On July 14, 2010, the CRTC received an application from Rogers to amend the broadcasting licences of its OMNI television programming undertakings CFMT-DT Toronto, CFMT-TV Toronto and its transmitters CFMT-TV-1 London and CFMT-TV-2 Ottawa, CJMT-DT Toronto, CJMT-TV Toronto and its transmitters CJMT-TV-1 London and CJMT-TV-2 Ottawa, CJCO-TV Calgary, CJEO-TV Edmonton, CHNM-DT Vancouver, and CHNM-TV Vancouver and its transmitter CHNM-TV Victoria. Rogers wishes to take advantage of the additional flexibility provided by the Commission’s new Canadian content policy for conventional television stations announced in Broadcasting Regulatory Policy 2010-167.

http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2010/2010-477.htm

Too bad, no news relating to transition to OTA DTV in the London area.

Despite being on the mandatory list of cities for digital transition and the 10th largest city in Canada), I'm thinking London might now be at risk of losing future OTA transmitters/repeaters. :(

It's getting closer the end of the summer, and no annoucements have come from the CRTC or Rogers regarding the OMNI channels transition to OTA DTV in the London area.

Rogers previously announced that they would convert the London OTA OMNI1 & OMNI2 repeaters to DTV in 2010, but things appear to be bleak. :(

Last I heard, Rogers is still working on their PT plan. I suspect we should hear about it in the next month or so.

I was talking to my contact at Rogers and he happened to mention:

London and Woodstock should be ready by end of this year.

So it looks like the wait is almost over for those in London.

^^ Thanks very much roger1818 for sharing the great news!!

London's CFMT-1 (OMNI 1) & CJMT-1 (OMNI 2) OTA repeaters will be upgraded to HD, and the CityTv OTA repeater/transmitter in Woodstock upgraded to HD as well! Awesome!!

I wonder what RF CITY Woodstock will use.

CITY was assigned rf 51 to test on. BUT we all know that CHCH uses rf 51 for its analog feed. And TVO was assigned to test digital on rf 51 from Toronto.

Maybe CITY will dropped its analog feed or being given another rf to test on.

Also, I guess rogers' corp could multiplex CITYs and OMNIs into 1 feed.

Read ya l8r,

PS
I read on here that not all of tri cities (KWC) can pick up signals from CN tower. So moving CITY to Byron tower may not be the best choice. I was thinking that OMNIs could save $ on rent.

CITY TV Woodstock's repeater will use the same channel 31 post-transition.

Has anyone heard anything more on this recently? I would have expected to see some activity at the CRTC (applications?) if these were going to be up before winter. Any thoughts?

I was talking to my contact at Rogers again and he said "London-Woodstock is on track for this year."

He also said Next year they plan on the following:


Omni Edmonton
Omni Calgary
City TV Victoria.
City TV Lethbridge.
City TV Winnipeg.
Toronto post transition for Omni 1, 2 and City TV.


No big surprises.

I was talking to my contact at Rogers again and he said "London-Woodstock is on track for this year."


^^ that's very good news for London-Woodstock area residents. Thanks roger1818 for the latest update.

Some more info from my contact:


Most Transmitter sites with existing towers will be used. Pre and Post.
ERP is being selected to duplicate the existing analog coverage. Post coverage will be the same as the existing analog foot print in that city.
DTV frequency per station is per I.C. latest table
Where possible we are trying to avoid channels in VHF band.
All technical briefs are prepared using guides lines found in BPR 1 and BPR 10.



Also, in London, CJMT will be reverting to their analog frequency so they will be doing a flash cut. It wasn't clear if that would happen this year or next, but it seems like it will be this year.

And, in Toronto they will be consolidating transmitter sites.

Excellent. If only all Canadian networks/stations were so open with their plans for DTV transition.

Excellent. If only all Canadian networks/stations were so open with their plans for DTV transition.

No kidding! It is refreshing to see Rogers (& Shaw too, but its OT) so committed. Thanks for the info Roger -- its great to hear from someone on the inside.

My only question on the subject of cutting over before the transition deadline. I was under the impression that they had to maintain the analogue signal until the deadline making it impossible for city on RF31 in Woodstock to cut over before then.

Good info on Woodstock CITY TV. That signal (on channel 31) arrives at my home quite nicely. Though I've never had an issue with Toronto's CITY transmitter (unless the power goes out down there), it's nice to have redundancy in case of tropo.

"London-Woodstock is on track for this year."
Any more info on when and how. Here is why I want to know...
CITY's transitional allocation: ON Woodstock AL 51 CITY-DT-2 430246 804604 300.0 15000 692.00 (23 miles east of London.)
CHCH's current allocation: ON London OP 51 CHCH-TV-2 INDE 425027 815129 300.0 1300000 692.00 (Actually 34 miles west of London.)

Let's just say the the brain trust at IC wasn't too awake they day they came up with this. It would be ironic if the one station doing the right thing in the area actually made things worse. :confused:

There will be no problem if they stay on their current channel and turn off analog early, as stated in one of roger1818's earlier posts.

My only question on the subject of cutting over before the transition deadline. I was under the impression that they had to maintain the analogue signal until the deadline making it impossible for city on RF31 in Woodstock to cut over before then.

While this was a requirement in the US, I don't believe it is here. Certainly the IC database now shows that CITY-DT-2 has received approval to transmit on channel 31 with an ERP of 20kW. Haven't received word on this from the CRTC however.

As roger1818 said, there is no such requirement. In fact, if memory serves, Rogers has applied for an early flash-cut for their Omni station in Victoria, B.C. That application is still winding through the bureaucratic process.

The CHNU-TV transmitter would operate on channel 47 Since CHNU-DT is asking for channel 47 while CKVU-DT is presently on 47, I really, really hope that CKVU is relocating within the UHF band and not reoccupying VHF-HI channel 10! :eek: Their post-transitional allotment in the IC Database has always been channel 10, but as we know a lot of those are being superceded during the actual transition. Also I wonder if this includes having CKVU's DTV operations go back to Saltspring Island too...

Since CHNU-DT is asking for channel 47 while CKVU-DT is presently on 47, I really, really hope that CKVU is relocating within the UHF band and not reoccupying VHF-HI channel 10! :eek:

My contact at Rogers said that they are trying to avoid channels in VHF band where possible (see Citytv & Rogers OMNI DTV Transition Status (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?p=1154865#post1154865)).