[Dr.Dave]

From Bell's press release.

Bell today announced that Bell Fibe TV customers now have anytime on-demand access to virtually all of CTV's primetime programming at no extra charge, ensuring they'll never miss an episode of Canada's #1 television line-up. It's also the first time that the majority of CTV on-demand series are available in High Definition.

"Offering on-demand access to CTV's most popular programming provides Bell Fibe TV customers with a very convenient way to catch up on their favourite shows from Canada's #1 broadcaster," said Heather Tulk, Bell's Senior VP, Residential Products. "Fibe TV is all about flexibility and choice. In addition to the best on-demand content, Fibe TV offers next generation features like our industry leading programming guide, ensuring Fibe TV customers a unique, personalized television experience available from no other TV provider."

CTV on-demand content joins more than one thousand on-demand movies and shows already available through Bell Fibe TV On Demand. All on-demand content can be accessed on channel 1000 or by pressing the Video On Demand button on the Fibe TV remote control.

Available to consumers following their original television broadcast, CTV and /A\ on-demand titles on Bell Fibe TV include:

• $%*! My Dad Says
• The Amazing Race
• America's Next Top Model
• The Big Bang Theory
• Blue Bloods
• Castle
• The Colbert Report
• Criminal Minds
• The Daily Show
• Dancing with the Stars
• The Defenders
• Desperate Housewives
• Dr. Oz
• Grey's Anatomy
• Hellcats
• Law & Order: LA
• Law & Order: SVU
• Medium
• The Mentalist
• Mike & Molly
• Nikita
• No Ordinary Family
• Private Practice
• Two and a Half Men
• The Vampire Diaries
• Undercover Boss

Bell's next generation Fibe TV service is now available to several hundred thousand households in Toronto and Montréal

 

[hugh]

Surprised it took this long.

 

[pedepy]

i wish they add "catch up" television as well ... biggest reason i hooked this thing up is that i work crazy shifts and being able to pvr high definition feeds is a godsend. i can't count the number of times, however, that i've come up to a show i'd like to watch that's already 5, 10, 20 minutes in ... with iptv, it shouldn't be a problem to just say "watch from the start".

i also hope the industry gets serious about alternate language options. so many shows are heretically broadcast dubbed in french here in quebec; entire seasons of quality american and international series are available on demand or through ppv, but not in original english. it's SO frustrating.

anyway, back to my tv. :}

 

[Dr.Dave]

@pedepy, I've read that in Canada the service provider is not allowed to record the program unless the user initiates it. So I don't think "catch up" will work.

You sound like the perfect candidate for on-demand TV. I personally set up a series recording for every program I'm interested in. Then I don't have to worry about missing the first few minutes. Plus I get to skip the commercials.

 

[pedepy]

yea i just need to look into how it works a bit more ... i've only so far used it "manually", browsing the guide and recording single instances .. it's just that, i'm not entirely certain how you can make sure the same episode won't get recorded multiple times over (if the same show plays on different channels?) or also make sure it'll record the hd feed over an sd one, should an sd channel broadcast a particular episode "first" ... which would suck!

speaking of on demand, i noticed src (the french cbc) is also now showing on demand .. i dunno if it's been there for a while, but i don't remember seeing it before ..

and if you are right about the law, i guess it's just another example of how antiquated our telecommunications legislation is in this country ... what a shame ..

 

[sillywalk]

i'm not entirely certain how you can make sure the same episode won't get recorded multiple times over (if the same show plays on different channels?) or also make sure it'll record the hd feed over an sd one, should an sd channel broadcast a particular episode "first" ... which would suck!

The BellTV receivers will not record the episode more than once, and all of the other parameters are defined when you set up the recording (All episode or new only, HD preference, etc.) Are you saying that the Fibe boxes don't offer these kinds of choices when you choose to record a show?

 

[Mark Rejhon]

I'd like to be able to "Start Over" any episode that I happen to see in the TV guide -- but that might give Bell an excuse to go remote PVR only and eliminate disk space on the customer end.