Writing with an archive guest blog post of mine first published by Jesse Hirsh’s fine metaviews.ca on September 6, 2011.
The post relates to Canada’s attempt at a digital television transition that same year.
—— I was sitting in the parking lot of IKEA the first time I heard the Government of Canada’s digital television transition advisory on my AM radio. Scripted to a bristling player piano score (perhaps the agency that produced the radio ad thought Canada was transitioning from silent pictures to talkies?), the spot advised listeners that over-the-air (OTA) television “snow” (aka analogue signals) would be “cleared” from Canada’s airwaves by August 31, 2011 so as to make way for digital television signals.
While last week’s switch from analogue to digital television could have been a welcomed change for OTA viewers (conservatively estimated to represent one million households) if it had been equitably executed, the benefits to be realized by the analogue television shut-off hasn’t been shared with all Canadians. MP Charlie Angus said it best when he described Canada’s digital television transition as a “hodgepodge” effort.
As for viewers who live outside these large cities, determining their access to Canadian OTA television signals post August 31 is truly a job for one of those octopi used to predict professional football matches. Some viewers living in rural and remote areas of the country might still be able to receive stations using their old analogue television set. Others might be able to also pull in digital stations using a digital receiver. Others still might not be able to receive any over-the-air television signals at all. For example, the number of available OTA television signals in the rural Ontario community of Vennachar Junction has gone from five (CBC, Radio-Canada, TVO, CTV and Global) to just one (Global) in the past week.
The plowing of Canada’s analogue television system has certainly cleared plenty of snowy signals from the airwaves. Unfortunately, it’s also served to further deepen Canada’s digital divide. For rural and remote communities that still rely on dial-up to access the Internet and that have never had cell phone service, the snatching away of OTA television signals by the Government of Canada is the latest blow.
(Image source: digitaltv.gc.ca. Blog post title source: Dad.)
With Round 2 of the 2025 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs upon us, writing with a quick post regarding how Canadians may watch the games without a paid TV service.
While CBC Gem streams Hockey Night in Canada games online on Saturday nights for no fee during the regular season (though Gem ‘accidentally’ streamed some first round playoff games last year), Rogers does not permit NHL online streaming via Gem for the playoffs.
However, Rogers does still permit CBC Television to broadcast NHL playoffs via its conventional station.
For those Canadians who are fortunate enough to live within the reach of one of CBC Television’s 14 over-the-air (OTA) digital television transmitters, the NHL playoffs can be legally viewed with just an antenna.
If you’re unsure how to do so, check out the OTA 101 page on this site.
In addition to CBC Television, it looks like Game 3 of the Edmonton vs. Vegas game with also be broadcast OTA in Punjabi via OMNI Television (owned by Rogers).
It’s possible Citytv (also owned by Rogers) may broadcast future playoff games OTA as well (they did for Round 1), no word on that yet.
OTA TV Schedule for Round 2 of NHL Playoffs 2025
*Toronto vs. Florida – CBC Television
*Dallas vs. Winnipeg – CBC Television
*Vegas vs. Edmonton – CBC Television, plus Game 3 via OMNI
Happy New Year. I hope your parental leave is going well.
Writing today about a curious case of Canadian digital over-the-air (OTA) TV sub-channels (also known as multiplexing) gone awry. Digital sub-channels/multiplexing involves broadcasting multiple channels of content (TV, audio, or other content) within the same 6 MHz band of spectrum that used to broadcast just one single TV channel in the pre-digital analogue OTA TV age.
In 2019, Corus Entertainment Inc. wrote the CRTC about its plan to shutdown some of its transmitters broadcasting Global TV and to instead broadcast the programming via other Corus transmitters care of sub-channels/multiplexing. Some of the reasons for the planned change, according to Corus, was that the transmitters were “costly to maintain, and we expect expenses will increase because of the Government of Canada’s 600 MHz re-allotment plan”. In other words, Corus didn’t want to pay to move its affected TV transmitters to new bands of spectrum out of the 600 MHz band being converted to cell phone use, so their plan was to instead shut them down.
