The game’s over. Hands off my Netflix
Margaret Wente
The other night, my husband and I settled down to watch a terrific new drama series, The Honourable Woman, on the CBC. After an excruciatingly painful hour, we gave up. I haven’t watched a broadcast network in a while, and I was astonished by the gigantic number of commercials. Whenever the suspense began to mount, they broke away to ads for gigantic trucks and mini pads.
“I can’t take it any more,” I moaned. “Let’s buy it from Amazon. Or wait for it on Netflix.”
My husband agreed. The only reason we watch broadcast TV any more is for live sports. Even the news is dispensable. Who needs a 10 o’clock appointment with Peter Mansbridge (sorry, Peter) when it’s all online?
(…) In Canada, 3.5 million people already subscribe to Netflix – nearly 30 per cent of the English-language market. It costs $8 a month, or $9 for new subscribers. So why is our household still paying $125 for cable? Beats me.