…in one word pathetic. At least for as far as I can see it is, here in Finland. The biggest service I know of is Voddler, which is junk. Browsing through their site, they claim to have 1420 tv series. I do believe they mean 1420 episodes, as clicking the link shows you 93 series. Several of which are something about a River Cottage. So a series about some river cottage stuff, which to me sounds more like a documentary, a different category they have. Anyway, all of the 6 or 7 River Cottage “series” have one season each. So actually, it’s just one series, consisting of 6 or 7 seasons.

Other series that could actually be interesting? Andromeda. Great, they have… 2 seasons. Hmmm, didn’t Andromeda have 5 seasons, the last one ending in 2005? Why would I want to watch less than half a series that finished 6 years ago already? Okay, we try again: Doctor Who (the rebooted 2005 version). Yay! Good stuff. We’re halfway throught season 6. Voddler is at… Oh wow, they have seasons 1 and 2. Useless. :( Well, at least plenty are free. Others are 90 cents per episode. If only they had Stargate SG-1, which would probably be that 90 cents per episode. Oh wait, you can get the SG-1 DVD’s for 15-18 euros per season, but watching a full season on Voddler would cost you almost 20 euros. :/

Perhaps they have good movies available. The Matrix, for €1.90. Okay, sure, not that bad. Tangled for €3.70. An animated movie from 2010. Hmm, well, cheaper than buying the DVD. Then there is a load of free ones, but it’s pretty clear why they are free: nobody wants to see those.

Browsing through the movies, it might perhaps be worth it. It’s on demand, no subscription needed, so if you want to watch something you happen to like, sure. Except it’s for Windows (and Mac OS X), so if you don’t have something like that hooked up to your TV, you’ll have to sit at a desk or something to watch it.

We’re definitely not at the Netflix stage over here, that’s for sure. Netflix seems to be a great, great service. It is subscription based, but you get unlimited streaming starting from $8 I heard. I’d gladly pay 6 euros a month to watch loads and have loads of content. Plus, they have Netflix available for PC, Wii, Xbox360 and PS3 as well.

So, I wonder what other people are doing with regard to watching tv shows and and movies here in Finland. Mostly, the TV channels available are rubbish (and thanks for taking away the only sports channel in the basic package, Welho :( I guess you had to make room for Suomi TV HD, while it’s already there in SD). Sure, you can get an extra package, but it’s quite expensive. Cheapest option would be to just get 3 channels you really want for a few euros per channel per month. If that’s still available, I couldn’t find it anymore, but could be just me.

I guess that if you want to watch the latest movies and tv shows that are available in the US and England for example, you’re doomed. The cable companies and services like Voddler are probably not the only ones to blame, it’s the production companies who produce these things that can’t seem to get they should make things available without looking at borders anymore. They could reach tens or even hundreds of millions of people more if they’d all work together on setting up some kind of global service. I don’t see that happening, though. Too bad. They could make more money, which they would want, and more people would have more choice. Sounds like a win-win situation to me.