CBC feeds to Amazon prove controversial
The recent move feed of CBC/Radio-Canada, ICI RDI and CBC News to Amazon Prime Video is providing politically unpopular.
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Kate
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Joey 23:55 on 2026-03-06 Permalink
I found the first story unclear so I checked – they haven’t “moved” these networks off cable TV packages and instead onto Amazon, they’ve just created a subscription option for purchase via the Amazon store.
dhomas 07:32 on 2026-03-07 Permalink
If you don’t have cable TV, it seems the only way to get some of these live channels (legally) is via Amazon Prime Video. The example used in the second article is RDI. I can get some replay content from RDI on Tou.tv, but the live feed is unavailable. Why not prioritise Canadian distribution via Tou.tv /CBC GEM, or even Crave? I understand Amazon will likely bring them a wider potential audience, but it should be in addition to, not instead of, Canadian distribution. I would much rather pay the subscription directly to CBC via the Gem app than give a single red cent to Amazon.
Kate 11:26 on 2026-03-07 Permalink
Joey, true, I should have said feed to Amazon.
Chris 12:27 on 2026-03-07 Permalink
So much for digital sovereignty.
Blork 20:18 on 2026-03-07 Permalink
You can get live CBC via Gem, and live RadCan via Tou.tv, although there might be some restrictions. I assume this Prime feed is just to extend the reach, since people who don’t care (or are ambivalent) about CBC/RadCan are not likely to bother getting those apps. But if it’s built into something that they already have (and that has huge reach) then they’ll catch more viewers.
Too bad it’s Prime. Not that it would be so much better if it were Netflix.
Mozai 20:20 on 2026-03-07 Permalink
We don’t lose sovereignty if there’s a foreign carrier _in_ _addition_ to our own self-owned carriers. If a Canadian uses American carriers exclusively, sees the CBC there, and assumes the CBC is only on American carriers, that’s a different type of disappointing.
dhomas 02:20 on 2026-03-08 Permalink
So, the reason the media is reporting on this, especially French media, is because RDI specifically is exclusively available on Amazon Prime Video, for those not subscribed to traditional “cable TV” (aka “cordcutters”). People who rely only on streaming CANNOT GET RDI anyplace else (legally). I pay for CBC GEM and I get CBC News as part of the deal. Tou.tv Extra members do not get RDI.
My elderly parents, for example, rely on RDI as a news source. I got them to ditch cable TV a little while ago since it was extremely expensive for the value it was providing. I had to get them an “alternate” source (☠️) for RDI, since we couldn’t get it elsewhere. I shudder to think what fake news they would be falling prey to if all the “news” they listened to came from Facebook alone. It really is a good thing to have a reliable source of sanity like RDI.
So again, I think it’s fine to have RDI on Prime. But it should also be available on our own homegrown streaming services.
Kate 11:44 on 2026-03-08 Permalink
dhomas, thank you for explaining that, it adds a lot.