Long story short, the end result is that over-the-air TV viewers in Peterborough, Ontario, for example, now have three Global TV over-the-air channels that primarily show the same programming. As demonstrated in the above-posted video, CIII-HD 27.1 (Global TV Toronto), CHEX 12.1 (Global TV Peterborough), and CKWS 30.1 (Global TV Kingston) are available over-the-air from downtown Peterborough via a set of rabbit ears and they primarily all air the same programming. The only differences is that CHEX and CKWS each air 95-minutes of local news on weeknights only and all three Global TV stations air different commercials from area businesses and groups. The fact that the three Global TV stations showing mostly the same programming are also the only TV stations easily available OTA in Peterborough (no CBC/Radio-Canada, no TVO) adds insult to OTA TV injury.
While this seems like a waste of Peterborough spectrum, the real travesty however is that Ontarians who used to watch CKWS over-the-air via Corus’ Brighton retransmitter haven’t had OTA access to CKWS since August 2022 when the Brighton transmitter was shut down. While viewers in Peterborough, Ontario can now watch CKWS Brighton over-the-air, viewers who actually live in Brighton, Ontario cannot. Bonkers. The case is the same for TV viewers in the area of Vennachar, Ontario who can no longer watch CIII over-the-air because it is now a sub-channel of CKWS Kingston.
How then did the CRTC allow this? The reason according to the CRTC, as noted in Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2020-391, is that if the CRTC didn’t let Corus shut down some of its TV transmitters Corus would shut down even more transmitters.
“…The Commission finds that approval of the requested licence amendments would negatively impact the ability of some Canadians to receive over-the-air signals, but that more Canadians would be negatively impacted if these applications were denied and Corus were to shut down multiple transmitters.”
While TV broadcasters in the United States and Canada’s Humber Polytechnic are using multiplexing to broadcast MULTIPLE TV programming OTA via the same band of spectrum, Corus is using multiplexing to broadcast largely the SAME TV programming via the same band of spectrum, yielding little benefit to OTA viewers (but importantly maintaining Corus’ cable and satellite distribution of its OTA feeds that are no longer OTA, allowing Corus to continue to sell area TV ads to local car dealerships, salons, law firms, dentistries, and the like).
With additional Canadian conventional OTA TV broadcasters likely to apply to the CRTC to shut down additional TV transmitters in the years to come, the CRTC must avoid approving the use of multiplexing if it means that the reach of OTA TV signals will be degraded.
Writing with a quick post about a set of TV rabbit ears with nEXTgenTV branding that I recently bought for $16.42 Canadian (plus taxes, free shipping) via amazon.ca.
While any old set of rabbit ears will pull in area analogue (NTSC), digital SD and HD (ATSC 1.0), and digital 4K or higher (ATSC 3.0 aka nEXTgenTV) TV signals in North America on TVs and devices with the respective tuner(s), I was surprised to see how prominent the nEXTgenTV logo was on the Philips box. Few nEXTgenTV signals are available in Canada. This box was clearly designed for the United States.
The back of the box also fails to mention that broadband internet may be needed to receive ATSC 3.0 nEXTgenTV signals, depending on whether or not the TV broadcaster encrypts their signal(s). I was pleased to learn Humber College was not encrypting their test ATSC 3.0 nEXTgenTV multiplexed signals when I last tested them for previous blog posts.
It’s smart Philips mentions on the front of the box that the antenna can pull in (available) no-fee local TV signals. It’s also good to see mention of how a broadcast TV antenna will continue to pull in TV during (non-extreme) bad weather when satellite TV signals typically conk out, even during light rain.
Still haven’t heard about any Canadian commercial, public, community, and/or educational TV broadcasters that are even testing out ATSC 3.0 nEXTgenTV signals (apart from those involved with Humber’s lab). I also haven’t seen any recent updates about what ISED or the CRTC have planned for the standard, although Yiyan Wu at ISED’s CRC continues to be a leader in Canada for research on the ATSC 3.0 standard.
I figured today would be a fitting occasion to publish my interview with CBC/Radio-Canada about its recent campaign promoting its English online streaming platform Gem. The campaign, entitled No Payment Entertainment, caught my attention as this here blog has been interested in no-fee access to Canadian TV since the 2011 digital TV ‘transition’.
According to CBC/Radio-Canada, the campaign was to have run from January to March 2024, though I noticed a Astral (Bell) transit shelter ad in Toronto featuring the campaign up until the end of this June (before being replaced by a House of the Dragon poster for Bell’s own Crave).
