Liberty calls on Fox Sports to help with TV Experience

[Jericoke]

Backing up to internet and infrastructure, I was actually trying to point out that Switzerland along with many other European countries simply isn’t ALLOWED to monopolize or gouge their customers a la Bell, Rogers, Telus, Shaw and the American counterparts that seem to be able to charge as much as they like while building mediocre infrastructure.  My cousin who I have already mentioned in this thread, lives one block from the town centre in Tottenham, granted, a very small town, but although he can drive through town using his mobile phone, his own house seems to be a dead spot unless he’s on the 3rd floor.  That kind of thing just doesn’t happen here.

It's mostly a matter of market forces though.  If you let a phone company only cover people that were inexpensive to cover, then Toronto would have dozens of companies with rates that make Switzerland look draconian, and NWT (the Northwest Territories, most of those islands in northern Canada) would have one that charges out the nose because of their immense costs per person.

By requiring the companies to create massive networks at great expense, you have to offer an incentive.  If Rogers and Bell weren't allowed to gouge customers, they wouldn't build a network at all.

Now, we could go to government monopolies running telecommunications, keeping everything at cost, but in Canada we don't generally believe the government should run things (and I'm aware that sentiment is even stronger in the USA)

On the other hand, you can get a bank loan in Switzerland and pepper the country with functional towers.  So there's a certain irony that Canada and the USA bow to the god of 'Market Forces' more readily than many European countries, and in this case, we have to pay the price for it.

[Ian]

The cheapest sky sports package here is around £31 a month I think, no chance just for the one sports channel I'd watch.

[Scott]

Jeri, the government doesn't run things here either, but they keep a much closer eye on it.  We actually have mandatory private health care insurance, kind of like Obama was trying to get put into place.  We can change back and forth company to company as we like, but nobody (i.e. insurance companies or hospitals) can rob us, and I can get an MRI or elective surgery in about a week if I want.  It's a fraction the cost of the US insurance, yet it is miles ahead of Canadian care (at about 250.- per person per month). 

Same goes for the internet providers.  They can charge for high infrastructure costs, but they don't only charge the customers, they also charge the townships that require the internet, almost like a utility (which it really is, after all).  The township can vote to improve the service, but the people know that will mean higher taxes in the year that the improvement is made.  It's all quite logical and acceptable.

I know it won't work in parts of Canada that have distance challenges, but I bet the Swiss would find a logical and clever answer to that as well.  The amazing thing is simply that stuff works here, it works well, it works fast, and it works for a reasonable price. 

[lkjohnson1950]

If the FCC goes through with it's repeal of "Net Neutrality", I may have to give up GP Wizard! Many experts are predicting the internet will be stratified and sold in "packages" like cable TV. My only hope is that the greed of Republicans and billionaires will lead to a Democratic landslide next November.

[John S]

The cheapest sky sports package here is around £31 a month I think, no chance just for the one sports channel I'd watch.

Yeah but you still have to have a basic Sky or other tv supplier package before you can access Sky sports Ian. So Dare' s estimate of £500 a year is probably right.

The only cheaper way is with a Now box and a weekend pass for Sky on race weekends.

[Dare]

I don't think it's the greed of any party just the
greed of people that never have enough money.

[Jericoke]

Jeri, the government doesn't run things here either, but they keep a much closer eye on it.  We actually have mandatory private health care insurance, kind of like Obama was trying to get put into place.  We can change back and forth company to company as we like, but nobody (i.e. insurance companies or hospitals) can rob us, and I can get an MRI or elective surgery in about a week if I want.  It's a fraction the cost of the US insurance, yet it is miles ahead of Canadian care (at about 250.- per person per month). 

Same goes for the internet providers.  They can charge for high infrastructure costs, but they don't only charge the customers, they also charge the townships that require the internet, almost like a utility (which it really is, after all).  The township can vote to improve the service, but the people know that will mean higher taxes in the year that the improvement is made.  It's all quite logical and acceptable.

I know it won't work in parts of Canada that have distance challenges, but I bet the Swiss would find a logical and clever answer to that as well.  The amazing thing is simply that stuff works here, it works well, it works fast, and it works for a reasonable price.

I didn't mean to imply that the Swiss government was involved, I was suggesting that an alternative to private companies would be a government monopoly in Canada.

Telecommunications is a geographical issue, so it's no coincidence that many breakthroughs come from Canada (trans oceanic radio, telephones, domestic satellite communication, asyncrhonous transfer which is the networking idea that allows the internet to function at a large scale). 

As wireless transmission becomes more reliable, prices in Canada will continue to drop.

[Ian]

John, I forgot to say that the £31 would be on top of my virgin package which would take it to over £100 a month, no chance.

[Alianora La Canta]

The cheapest sky sports package here is around £31 a month I think, no chance just for the one sports channel I'd watch.

Yeah but you still have to have a basic Sky or other tv supplier package before you can access Sky sports Ian. So Dare' s estimate of £500 a year is probably right.

The only cheaper way is with a Now box and a weekend pass for Sky on race weekends.

It's £38 a month to have a standard Sky package with only the F1 channel added for 18 months, then £40 a month after that. This make it £456 / £480 per year.

Now TV is £10.99 per race, because they've removed the weekend pass and replaced it with a slightly more expensive week pass. It would be cheaper to spend £199 for a 12-month Now TV Sky Sports pass (deal on until the end of November), but even after the deal ends, it is only £399 for a standard-issue Now TV 12-month Sky Sports pass.

Hope this helps.

[Ian]

The £31 is on virgin media Jeri if you're already a customer.