Topic: Fancast

[Touti]

http://www.fancast.com

Has anyone ever heard of it or is using it ?  Apparently it's owned by Comcast and they managed to put all the studios and tv channels together to offer movies and tv shows in streaming, free and in good quality.

They were talking about it on the radio yesterday here in Montreal.  The girl said (for those who live here it was Anne-Marie Withenshaw on Christiane Charette's show) said that it is available in Canada.  I tried it this morning out of curiosity.

The first thing I tried was an episode of Grey's Anatomy, as I expected I couldn't watch it, I got a message saying that it was not available to viewers outside the united states, just the same as on abc.com

Then I tried to watch and old episode of "Chips".  After having to wait for a 30 seconds publicity about the crunchiest pickles in the world the tv episode started............or tried to do so for a few seconds and then I got a message thanking me for watching it.  Tried a 2nd time, the pickles were still crunchy according to the ad that played again and again I was thanked for watching an episode that never played.

Third I tried something else, a show I had never heard of (can't remember the name) and again I was told that it can only be viewed in the united states.

I'm sorry if this is gonna be a disappointment to the very pretty Anne-Marie Withenshaw but if the site is available to Canadians it appears as though it's content is not most of the time.

So, has anyone else heard of this site, tried it or uses it regularly ?

[RossRoy]

I guess cutie didn't do her research work too much before saying it's available to Canadians.

Straight from the FAQ page


As usual, great concept, Canadians out.

Odd though that you can't watch the video.. But the ads, no problem!


Same as with 1 vs 100 on Xbox.. There's a sweepstake.. Available to everyone... BUT Quebec.. Not surprise, after all, we're a so called "société distincte" [shuts up before getting too mad]

[Jimmy]

I guess cutie didn't do her research work too much before saying it's available to Canadians.

Is it really a surprise

Same as with 1 vs 100 on Xbox.. There's a sweepstake.. Available to everyone... BUT Quebec..

All the lotery or draft had to be registered and conform to the law so the citizen are protected. I really don't see a problem there, since it gives you a legal protection when the draft initiator cheated (to initiate a draft a company had to depose a certain ammount of money)...

That's why I can't get the money from the Portuguese and Spanish lotery that I win often according to the numerous emails I received  

[RossRoy]

Same as with 1 vs 100 on Xbox.. There's a sweepstake.. Available to everyone... BUT Quebec..

All the lotery or draft had to be registered and conform to the law so the citizen are protected. I really don't see a problem there, since it gives you a legal protection when the draft initiator cheated (to initiate a draft a company had to depose a certain ammount of money)...

Do you honestly think the government did that to protect the citizens, and not as a way to add a hidden tax to all contest?

Same with the traffic cameras, and by extension the police check this or that intersection.. Do you honestly think it is to serve and protect, and not a hidden tax?

[Jimmy]

Do you honestly think the government did that to protect the citizens, and not as a way to add a hidden tax to all contest?

Yes. It works in the same way as the Office de protection du consommateur. The government isn't always the big bad wolf. I see much more the law on the parental assurance (can't think of a good translation, but you know what I means) as an hidden taxes (I've choose to don't have children and paying for other peoples children piss me off)

Same with the traffic cameras, and by extension the police check this or that intersection.. Do you honestly think it is to serve and protect, and not a hidden tax?

I have heard so much whinning on the news this last 2 weeks about that... This isn't a money trap at all, if the laws are followed they are no risk of a fine. I drive since 23 years and I've never received a single ticket, so those camera doen't really worry me. They can even place them on every road here if they want, I will be the first one to be happy.

[Touti]

I agree a little with both of you.  Yes, the government did that to protect people because years ago you would have to buy products to participate and then the winner wouldn't get the prize.  It was a fraud in a way, you have this big campaign telling people "buy our shit instead of the other guy's shit and you can win nice shit"..........except that the winner wouldn't get anything because they'd never send the prize.  Now they need to place a safety deposit when they register the contest so there is a protection.

The other though which I believe is necessary is that this law forces the companies to have all the documents pertaining to their contests printed in french.  I believe this is the main reason why some big corporations won't make contests available in Quebec.........they simply don't want to spend the money to have everything translated and printed only for a handful of people.

