Television, The Daily Show