To warm up for this blog post, I fired up the CBC Gem app on my RCA Roku TV to see what programming was on offer for Canada Day. While the app has typically been buggy, having the app inform me on July 1 that Toronto is not in Canada was next level. See my earlier post about the CBC Gem Roku app here, if of interest.
Message received repeatedly on July 1, 2024 while trying to stream Gem via a Roku TV in Toronto, Canada.
—
SJM’s March 2024 audio interview (edited) with CBC/Radio-Canada’s Director of Digital Marketing, Sarah Cowling.
SJM: I started seeing the [No Payment Entertainment] ad online, oh, maybe three weeks ago. Just curious about the origins of the campaign.
SC: The campaign and the origins of it really comes from the goal for us really to increase awareness from CBC Gem with younger audiences and to highlight our entertainment offerings. Those things are key for us, in like, in its simplest form, when someone sits down to watch something, we want them back. Consider us. We just want them to try [Gem] and the campaign itself. I know there are some questions around free in general. We focus on our core value proposition, which is free entertainment. Like I said, we wanted to really highlight our entertainment offerings and this campaign in particular, we leaned into sort of our playfulness as a way to differentiate from other streamers.
SJM: It’s definitely playful with the dancing and singing. I mean, was it inspired by like, I don’t know, TikTok videos, that sort of thing, or was that your vision on how it would inform the style?
SC: Yeah, we have an amazing creative team that initiated the campaign and it’s really about really tapping into the energy of the great Canadian Baking Show to help us create that sort of emotional connection.
SJM: What would you like to see in terms of, I don’t know, awareness streaming numbers, sharing of, I don’t know, programming, like, what are you, I guess, how are you going to measure success?
SC: Well, I mean, obviously looking for growth, like I said this campaign is specifically designed to drive brand awareness and try to conduct real ongoing awareness and lip service that will allow us to track numbers on how they’ve changed as a result of this campaign. In addition to doing audience surveys to gauge feedback.
SJM: What about the timing? I guess like, why now? Why January, March? 2024?
SC: Yeah, it’s a good question. And obviously it’s a really crowded market for streaming. And we know that third party phone subscriptions and streaming services continue to rise and it’s an opportunity for us to highlight a CBC Gem stands apart for being free. The driver for us is really in the past year, CBC Gem launched in half a number of TV platforms like Roku streaming players and Roku TV, Samsung and LG Smart TVs. So it’s really opportunity for us to broaden our audience across platforms. The other thing that I’d say is it is an ongoing priority for us. We are always on and market in this campaign. Like I said specifically designed as a standalone campaign to drive awareness.
SJM: Do you have a sense of like, how aware they are of Gem and then where you’d like awareness to be?
SC: Success obviously for us [entails] growing and growing visitors. Like I said, increasing consideration. So when someone plans to watch CBC TV, they think of us and they try CBC Gem. And so obviously if they come that will hopefully grow our audience towards the goal.
SJM: Why is free so hot right now with digital marketing?
SC: Yeah. The prices continue to rise in terms of streaming services. We have to leverage free messaging and content across our campaigns. In terms of the single message focus of this campaign, it’s something we haven’t done before. So you’ll notice there’s no programming featured. So it’s really focused on the free. Yeah. And using language like ‘no payment entertainment’.
SJM:What are you really looking to dig into until end of March?
SC: Placements include things like out-of-home advertising across the country for like billboards and cinema. Gas station advertising. And salons and barbershops, podcast television, connected TV. Like you’re saying, you saw the campaign online. We’ve got display ads and social, in addition to, like you mentioned, owned and operated channels like CBC News Network, the the media placements. The strategy around it was really intentional to contrast again with free messaging in places where people are spending money. So like a gas station, for example, and where they may be looking for entertainment.
SJM: I mean, is this on scale with other campaigns? Where does it fall? Like, middle of the road? Big budget, low budget? Where would you place it in terms of CBC?
SC: Yeah, we don’t, we can’t disclose financial. It’s a significant campaign for us, yeah. We, I mean, I forget to mention, we, in addition to all of those media placements and thinking about, like I was saying, contrasting free messaging in places where people are spending money, we also customize creative assets for those specific media placements just to make sure we had greater impact.
