Excited to watch the Habs this season! Except I just moved to Ottawa and am having a hard time figuring out how to get RDS without paying obscene amounts. Would appreciate tapping into the collective wisdom of the board.
My situation: I live in Ottawa and have an SD television. The only reason I have it is to watch the Habs - I don't care about any other channels other than RDS, and I don't care about HD. So far my research has gleaned the following:
- Rogers will only give it to me if I order their Digital Plus package, which comes to $63.63 per month (!). I see that RDS is actually one of the local analog channels in Ottawa (#41) -- does anyone with Digital Basic in Ottawa get it? The Rogers representative was totally useless on this point as I had to spend 10 minutes just convincing them that you can RDS at all in Ottawa.
- Bell will give it to me if I buy Digital Basic plus a Sports theme package, which comes to $57 per month.
This all seems pretty steep just to get one channel. I'm open to other suggestions. Please keep in mind that Ottawa seems to have different channel restrictions than the rest of Ontario. I also have Teksavvy cable internet (thanks Georges Laraque), so not sure if that interferes with any of the providers.
Can any kind souls here help me out?
I wish RDS still offered their online En Directe service....
I get RDS in Nova Scotia through Eastlink, and only pay 5.95 per month for a french pkg. Try one of your providers for adding a french pkg that includes RDS...
I'm in Ottawa and i have Rogers but i pay an obscene amount for my cable.
I just took a quick look at the rogers programming site and if you choose the basic digital cable package with basic digital box rental + variety pack (that has RDS) it shows as coming to $47.60 a month. Still alot to pay for 1 channel but slightly better than what you had been quoted.
If there is no other way other than ~$50/month, save yourself a few bucks and get NHL Gamecenter and watch all the games streamed. The quality is great and you already have decent internet. You could even go one step further and get a Roku 2 box for <$100 and it hooks up to your tv and you can use that to stream NHL gamecenter.
Another alternative is hockeystreams.com, they are significantly cheaper (and have a lot of pre-season, rookie tournaments, world juniors, world champ, etc) but the legality is questionable so I'm not sure how long they'll be around. They also have a channel on Roku for easy streaming to your TV.
I live in Ottawa and after years of paying too much for just RDS, we dowgraded to the basic cable last year. I was afraid that I would be be able to see a game, but with all the streaming of the game done on the web, I did not miss a game.
Given that you only watch SD, this may be your best option to get RDS/ habs games on the cheap side.
If there is no other way other than ~$50/month, save yourself a few bucks and get NHL Gamecenter and watch all the games streamed. The quality is great and you already have decent internet. You could even go one step further and get a Roku 2 box for <$100 and it hooks up to your tv and you can use that to stream NHL gamecenter.
Another alternative is hockeystreams.com, they are significantly cheaper (and have a lot of pre-season, rookie tournaments, world juniors, world champ, etc) but the legality is questionable so I'm not sure how long they'll be around. They also have a channel on Roku for easy streaming to your TV.
brockoli
Blackout rules will kill him if he's in Ottawa and he orders NHL Gamecenter. No Saturday games, no Habs vs Sens, and the fact that Ottawa and Montreal's blackout regions overlap a little, so he could miss out on any TSN-televised regional Habs game as well. If the game is televised in his area, he won't get it.
Regarding your dilemma, your options are few and far between but you may be better off eating something more expensive in the short-term to get something better in the long-term. For example, Rogers has a department called 'retention' and you speak to them by complaining about quitting and using another company for a while then they come in to try to offer you a better deal. The other way is by knowing someone who works for Rogers (or whoever, they all have similar departments) and getting the number for them.
Again, you may have to pay more then expected over the short-term to get a better deal in the long-term but last time I dealt with them, I was around nine months into a three year contract. They ended up giving me free cable for the last three months of the first year then I only had to pay half the monthly-rate for the other two years. It's better for them to have you pay them nearly nothing then to pay their competition so in that regard, you hold the upper hand.
Good luck on your search, let me know what you end up with. In the near future I'll begin the same search with very similar criteria (RDS but TSN Habs would be nice too) and what you do and find out would be helpful.
Edit: Rogers Retention--> 1 888 936 7283
Last edited by Hank Scorpio: 09-13-2011 at 08:01 PM.
I'd probably try an old fashion antenna first if I were you, if you only care about RDS. Should be a local free channel if I recall correctly. Watched the habs win the cup with "bunny ears" while living in Ottawa in 93'.
I'd probably try an old fashion antenna first if I were you, if you only care about RDS. Should be a local free channel if I recall correctly. Watched the habs win the cup with "bunny ears" while living in Ottawa in 93'.
