Specialty Channels

[herbie]

Has anyone noticed that that block of channels you paid extra for on cable/satellite was bought up and enshitified over the summer?

Not that they weren't repeat every 3 hours same shit 24-7 in the first place, but now not worth even watching. Littlest Hobo. Cash Cab. How it's Made episodes from 2001, Battlebots....
I channel flip during commercials and aside from noticing 10 consecutive stations all on commercial breaks at the same time, stumbled over one of those Border shows last night. They were marching off some young American girl busted at the border with her Medical Marijuana card and supply, only to let her so cuz the dunderhead border guards had to actually weigh the stuff and read the chart for the 50th time to figure out one bud wasn't worth their time.
What got me is how the voice over pointed out that both crossing the border and possession of marijuana were criminal offenses in Canada. It was legalized here a decade ago. Hence the rerunning old crap complaint.
Change the law at the border for weed. Just implement a Stupidity & Insult tax for not having the brains or decency to find out there's a weed store at almost any mall in Canada and bringing your own. Like going to Brazil with Folger's Instant in your bag.

I'm sure the next step is to offer ad free specialty  channels (like they started out as) for 'only' $10 s month each. Follow YouTube and interrupt every 3 minute pop song twice for ads. The shitification of entertainment is well underway. Soon dames will stop for 3 minutes of ads on the scoreboard and Taylor Swift will step off stage every second song so they can bombard you with "Do crabs have eyebrows?" Tide commercials.
 

Edited November 3, 2025 by herbie

[herbie]

Speaking of CTV the only show I've seen on it worth watching is The Pitt.

Unfortunately I watched the whole season on streaming a couple months ago - it another goddam rerun. Is CTV in financial trouble/ Seen nothing about that in the news.

[eyeball]

What I don't get are channels that take we'll-be-back-in-a-moment breaks every 10 minutes.  No commercial, just some boring music loop that never changes.  Are they off taking a pee or something?

TV like so much else has taken a dive, especially given the cost. The thought of cutting the cord certainly crosses my mind.

On a similar note I'm pretty sure the next phone I get won't be a smart one.  The last phone I bought about 4 years ago was $800 and I see they're up around $1200 now.

[herbie]

I'm a compulsive channel flipper when commercials come on. What I hate is when I'm on the specialty channel section and flip through 10-15 channels all on commercial break at one time.
Or if it's certain times of the day, flip over to a news channel, watch one or two articles and flip back to see it's still on the same commercial break.

You pay a premium to watch a station that has even more commercials and stupider ones than a classic network station.
Like that show title says, This Hour Has Only 22 Minutes. The rest us ads,

[herbie]

Just looked thru the list of 500-600 channels on my Shaw dish lat night. There was not one station in that range with a NEW program on it during Prime Time. Zero.

Most of the ones marked NEW in that range aren't. They're just on that channel for the first time, they were on a sister channel for 20 years... What a scam.

[eyeball]

I tried just steaming everything I like to watch, mostly news and movies, for a couple of weeks before it drove me nuts and I went back to Optic. We finally settled on a blend of both. The exercise finally resulted in a savings of about $250 a month off our bill for 4 home services with Telus.

What pisses me off most is that I can't just pick the couple of handfuls of channels I want without a pile of shit I'll never watch.

On 11/3/2025 at 3:15 PM, herbie said:

The shitification of entertainment is well underway

The whole industry seems desperate and badly bogged down in a quagmire of licencing, broadcasting and content agreements between producers, broadcasters and service providers.

Customers are on their own.

 

 

[ironstone]

I cancelled my satellite tv package last year and have zero regrets. I was paying over $60 per month and the fact that most of the time when I wanted to watch tv, it was hard to find anything good on. It was quantity, not quality programming for the most part.

I could usually find interesting things on YouTube, Tubi Tv, Roku, and I have to admit, Netflix is good value for the money.

[herbie]

I've for years shared my satelitte account with the extra desoders in friend's places. We split the bill 4 ways.
Even so, it's grown so damn expensive one dropped out and now tor $60 a month half the stations come up 'no subscription'. Another just informed me now they have StarLink and a Firestick at their ranch they're dropping out too. It's just not worth ir to continue even at half price! Like 8 channels all on commercials at the same time. Watch an entire news story and switch back, they're STILL on commercials.....