SJM: And I guess in terms of your gauging of success, I mean, are you looking for more like, are you looking to see people going to Gem and then streaming live TV or is it more of the video-on-demand or is it just doesn’t really matter? Just as long as you’re using Gem? I guess, what are your aims?
SC: Like I said, the campaign is really designed to elevate our entertainment offerings. The intent is to continue building on our ‘No Payment Entertainment’ campaign for the next year and obviously we’re continuing to track audience growth.
SJM: Okay, cool. So, there could be sort of, who knows like a summer version or a version for the holidays with dancing in the snow?
SC: The intent is to continue building. It’s a really memorable and snappy way to get our our message across. It will continue to build on that.
Humber College, North Campus. Finch West and Highway 27, Toronto, Canada.
Dear Minister St-Onge,
Happy 2024.
Writing with Part 3 of my efforts to receive ATSC 3.0 (nEXTgenTV) over-the-air (OTA) TV signals in the Greater Toronto Area.
I am pleased to report that I have finally been able to access ATSC 3.0 OTA TV signals in Toronto!
While I was unable to receive any OTA TV signals from the front of Humber College’s North Campus, SW of Finch West and Highway 27 in Toronto, once I moved to the other side of the Barrett Centre of Technology Innovation at Humber I was able to receive four ATSC 3.0 OTA TV signals being broadcast by the college.
The other side of Humber North where I was able to receive their signals!
28-4 VS1-4K was airing past ATSC 3.0 presentations held at Humber.
Source: Humber College.
28-5 VS1-FHD was airing archival promotional footage from Humber College.
Source: Humber College.
28-7 VS1-HD was airing footage of natural landscapes.
Source: Humber College.
28-8 VS1-SD displayed a frozen fragmented screen of someone on a scooter.
Source: Humber College.
Importantly, I was able to receive Humber’s ATSC 3.0 TV signals over-the-air without also needing an internet backchannel. When I was having trouble trying to receive ATSC 3.0 OTA TV signals from Buffalo for Part 2 of these posts, I suspect it was due to the fact that I did not have internet.
I gather then that Humber College is not requiring viewers to also have internet to watch their OTA TV signals. The ability to watch ATSC 3.0 over-the-air (OTA) TV signals without the need of an internet backchannel is what ATSC has advertised for the standard.
While it is unclear how many GTA residents and visitors currently have an ATSC 3.0 tuner to watch such content over-the-air, that Humber College has supported such an excellent research project is fantastic. Bravo!
Cheers,
Steven
July 1, 2024 update: Using the ADTH converter, I was also able to receive the same multiplexed ATSC 3.0 signals at Humber’s Lakeshore Campus at 19 Colonel Samuel Smith Park Drive in South Etobicoke (Toronto) via their new transmitter installed at the campus this past spring.
A common refrain when I try to watch Live TV via the CBC Gem app on my RCA Roku TV.
Dear Minister St-Onge,
Seeing that I am currently unable to live stream the Toronto Maple Leafs game against the Nashville Predators on Hockey Night in Canada via CBC’s frequently malfunctioning Gem app on my Roku TV, figured I would write this post about my month of TV viewing without over-the-air (OTA) TV. Be advised that I am currently listening to the Leafs on AM radio instead. Nylander just scored a power play goal assisted by Matthews. 1-0 Leafs.
My past month without OTA TV resulted from having my TV antenna and accessories packed up as part of my ongoing ATSC 3.0 signal testing in the GTA. ATSC 3.0 signal scan #3 coming soon! In the meantime, here is ATSC 3.0 signal scan #2.
First Intermission for the Leafs game. 1-1.
The Good
CHCH live streaming via Roku’s YouTube app.
Although CHCH only live streams its regularly scheduled newscasts and the occasional press conference via its YouTube channel, live streaming CHCH via Roku’s YouTube app has been the most consistent performer for me over the past month. When CHCH is live streaming via YouTube, I have never had an issue viewing the Hamilton station’s live streams. Note that if you want to watch more live CHCH than just live CHCH news programming, the station is now live streaming most of its programming for no fee via its website (even though the note at the link says they only live stream news).
Live stream of Tele de Radio-Canada via Roku’s Tou.tv app.
