CRTC requires Bell TV and Shaw Direct to carry more local television
stations
OTTAWA-GATINEAU, May 4, 2011 - The Canadian Radio-television and
Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) today updated its satellite
distribution policy to require Bell TV and Shaw Direct to carry all local
television stations supported by the Local Programming Improvement Fund.
"Canadians in all markets should have access to their local television
stations, regardless of how they receive their programming," said Konrad
von Finckenstein, Q.C., Chairman of the CRTC. "The carriage of additional
local stations will put satellite distributors on the same footing as
cable companies and provide their subscribers with more choice in local
news and information."
Great, the CRTC solves a problem I hear very few people actually complaining about and now we get even more compression and fewer channels we actually want! Good job CRTC, good job.
In a normal system your local channels would be all you would receive for Canadian networks in your area, thus helping the local advertisers whom buy air time for a specific program.
But I'm certainly not complaining, the way it is now benefits the subscriber... for a change!
This is going to cost Canadians hundreds of millions, perhaps billions, of dollars in the coming years.
Add in the cost of new satellites, MPEG-4 receiver upgrade, added costs of signal acquistion and distribution will all be paid for eventually by the consumer.
IN addition, more channels means more compression.
Wait, you think that the new satellites, added capacity, and MPEG-4 transition are being undertaken in order to respond to the CRTC's policy, and not (1) as ordinary technological upgrades and (2) as part of the already-promised benefits package for the Bell-CTV merger?
MY guess is that Bell and Shaw will try to use every technical trick in the book to limit how much capacity is used by these stations but lets face it, every channel you add means more costs and less capacity for everything else.
Wait, you think that the new satellites, added capacity, and MPEG-4 transition are being undertaken in order to respond to the CRTC's policy, and not (1) as ordinary technological upgrades and (2) as part of the already-promised benefits package for the Bell-CTV merger?
Really? You think the new satellites which were designed, contracted, and down-paid-on years ago are a result of a CRTC decision issued today? And otherwise the ones currently in the skies would have flown in perpetuity? That is not very convincing.
What is stopping the satellite providers from using spot-beam technology? I don't understand the CRTC logic in forcing the providers to offer local stations to a national audience. These channels provide little value outside their local markets in age of the PVR.
Really just that they would have launch order and launch spot-beam satellite(s), and build extra uplink sites. I don't think there is any regulatory restrictions to using spot beams.
I don't understand the CRTC logic in forcing the providers to offer local stations to a national audience. These channels provide little value outside their local markets in age of the PVR.
Their efforts would be better served by getting the Digital OTA coverage beefed up and making people more aware of it IMHO. Nothing wrong having both options.
I agree. These channels are free to local people, why does the rest of the country need these repeated channels using up bandwidth on satellite. Give me the canadian networks in 2-3 timezones and that it enough thanks.
Bell and Shaw Direct shouldn't have to carry these. Instead, the broadcasters should have to actually invest in transmitters that provide a decent signal. Where I live (which is in the City of Penticton), I cannot receive a single station using rabbit ears.
Like ive said before. All I want to see in my area are the 3 canadian nets that are in my area. Im sorry but we do not need coast to coast networks and never will. People that want time shifting can use the american nets for that. So +1 for spot beam only locals on this end. If the CRTC wants to really protect canadian nets/businesses thats the way to do it.
I think the CRTC wasn't paying attention the past couple of days. There is no way the Conservative Gov't will allow this ruling to stand. This is a lose - lose proposition for both the business end of the spectrum (no friend of mine!) and those who will ultimately pay... the consumer.
Cram them all onto a single transponder in MPEG4 8PSK format, they'll be virtually unwatchable, but virtually nobody will notice.
There's still lots of time for this to be over turned, rest assured that the Bell and Shaw legal teams are churning out ideas.
From what's been made public, Bell has no plans for additional satellite capacity (Nimiq 6 is just a replacement satellite). Whatever Bell does will have to be done on the 64 transponders they have currently. MPEG4 will help but they don't seem in any hurry to do that. I hope they stuff all these new locals on one transponder (and SD only).
And Shaw is only going to be gaining 16 transponders from the extended Ku band, and by the time those are operational, there will be enough HD channels available to easily fill that space, even at 6 channels per transponder.
Both CIHF-TV Halifax and CIHF-TV-2 Saint John? What a waste. Those two are identical except for some commercials. Nothing particularly local about the Saint John station.
I fail to see how this is better than having spot sat.coverage for each region for local stations.This way I could watch any station and not the local one atleast give the sat. providers the option and state that they provide the local stations in each area.
I could see the BDUs removing any local channel that is not funded by the LPIF to make room. For example, CHRO (/A\ Ottawa) is not on the list.
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