Netflix Streaming Expansion Now Ready in Canada
Netflix's streaming service, enjoyed by many Americans, is now available to those north of the border. The internet movie subscription service today launched in Canada with an offering that allows Canadians to instantly watch unlimited movies and TV episodes streamed from Netflix to TVs and computers for $7.99 a month. The Canadian introduction marks the first availability of the Netflix service outside the United States.
“With our launch today in Canada, Netflix is focused on adding meaningfully to the entertainment choices available to Canadian consumers,” said the company’s co-founder and CEO, Reed Hastings, who was in Toronto for the inauguration of the service. “Convenience, selection and value are at the heart of the Netflix service, and it is our hope that this resonates with Canadians.”
Right now, Nintendo’s Wii and Sony’s PlayStation 3 system can stream from Netflix, and later this fall Microsoft’s Xbox 360 will join them (probably with a needed system update). In addition, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch can now stream from Netflix in Canada, as can Blu-ray disc players from Samsung and Toshiba. Movies and TV shows streamed from Netflix can also be watched instantly on PCs and Macs. Thousands of movies and TV shows to choose from
The service is available now at Netflix.ca with a one month free trial and a monthly fee of $7.99. Being in Canada myself, it's time to give it a spin... er stream.
But the service wasn't as good so I'm using Redbox now lol.
...and if the video is offered in HD. Sorry for the double post.
Rogers offers 10 by 1Mbps cable for $60 a month with a 95GB (I assume 95,000,000,000 bytes, not 102,005,473,280 bytes). Bell has it's Fibe 25 which is 25 by 7Mbps but with a bandwidth cap of 75GB only for $53.
I assume netflix streams HD in 720P or 1080i video to save bandwidth, so if you want decent HD at 4GB per movie you end up at 23 movies or 18 movies a month depending on who you choose. That assuming you do nothing else with your connection.
I wish the CRTC would step up and do something.
Shaw offers a 15/1 service with a 125GB cap here on the west coast. I've used 200GB+ many times and I'd say that I go over the cap most months. They've never contacted me or added extra charges though.
So basically Netflix is useless to me. I can't get new stuff (for a while) and I can't view a lot of old stuff. I'm left with being able to watch movies and TV shows that a 6 months to a few years old. Wow, underwhelmed to say the least. Usually I want to watch the latest shows/movies or just watch some classics.
I recently watched most of the early Star Trek movies again, none of which are available. I also watched all of the Buffy / Angel series and none of those are available either. These are very easy to torrent. Netflix FTL. At least its cheap, I guess.
There is still a decent selection (don't just look at what they offer on the home page, the member section is still pretty full.) there is about 50 pages of movies at 20ish movies per page. For a starting day it's pretty decent.
I didn't look at the TV section since I never watch TV.
A Hotfile account costs less and i would be able to keep the movie after downloading it. The quality is better over netflix, but it's not good enough imo to make me wanna use it.
I can see the appeal to people who do not know how to download stuff, but since i do, it is not for me.
Lets hope that the distribution is better than with books. There are just so many books (especially e-books) that you can buy in the US that you can't get in Canada. Its pretty ridiculous.