Live streaming (en direct) Television de Radio-Canada via Radio-Canada’s Tou.tv Roku app has also worked well for me. French is not my mother tongue but I can usually manage well enough. While reading French Closed Captioning makes it even easier for me to follow French audio, I can’t figure out how to get captions to show via the Tou.tv Roku app (if indeed captions are even offered via the app).
The Bad
Trying to live streaming CBC Television via Roku’s CBC Gem app this morning.
While the superseded CBC TV Roku app worked well for live streaming (even allowing users to jump between each of CBC’s 14 live TV feeds without needing to login), ever since the CBC TV Roku app morphed into the CBC Gem Roku app this summer I have had many problems using it.
Almost every time I open the CBC Gem Roku app it freezes.
I then close the CBC Gem Roku app and reopen it.
Upon reopening, the CBC Gem Roku app will then work if I want to stream video on demand (VOD) programming.
However, if I click the Live TV button inside the CBC Gem Roku app, I regularly receive an error message that asks me to try again later.
Removing and reinstalling the Roku CBC Gem app.
When I asked Roku via X (the social media platform formerly known as Twitter) DM for help they advised I should reinstall the CBC Gem app. I did so, but no luck. Roku is now advising the problem isn’t something on their end and that I should contact CBC/Radio-Canada. That the Tou.tv Roku app works so well for En direct streaming and the CBC Gem app is so poor for Live TV speaks volumes of just how divided the bilingual public broadcaster is.
Trying to live streaming the Leafs via the Roku CBC Gem app earlier tonight.
Unfortunately for me, the Leafs are not going to wait for the CBC Gem Roku app to work properly. Hence, listening to the game on AM radio.
With 10:24 left in the 2nd period (according to Joe Bowen on 590 AM), I just checked the CBC Gem Roku app one more time as part of this post and the Live TV is now working!
While I am looking forward to watching the rest of the Leafs game, the CBC Gem Roku app clearly isn’t ready for prime time.
Scanning for ATSC 3.0 TV signals from a vehicle parked at the shore of Lake Ontario in Toronto, Canada.
Dear Minister St-Onge,
Writing with Part 2 of my efforts to receive ATSC 3.0 (also known as nEXTgenTV) over-the-air (OTA) TV signals in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) of Ontario, Canada using ADTH’s ATSC 3.0 nEXTgenTV set-top box.
ATSC 3.0 Toronto scan testing location #2. Cyclists and Canadian Geese enjoying the Martin Goodman Trail along the shore of Lake Ontario, just east of the Humber River.
Unlike my 2010 scouts for ATSC 1.0 TV signals, the ADTH tuner I am using to scan for ATSC 3.0 signals isn’t a phantom powered USB tuner that can be plugged into a laptop computer (like the Diamond ATSC 1.0 tuner I used in 2010), so a car battery inverter was needed to power the ADTH ATSC 3.0 box, an antenna signal pre-amp booster, and a 19″ TV.
300W inverter used for the signal testing. I only needed about 10% of that but best not to tax the inverter.
Once I got the antenna hung from the passenger-side sunshade and the inverter fan was buzzing, I set the ATSC 3.0 box to scan.
First, the ADTH box pulled in 21 standard ATSC 1.0 signals. Next, it advised it was switching tuners and then proceeded to pull in five (!) ATSC 3.0 signals.
All of the ATSC 3.0 signals (identified with a nEXTgenTV logo) were from New York State.
While I was hoping for one or two Canadian ATSC 3.0 test signals, my hunch was that NY would be the main source of ATSC 3.0 signals.
While the ATSC 3.0 TV signals were saved to the ADTH tuner box’s on-screen menu, the device was unfortunately unable to actually display video and/or audio from the five ATSC 3.0 stations. The ADTH tuner box didn’t give any indication that the ATSC 3.0 stations were encrypted.
The ADTH tuner appeared to be trying to display each station once selected, but after showing a spinning circle/wheel symbol for a few seconds (similar to an internet/computer buffering circle/wheel) it would give up.
That a spinning buffer wheel/circle was displayed by the ADTH tuner makes me think maybe it wants/needs internet as a back-channel to display the five ATSC 3.0 stations it has saved. Perhaps the NY signals just aren’t strong enough to display via my Makeshift May set-up (I’ve yet to find a signal strength indicator on the ADTH box), but if that was the case it should really have shown at least a few pixelated squares or something instead of just a blank screen.
