With OTA DOA thanks to the summer and the strikes, and streamers soon to run out of new material, I was looking for something new to watch. 

And tht's when I came across ABC. No, not the U.S. netowrk. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the CBC of the Land Down Under. They have a service called "iview" that allows you to watch a large number of shows you've almost certainly never seen, but can watch for free if you sign up. 

You'll need a VPN set to Australia, and be able to provide some kind of generic email address (like hotmail or gmail) to confirm at sign-in, and enter an Aussie postal code, easy to find with a simple web search. 

One of the shows I found but never heard of before is called "The Newsreaders," about two fictional top rated Australian broadcasters who make headlines on air and off. It's a bit of a soap opera-ish thing, and I've only sampled the first episode of the first season, but it was pretty entertaining. And I love any show centered around broadcasting. (It stars Anna Torv, who some might remember as the lead of the Fox sci-fi show "Fringe.")

Then there's something called "Gruen" which fans of CBC Radio's "Under The Influence" might like. It's a comedy show making fun of TV ads. (Although you've probably never seen the commercials, since they only air on Aussie airwaves.) But it's easy to get the drift.  

And there are dozens and dozens more shows on the site, at no charge. Best of all, they're not only new to a Canadian audience, they're all in English, so no subtitles. (If you have issues with the accent, there's always closed captioning available.) As a bonus, there's a built in auto-memory feature, so if you have to leave and come back, it picks up where you left off.

It's a part of the world we rarely get to see, which makes it even more interesting to me. 

Worth a look if you're on the hunt for something different and easily accessible, past the original sign-up. (And no one says you have to give your real name or location if that worries you.)

ABC iview