Gave up trying to watch a television series via Showcase #DigiCanCon

Last month I posted a review of the Showcase.ca website and my attempt to watch the Supergirl series. I later found this series on Google Play TV, no thanks to dishonest broadcasters who don't want Canadians to find out about legal alternatives to cable. When I noticed the source was Showcase I wrote:

I was considering paying for Supergirl season 2 to get away from the horrible Showcase website, but now that I know that it is Showcase that would get part of my money I dropped that idea.  I feel like I'm being pick-pocketed, not treated as a potential valued customer.

I've given up trying to use this horrible Canadian broadcaster website. I paid my $39.99 and watched this week's episode (Episode 6: Changing). This episode isn't yet on the Showcase website yet even though it aired yesterday.  With Google Play TV I expect to be treated to the episode much earlier -- in the case of BBC Class I get access to the episode 12 hours before it airs on the Space cable channel. Unlike the broadcasters (legacy OTA or Cable, or their websites), Google Play TV notifies me when a new episode is available and properly keeps track of what I've watched (and how far if I needed to pause), and gives me a consistently clear picture.

That was the only series I'm watching on a platform where I saw commercials. While the shows I watch via the CTV GO app likely intended to have commercials, no commercials are ever displayed and the show continues after a momentary blip around where commercials were likely intended to be. I hope that even though nobody has to pay CTV to legally access that content that CTV is still appropriately paying the creators as it isn't their fault that Bell/CTV doesn't know what they are doing.

My hope is that Showcase isn't getting much money out of my purchase as they deserve nothing. Typical to most broadcasters they are a net negative when it comes to the interests of the creators of the shows as well as their fans.

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Update: Thursday, November 24.

No new episodes since the purchase.  While the episode from Monday is now on the Showcase website, it has not been added to Google Play TV by Showcase. Last week's episode went up on Nov 14, but this week's episode is not here (Checked again at 16:00 on Nov 24).

I've tried contacting Showcase via Twitter, as I don't see a way for me to contact their customer support via Google Play.

Next week is the 4-way crossover, and this was a big reason I got caught up on Supergirl and subscribed to this season - otherwise I would have waited for it to show up on Netflix.




While in the USA all 4 shows are on the same network (and all shows being made in Vancouver), old-media exclusive licensing means that while Flash, Arrow, and Legends are all on the CTV GO app, Supergirl is on a separate broadcaster (One that doesn't have an app, and whose website is broken).  I've paid money to avoid the website, only to now have to worry about whether the episode will be made available in a timely manner.

The episodes of the other shows are only available for 1 week on the CTV GO app, so if it is delayed again next week I will either need to skip watching the Supergirl launch of the crossover or source the episode from "somewhere else" (and after paying money to avoid it, I don't think that will be the Showcase website).