"Quelle surprise" - NHL GameCenter LIVE is more expensive under Rogers

One of the interesting things about the $5.2B deal that Rogers signed with the NHL last November is that it included "all of its platforms in all languages."  Cord cutters like yours truly have been waiting to see what the impact would be on the NHL's GameCenter LIVE streaming package, fearing the worst given that a cable company like Rogers would prefer to keep as many people on expensive cable subscriptions as possible. Read on to see the 2014-2015 pricing from Rogers.

T-Mobile's free 200MB/month

I was in the US for the first time since T-Mobile announced their "Free Data for Life" offer for owners of 3G/4G-enabled tablets and laptops in the US, so I was anxious to check it out.

For those who haven't heard of it, if you buy a T-Mobile pre-paid SIM card, you can activate it for free and use 200MB of data per month without ever having to pay a cent or even provide T-Mobile with a credit card. Sometimes you can even get the SIM card for free, so it costs you nothing at all! It's their teaser to get you hooked on having a connected tablet, which they hope will lead you to either buy a monthly plan or purchase a bigger block of data for pre-paid use.

Read on to see how it worked and find out about the minor snags I ran into along the way.

VMedia Launches Cloud-Based PVR

VMedia announced the availability of their cloud PVR service today. The update to enable the feature is expected to hit VMedia TV customers by the weekend.

The new recording capability is available to existing VMedia customers at no additional cost. Read on for details.

Are you ready for some streaming? A cord cutting guide to NFL Game Pass.

As an NFL fan, I never thought I would be able to part with my (outrageously priced) cable TV package. After looking at my latest Roger's bill, I decided it was time to explore alternatives. Boy, was I happy that I did!

Even with my expensive cable package, I'd rarely get to watch the game I wanted as I would only get up to three 1pm games even though I had 600+ channels.  Although I don't enjoy watching the Bills lose, I like to watch the game nonetheless.  Purchasing Sunday Ticket was always an option, but I felt like I was paying too much for cable as it was.

Enter NFL Game Pass!

Read on to see how Game Pass allowed me to drop cable but have a better NFL experience than before.

Tablo Sets its Sights on Cord Cutters

Canadian company Nuvyyo is hoping to cash in on the frustration many people have with the cost of cable/satellite TV by launching an over-the-air TV recorder. What's different about Tablo is that it's built from the ground up for the way many cord cutters and millennials already watch most of their TV shows - on a mobile device or streaming set-top box.

On Friday they launched an Indiegogo campaign aimed at rounding up beta testers and early adopters to help shape the product, which is expected to ship in 2014.

What's especially nice for Canadian cord cutters is that the product will support guide data for Canadian TV stations - something you often can't get without doing some wrangling in products aimed at the US market.

Hopefully I'll have more to say about Tablo in the near future, in the meantime, head on over to Indiegogo and show your support:

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/tablo-dvr-enjoy-free-hdtv-on-any-device-anytime-anywhere

Canadian Government to Push TV Providers Toward Pick & Pay Pricing

One of the promises in the Canadian government's speech from the throne last Wednesday involved unbundling TV channels to give consumers more say in which channels they pay for. The actual wording was this:

"Our Government believes Canadian families should be able to choose the combination of television channels they want. It will require channels to be unbundled, while protecting Canadian jobs."

The text is understandably short on specifics, but most people take this to mean that the government, through the CRTC, will push TV distributors and channel owners to move to a "pick and pay" system where customers can choose individual channels rather than have bundles where it's impossible to avoid paying for channels they don't want. For the TV-viewing public this is a good move, but don't get too excited... it's going to take some time to get there, and it's extremely unlikely that you'll be able to subscribe to the 10-15 channels you watch and nothing else.

Read on for my thoughts on what has to happen and where I think we'll eventually end up.

Zazeen IPTV Begins Commercial Service

In January I wrote about Zazeen's plans for a TV service that uses your Internet connection to deliver the signal - see Zazeen - shaking up the Canadian TV landscape. Since then they've been busy working to clear technical and business-related hurdles, and after 10 long months, they've finally launched.

The service became commercially available on October 1st for Quebec customers, and October 15th for those in Ontario.