My suspicion that perhaps lack of internet is the issue preventing me from watching the ATSC 3.0 signals is fuelled by a new YouTube video by Tyler the Antenna Man . Tyler’s video brought to my attention that ADTH’s own website currently indicates their ATSC 3.0 tuner box (the one I am using) needs internet to display DRM encrypted ATSC 3.0 signals. This note by ADTH runs counter to what the public has been told over the past few years that internet would not be needed to watch over-the-air ATSC 3.0 TV signals.
While it was disappointing I couldn’t actually watch the five ATSC 3.0 signals pulled in by the ADTH device, it was nonetheless exciting to see the ATSC 3.0 signals show in the menu.
These ATSC 3.0 blog posts are primarily fact finding missions and I am certainly learning a lot about how the U.S. is approaching use of the ATSC 3.0 standard.
Stay tuned for Part 3 of this GTA ATSC 3.0 reception blog series which will next take me to the parking lot at Humber College’s North Campus just south of Toronto’s Finch Avenue West.
Take care,
Steven
p.s. In recognition that today is Canada’s National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, please check out what the TRC report recommends in terms of enhancing Indigenous media and reconciliation here.
Happy autumn. Writing with exciting news (for me, at least).
The ATSC 3.0 (aka nEXTgenTV) tuner I preordered back in May has arrived. The reason I preordered this device sold by Atlanta-based ADTH for roughly $100 CDN, was due to it being the first ATSC 3.0 set-top box tuner approved by the ATSC to sport the nEXTgenTV logo. It reportedly also has the digital rights management (DRM) software now needed to receive DRM-encrypted ATSC 3.0 signals from Buffalo.
I plan (for starters) to test this ATSC 3.0 tuner from the following three Greater Toronto Area (GTA) locations.
The first test location was the testing I did today from my west-end Toronto condo unit located roughly 3 km from Lake Ontario. More on that below.
The second test location will be from a parking lot at the shore of Lake Ontario.
The third test location will be from the parking lot of Humber College’s North Campus.
ATSC 3.0 tuner connected to rabbit ears and a HDTV.
Pictured above, the ADTH box is about the size and weight of two CD cases (I trust this to be a good comparison for fellow OTA TV Culters). The box has lights to indicate power status (red for off, green for on) which helps with troubleshooting.
Once connected to my TV antenna (via coax), my TV (via HDMI), and after plugging the box into a power bar, the box first prompted me to initialize its remote. Check.
The box’s software then asked to connect to Wi-Fi…
Due to my concern that a Canadian I.P. address could affect my ATSC 3.0 access, I declined to connect to Wi-Fi. The ATSC 3.0 standard is reported to work without internet.
Next, I was asked to enter my country. Again, due to fear of territorial discrimination, I advised I live in the United States. Come to think of it, I believe USA was the only option actually. I wouldn’t have selected Canada if given the option regardless.
Finally, the moment of truth. Time to scan!
As expected, I did not receive any ATSC 3.0 signals from my condo unit. I did however receive four ATSC 1.0 signals (I usually receive at least twice that number of ATSC 1.0 stations via my RCA Roku TV).
Scan from Toronto Location #1 returned 4 ATSC 1.0 stations and zero ATSC 3.0 stations.
Please stay tuned for test location #2 to be scanned from the northern shoreline of Lake Ontario!
Toronto ATSC 1.0 signal displayed via the ADTH nEXTgenTV tuner box
THE HYPE ASSOCIATED WITH Canada’s looming digital television transition remains fixated on the benefits that digital over-the-air (OTA) television will purportedly provide Canadian television viewers. While the CRTC describes the switch to digital OTA television as offering the promise of higher quality sound and picture, interactivity, and the potential for HDTV, if the signals being broadcast fail to reach a television-viewing household, these technological advances are meaningless.
Such a scenario could be the case for many of the approximate 10% of the television-viewing public in Canada who rely on over-the-air signals for their television. This is not to say that no one will benefit from the digitization of television broadcast signals in Canada. In the last big spectrum auction in 2008, the Government of Canada raked in over $4 billion.
