TV Everywhere isn’t just for the United States.  Canadian cable operators are also threatened by cable cord-cutters, although their pervasive Internet Overcharging schemes have kept TV addicts from watching too much video online.

Both Shaw Cable (serving western Canada) and Vidéotron (best known in Quebec) have this week introduced their own online video portals providing “authenticated” cable subscribers with access to on-demand movies and television programming as an extension of their cable package.  But neither company is willing to exempt its customers from Internet Overcharging schemes which apply data caps and overlimit fees to broadband accounts.

Of the two services, Shaw Cable’s is bare bones, offering a relative handful of TV shows and a movie library.  No live video is provided, and many titles carry per-viewing fees, even for cable subscribers.  Non-subscribers face even higher fees to view programming.  Vidéotron takes a different approach, offering a video portal called Illico Web that offers on-demand and live streaming feeds of a wide range of cable networks, mostly in French for its Quebec subscriber base.

Shaw positioned its video-on-demand service as an extension of its cable service.  It hopes its announced acquisition of Canwest Global, which runs the Global television network in Canada and 18 cable networks will vastly expand its offerings in the future.

Vidéotron warns its subscribers watching its service eats into monthly broadband usage allowances.

“Technology continues to evolve with the ability to watch content on multi-platforms,” said Peter Bissonnette, President, Shaw Communications. “That’s why Shaw is investing in bringing exceptional content delivered in various ways. Our new broadband VOD Player provides our customers the convenience of watching their favorite movies and television shows when and where they want to.”

Pierre Karl Péladeau, the president and chief executive officer of Vidéotron’s parent Quebecor was more abrupt when he said on Wednesday that its TV Everywhere service would offer “an alternative to piracy.”

But in Canada, there is a catch.  Neither cable provider offers subscribers unlimited broadband service.  Both employ Internet Overcharging schemes ranging from usage caps to consumption billing schemes with overlimit penalties.  Vidéotron reminds its subscribers to “keep an eye on your Internet usage.”  That’s because they don’t exempt their online viewing service from their usage limits.  Vidéotron’s video portal does eat its way through subscriber allowances.  The company provides these estimates to help guess by how much:

[flv width=”432″ height=”263″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Welcome to illico web 6-10.flv[/flv]

Illico Web produced this video introduction to its TV Everywhere service. (French with English subtitles — 3 minutes)

More evidence arrived this week that Internet Overcharging schemes are becoming a thing of the past for many global broadband users.

Sky has announced it is getting rid of its usage limits and speed throttles for most of its broadband customers.  It’s also giving away a free speed upgrade to up to 20Mbps for its DSL-provisioned broadband service.

“It comes with no usage caps, fair use policies or traffic management, making it ideal for those who want the freedom to download emails, photos, TV programs, movies and games. It’s also ideal for those who want to access live and on-demand TV through Sky Player,” Sky said.

That may be part of the plan.  Sky, a satellite television company serving the United Kingdom, is preparing to launch new video on demand features that will work in conjunction with its broadband service.  Delivering faster access, without limits, could be part of the equation of making their video on demand service a success.

For occasional broadband users who don’t exceed 2 gigabytes of use per month, Sky is giving free usage-limited broadband service to customers who also subscribe to Sky’s telephone service.  For those that don’t, the 2 gigabyte-capped service costs £5 ($7.59US) per month.

For those looking for unlimited service, Sky Unlimited is available for £7.50/$11.38 per month for Sky customers with Sky Talk or £12.50/$18.97 per month for those without.  In the United Kingdom, line charges for the phone line are broken out from broadband pricing and have to be considered towards the total monthly cost for broadband service.  Line rental from BT costs £12.50/$18.97 a month for customers who pay by direct debit and receive paper billing (£11.25/$17.08 with paperless billing).

Sky requires a 12 month service commitment.  These prices and plans take effect June 1st.  New customers can get a promotion offering six months of free broadband service, including line rental, when signing a 12-month service commitment.

New customers can get six months of broadband service for free when signing up

Is there a downside to this offer?  Not as far as usage limits are concerned.  However, the service is dependent on BT-provisioned DSL phone lines, which can create great variability in the maximum actual speeds customers receive.  The further away from a BT exchange office, the slower the maximum speed a customer will achieve.

But for existing Sky satellite customers looking for a discount on bundled service and an end to worries about monthly usage or speed throttles, Sky Broadband is a welcome relief for those tired of Internet Overcharging schemes.

It’s also one fewer example North American providers can point to as an excuse to attempt Internet Overcharging schemes of their own.

Young viewers whose parents subscribe to Time Warner Cable in parts of North Carolina got an eyeful last Tuesday when explicit previews from The Playboy Channel ended up on two on-demand channels dedicated to children.

For at least two hours, Kids on Demand and Kids Preschool on Demand accompanied its menu of available programs for young viewers with steamy footage of naked women pawing themselves and sharing explicit sexual fantasies.

One Raleigh-area family’s four year old made inquiries of his parents as to the reason why Tom ‘n Jerry also included naked women that morning.  Horrified parents called Time Warner Cable, but technicians still took some two hours before finally pulling the pornographic previews from the channels.

Company officials were apologetic about what they characterized as a “technical glitch.”

“We’re very, very sorry it happened – we know parents are concerned,” Time Warner Cable spokesman Keith Poston told several Raleigh area newscasts. “It was a technical malfunction that caused the wrong previews to be shown on our kids’ on-demand channels. Unfortunately it hit at the worst possible time on the worst possible channels.”

Time Warner Cable has had occasional mishaps with customers subjected to unwanted explicit programming.  In 2007, one Time Warner Cable customer wrote The Consumerist about receiving a recycled Digital Video Recorder box that contained the previous owner’s recordings.  His wife might not have been concerned if it involved several editions of MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews, but instead she found herself scrolling through titles including, Got Male, Foursome, and Hole Diggers (Part Two).  Thankfully, she found it before the kids did.

[flv width=”576″ height=”344″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WRAL Raleigh Time Warner apologizes for porn mix-up 3-16-10.flv[/flv]

WRAL-TV Raleigh interviews one North Carolina family who got more than they bargained for when tuning into Time Warner Cable’s kids-on-demand channels, and ponders why the company didn’t yank the channels after the first complaints arrived. (3 minutes)

[flv width=”600″ height=”358″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WTVD Raleigh Playboy shown on kids channels 3-16-10.flv[/flv]

WTVD-TV Raleigh explains how The Playboy Channel ended up on Time Warner Cable’s video on demand channels.  (3 minutes)