I'd probably try an old fashion antenna first if I were you, if you only care about RDS. Should be a local free channel if I recall correctly. Watched the habs win the cup with "bunny ears" while living in Ottawa in 93'.
93? You must have watched Habs on SRC which is the French version of CBC.
Good suggestion...i saved an additional $100 a month off my bill just by complaining to them last year.
Might not be as lucky this year though. I have a relative who works for Rogers and from what he's saying Bell is not being as aggressive this year so Rogers isn't offering up the same type of "retention" deals as they were last year.
Good suggestion...i saved an additional $100 a month off my bill just by complaining to them last year.
Might not be as lucky this year though. I have a relative who works for Rogers and from what he's saying Bell is not being as aggressive this year so Rogers isn't offering up the same type of "retention" deals as they were last year.
You should still get 20% to 30% off on retentions. Keep on trying until you get a decent deal.
Blackout rules will kill him if he's in Ottawa and he orders NHL Gamecenter. No Saturday games, no Habs vs Sens, and the fact that Ottawa and Montreal's blackout regions overlap a little, so he could miss out on any TSN-televised regional Habs game as well. If the game is televised in his area, he won't get it.
Yah, that is definitely a problem in Ottawa. The way I got around it is not for the feint of heart. Unless you're a network admim. I setup a second subnet in my house with a 2nd router that automatically vpn's to a friends dedicated server in Texas. That way my Roku box connects to that subnet and I look like I'm in Texas.
So I won't get any Habs games when they play Dallas. Luckily that isn't very often. An easier option is to pay for a service like Hide my ass (which I've used and recommend highly). You run a client they give you on your computer then you can watch Gamecenter as if you were in a different city.
Excited to watch the Habs this season! Except I just moved to Ottawa and am having a hard time figuring out how to get RDS without paying obscene amounts. Would appreciate tapping into the collective wisdom of the board.
My situation: I live in Ottawa and have an SD television. The only reason I have it is to watch the Habs - I don't care about any other channels other than RDS, and I don't care about HD. So far my research has gleaned the following:
- Rogers will only give it to me if I order their Digital Plus package, which comes to $63.63 per month (!). I see that RDS is actually one of the local analog channels in Ottawa (#41) -- does anyone with Digital Basic in Ottawa get it? The Rogers representative was totally useless on this point as I had to spend 10 minutes just convincing them that you can RDS at all in Ottawa.
- Bell will give it to me if I buy Digital Basic plus a Sports theme package, which comes to $57 per month.
...
Can any kind souls here help me out?
We get analog cable at home in Ottawa and get RDS. We are paying $53/month for cable, which includes $32.49/month for "Basic Cable" and $22.49 for "Cable Plus Combo". RDS is not part of "Basic Cable" -- it is one of the "Cable Plus Combo" channels.
Rogers certainly doesn't promote analog cable anymore (I can't even find it listed on their website), but there are no doubt plenty of existing subscribers like ourselves who get it. The question then becomes would they sell you an analog Cable Plus Combo package as a new customer if you ask for it specifically.
Of course the $53 cost needs to be compared with what you would get from the Bell package you mention.
On a side note, I am especially glad I get RDS right now because TSN is only showing a few of the Rugby World Cup games on its regular channel (almost all games are on TSN2) but RDS is showing all the games.
Yah, that is definitely a problem in Ottawa. The way I got around it is not for the feint of heart. Unless you're a network admim. I setup a second subnet in my house with a 2nd router that automatically vpn's to a friends dedicated server in Texas. That way my Roku box connects to that subnet and I look like I'm in Texas.
So I won't get any Habs games when they play Dallas. Luckily that isn't very often. An easier option is to pay for a service like Hide my ass (which I've used and recommend highly). You run a client they give you on your computer then you can watch Gamecenter as if you were in a different city.
brockoli
Nice. I'm in South Carolina so I don't have too much to worry about. Run Gamecenter through my Boxee Box and love it. It's so much more dynamic than the Center Ice package. I've been watching games from last season all summer long.
If you are referring to the switch to digital TV then your old school bunny ears still work very well. You just need a TV that supports digital signal (TV tunner/converter). Over The Air digital signal you catch with bunny ears is generally of better quality than cable and satellite as there is less compression involved.
Funny how those big providers like Bell & Rogers can get away with charging you for channels that are freely available (CBC, TVA, etc..) and at the same time deliver them in an inferior format.
I setup a second subnet in my house with a 2nd router that automatically vpn's to a friends dedicated server in Texas. That way my Roku box connects to that subnet and I look like I'm in Texas.