We have 31 OTA channels here, and I'll use those and my Firestick too.

[John Johnston]

On 11/3/2025 at 5:15 PM, herbie said:

Has anyone noticed that that block of channels you paid extra for on cable/satellite was bought up and enshitified over the summer?

Not that they weren't repeat every 3 hours same shit 24-7 in the first place, but now not worth even watching. Littlest Hobo. Cash Cab. How it's Made episodes from 2001, Battlebots....
I channel flip during commercials and aside from noticing 10 consecutive stations all on commercial breaks at the same time, stumbled over one of those Border shows last night. They were marching off some young American girl busted at the border with her Medical Marijuana card and supply, only to let her so cuz the dunderhead border guards had to actually weigh the stuff and read the chart for the 50th time to figure out one bud wasn't worth their time.
What got me is how the voice over pointed out that both crossing the border and possession of marijuana were criminal offenses in Canada. It was legalized here a decade ago. Hence the rerunning old crap complaint.
Change the law at the border for weed. Just implement a Stupidity & Insult tax for not having the brains or decency to find out there's a weed store at almost any mall in Canada and bringing your own. Like going to Brazil with Folger's Instant in your bag.

I'm sure the next step is to offer ad free specialty  channels (like they started out as) for 'only' $10 s month each. Follow YouTube and interrupt every 3 minute pop song twice for ads. The shitification of entertainment is well underway. Soon dames will stop for 3 minutes of ads on the scoreboard and Taylor Swift will step off stage every second song so they can bombard you with "Do crabs have eyebrows?" Tide commercials.
 

Look on the bright side, we get to watch the Bourne Identity another 4000 times. In case you missed it...

[herbie]

Yes, that and How It's Made: wooden shoes, thimbles, clothes pegs and 'modern cathide tubes' from 1998 every 3 hours.Don't forget Cash Cab and Battlebots.

The Cdn networks can be streamed free, and you can see the minimal efffort CTV and Global put into that. Freeze ups, lip synchs off by 5-10 seconds, blocks of repeating same 3 commercials or commericals that won't load so you have to og out, log back in and fforward to where you were....

[eyeball]

There's just so much garbage.

I get the fireplace channel I guess. I make a little ritual out of mine, preparing the fire lighting it, hearing the snap crackle and pop, watching it's glow thru the glass door, warming up by it.

As for everything else on TV? I feel like chucking my controller at it.

 

[John Johnston]

On 4/18/2026 at 6:33 PM, eyeball said:

There's just so much garbage.

I get the fireplace channel I guess. I make a little ritual out of mine, preparing the fire lighting it, hearing the snap crackle and pop, watching it's glow thru the glass door, warming up by it.

As for everything else on TV? I feel like chucking my controller at it.

 

Lol. That or the Aquarium Channel. :)

[herbie]

Just got the bill for May from Shaw Direct. Up another $10
Now over $200 a month, time to say enuff is enuff.

You'd think they'd make at least a tiny effort to not kill their own baby.

[LinkSoul60]

12 minutes ago, herbie said:

Just got the bill for May from Shaw Direct. Up another $10
Now over $200 a month, time to say enuff is enuff.

You'd think they'd make at least a tiny effort to not kill their own baby.

I go through this every 2 or 3 years, but with Delta Cable/Eastlink...   Went to the online chat with a CS rep and asked when my account would cease.... immediately upon cancellation or at the end of the month.  After the expected " why do you want to cancel" question I wanted them to ask, and about 3 minutes later... I'm paying ~$20 less p/month than I was previously, with a better service they came and installed.  

[Michael Hardner]

On 4/5/2026 at 3:49 PM, herbie said:

 

We have 31 OTA channels here, and I'll use those and my Firestick too.

Isn't firestick pirated content? 

[herbie]

1 hour ago, Michael Hardner said:

Isn't firestick pirated content? 

No Firestick is a device to allow streaming. The streaming channels  handle the actual content. I don't know of any that pirate content.

[eyeball]

Is Fire stick similar to Roku? I tried Roku following a meltdown over the cost of crap and annoyance that comes with having to subscribe and wade through hundreds of channels to get the dozen or so I watch with any regularity.

Roku sucks too.