All this however is another subject and has nothing to do with Fancast who can't let us see the videos because of our 2nd best friend.........................the CRTC.

[Jimmy]

All this however is another subject and has nothing to do with Fancast

Sorry Eric for this little off topic wandering...

By chance Karsten, Sebastien and me (I'm a moderator too ) don't delete off topic post, since it was an interesting reading ... ok maybe only for the 3 French Canadians here

[RossRoy]

Shows how good of a moderator I am... since I'm the one who took this discussion off topic! 


That being said, I did browse around Fancast a little, and it seems really interesting. I wish our local networks would get together and do something like that.

[Touti]

Don't worry about the off-topic guys, I don't really care, I only said that to bring up the point that our 2nd best friend is the CRTC

[Touti]

Shows how good of a moderator I am... since I'm the one who took this discussion off topic! 


I wish our local networks would get together and do something like that.

That would have to be Videotron and every time they come up with something new everybody jumps at their face even when it's good.

[Jimmy]

Because they will do that only for TVA, LCN and the others satellite subscription only channels that they own. I think that their magazines and newspapers are the perfect exemple of this.

[Touti]

Not necessarily Jimmy.  They will do that for anything they can make money with, I actually think the problem would be the opposite, they wouldn't be able to do it because Radio-Canada would never agree to make their tv programs available on Videotron's network regardless of which media it is.

I'm sure you'll remember that last year they announced they planned on investing millions of dollars to buy the rights and digitalize all the old movies from our repertoire to make them available for rent on internet and on their Illico tv networks.

Everybody jumped at their face and accused them of trying to appropriate the rights on our cinema and that after that no one would be able to watch any of these movies without giving money to PKP.  IMO that was a stupid response, nobody can watch those movies now because they aren't available on DVD, no longer available on VHS and there's no way to buy them anywhere.

I for one believed it was a great initiative from Quebecor and PKP, I can't see anything wrong wih our cinematography being digitalized and made available for future generations.  I find it perfectly normal that whoever pays for it gets his money back.

I'll be the first to criticize TVA (which I never watch), Quebecor and PKP for many things but sometimes they do good things too and we should acknowledge that.  If the Chagnon family had made a similar announcement everybody would have saluted their generosity and involvement, PKP does something and automatically people hate his guts.

[Jimmy]

Everybody jumped at their face and accused them of trying to appropriate the rights on our cinema and that after that no one would be able to watch any of these movies without giving money to PKP.  IMO that was a stupid response, nobody can watch those movies now because they aren't available on DVD, no longer available on VHS and there's no way to buy them anywhere.

Kind of agree here. It sure make me angry when I see that our classic cinema aren't really available anymore. I would be the first to buy Après-ski, Gina, Les Males, Maria Chapdeleine, Réjeanne Padovani, La mort d'un bûcheron, Taureau ... if they were available (or available from anyone else than Imavision). The problem is that the right of all our films belong to Téléfilm Canada and sadly the culture isn't really a priority anymore for our governement (no money to make = forget it). At least the National Film Board had released in the past some very good boxsets, the one with the Denys Arcand's documentaries is very good. I'm sure that you know that many films from the ONF are available on their website.

But what I like less is the fact that you must be a subscriber of their satellite network to see the movies. For me it isn't very different to keep the film in a vault, since not everybody had access to their network (by exemple here except for Jonquière/Chicoutimi, this is Cogeco who owns the territory) or trust Québécor (or the guys who had bought TQS to name another player).

[Touti]

But what I like less is the fact that you must be a subscriber of their satellite network to see the movies. For me it isn't very different to keep the film in a vault, since not everybody had access to their network (by exemple here except for Jonquière/Chicoutimi, this is Cogeco who owns the territory) or trust Québécor (or the guys who had bought TQS to name another player).

But that's a different thing Jimmy.....at least I think so.....what Quebecor Media announced if memory serves is that they were gonna buy the rights to 600 movies which would be digitalized and then made available in streaming on internet.  I don't think the plan was to make them only available for Videotron's internet suscribers.........but then it was only a press release of the plan, there wasn't much detail and I never heard or read anything about it again.  I don't know if it was dropped or if it is being done and what the details are.

[Touti]

Note to self..............always do a google search BEFORE saying you don't know about something.



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