umbrellas are nice. ultimately i settled for a VW who kindly threw in a free cross country ski bag and a set of customized winter mats for my car and considering winter is what we do here i thought that was a both a nice bit of value added as well as being very practical.
getting back on topic i do have an axe to grind with the way the Canadian market is getting cut up by the cable companies.
for example, F1 in Canada is broadcast by TSN which is owned by BELL Canada.
so in addition to being a cable provider (one on many in Canada) they are also one of the larger mobile phone providers, and owner of several tv networks and sports teams in Canada...so a huge vertically and horizontally integrated telecom.
now Bell is required/or has made deals to make TSN available to all cable providers (via the TV) but what they have so far refused to do is make that content available online (either on the internet or through mobile data) to any tv subscriber who is not also a subscriber to their mobile services.
while this sounds unfair it must be noted that the cell phone provider i have (Rogers Communications) has just acquired the rights to broadcast the NHL for i think the next ten years and they will now probably do something similar to hockey fans which i will receive an advantage
oddly both Rogers and Bell are 30% owners of the Maple Leaf Sports group which owns the following teams, Toronto Maple leafs (NHL), Toronto Raptors (NBA), and Toronto FC (MLS)...naturally fans on any of these teams have been caught in the middle.
this may explain why i am a believer of an a la carte or PPV model because in the end it is a cheaper method for me than having to carry multiple cable or mobile packages with multiple companies.
again our market place is very different then on your side of the pond (i Believe), FTA is never going to be a real option here, and our future is one of this dying industry trying to carve the market up by sports leagues and individual franchises in order to make as much money as possible before the gov't steps in and stops them from carving up the market in such a predatory and monopolyesque fashion.
so i pay CAN$150.00 plus tax a month to get HD cable and home internet which includes TSN but no online coverage (i also have to pay an extra 10 for my local NHL teams games - Go Jets!) plus i pay $80 a month for my cell phone (to Rogers) without the ability to live/replay stream races.
the future for me is one where i can drop everything and just pay the mobile phone bill and buy anything i want via an in app purchase (essentially the new PPV model) and stream it to the device of my choice. for me thats the value added.
sorry for the rant but im not sure you guys know how good you have it over there.