The concern however is whether Canada’s digital television transition, currently scheduled for August 31, 2011, will serve the collective interest of all Canadian citizens, particularly those in rural and remote areas of the country.
As part of its broader digitization of broadcasting and telecommunications across the country, the Government of Canada has seemingly directed the CRTC to shift from managing broadcasting as a “public service essential to the maintenance and enhancement of national identity and cultural sovereignty” (as it says in the Broadcasting Act, 1991) in favour of having it turn to “market forces to the maximum extent feasible and to regulate only where necessary.”
While such a shift can at first be viewed as a movement away from regulation, scholars including the likes of Vincent Mosco recognize that “eliminating government regulation is not deregulation but rather the expansion of market regulation”. Rather than relying on pure “market forces” to guide the future of over-the-air television broadcasting in Canada, the Government of Canada’s forced liberalization of the broadcast industry is indeed shaping how many rural and remote Canadian television viewers will be able to receive signals following the proposed switch-over date. By connecting citizenship to “communication rights,” says Mosco, the digital television transition can be seen as a possible “means to exclude people from the benefits of membership in a collective.”
As estimated in a study by Price Waterhouse Coopers prepared for the CRTC in 2009, 1.24 million Canadian households or 2.9 million Canadians, rely on OTA TV signals at least some of their television. It is currently unclear how many of these viewers will continue to receive over-the-air signals following the digital television transition, including those who dutifully invest in either a digital converter box or a new television set. Since the footprint of OTA digital television signals do not match those of analog, vast areas of the country could be without any over-the-air television signals following the digital transition.
Since Canadian broadcasters are only required by the CRTC to upgrade transmitters to digital in television markets of 300,000 viewers or more, it is unlikely that they will upgrade (at their own expense) transmitters in the remaining markets (although Shaw pledged to do so, albeit with tangible benefits money).
While the CRTC has announced that it will permit analog broadcasting to continue in certain areas of the country, allowing viewers in non-digital markets to continue receiving over-the-air television signals after the transition, it’s unclear which Canadian markets will qualify for such ongoing analog status. Furthermore, even if broadcasters are permitted to continue broadcasting in analog in certain markets after August 31, 2011, it is equally unclear whether broadcasters will maintain the required servicing and repair of their analog transmitters once they are fully immersed within a digital broadcast economy.
As for faith in a “hybrid system” of cable and satellite services to cater to those television viewers who will not be well-served by the digital OTA transition, this hybrid system too fails as a comprehensive fix. Cable television is simply not an option for those viewers who reside outside of areas serviced by cable companies. While satellite does appear to be an option for some viewers, the start-up cost of approximately $500 to get up and rolling with satellite TV (combined with ongoing subscription fees) makes satellite a comparatively expensive way to watch television.
In terms of watching television over the Internet, this is not a viable option for those Canadians whose access to the Internet is limited to a dial-up connection. Similarly, mobile TV service is contingent upon the existence of ubiquitous 3G/4G cellular (or ATSC Mobile TV) networks that are currently lacking in the country.
With less than 328 days remaining until Canada’s digital television transition, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages James Moore (the Minister in charge of the transition) would likely benefit from a quick glance at Australia’s DTV transition literacy platform.
More importantly, Minister Moore must work with Minister of Industry Tony Clement and Prime Minister Stephen Harper to consider, in good faith, investing a portion of spectrum auction revenues in the form of federal infrastructure funding. This funding could be directed at either, i) assisting Canadian broadcasters (public and private) in the Herculean task of converting more than eight hundred television transmitters across the country to digital, or ii) extending the country’s broadband Internet and/or cellular/Wi-Fi network penetration to include all television markets that stand to lose their over-the-air television signals.
If Minister Moore opts instead to stay the course and wait for market forces to provide such essential digital television infrastructure, he will be in for a rough awakening.
Steven James May is a documentary filmmaker and 2nd year PhD Student in Communication & Culture at Ryerson and York Universities in Toronto, Canada. Far from an analog curmudgeon, May’s research interests include the role that digital devices play in the formation of television-viewing socials (Latour, 2005). You can follow Steven on Twitter @stevenjmay and on his TV-focused blog, https://dudewhereismytv.wordpress.com.
Dude, Where's My TV? 