You're assuming the government of the day has the will to do so...

Fortunately the Harper government is not a real fan of the CBC to begin with. They just might want to stick it to them.

But taking money away from the CBC is not going to get them to spend more.

Budgeting for conversion of a few more transmitters is not that much relative to the billion dollars they recieve on a yearly basis, plus they also get advertising revenue as well.

Yeah, but I think its the underlying infrastructure costs that they are really worried about. But seriously, how much can it possibly cost to run fiber and pay for bandwidth!?

CBC already has all of its channels encrypted on C-Band. So CBC doesnt need any fiber. Source: http://www.lyngsat.com/anik107.html

The problem with CBC is they offer only one solution. Pay for cable. As if, everyone can easily afford $50/month.

If CBC can not pay for signal. Then its is time for Affliations to make a come back. DTV does have multiplexing. And it would not cost CBC a cent. <:

Read ya l8r,
Al

Here's a recent Globe and Mail article worth reading:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/cbcs-switch-to-digital-tv-transmission-will-leave-some-viewers-without-access/article2092806/
CBC-Radio Canada is spending $60-million to replace 27 analog transmitters with digital ones, 14 English and 13 French, :confused:
CBC seems to blame the cost factor due to bilingual broadcasting in french and english. I can't understand why CBC must have a tower/antenna for english and a tower/antenna for french. Why not run 2 HD's on one RF using psip virtual channels to separate french/english broadcasts? Did CBC's engineering team leave their witts with the coat check girl when the went into to their DTV planning sessions?

CBC is spending $2.2 million for each DTV transmission site ($60 million/27). That sounds like a lot of money to me particularly when the DTV transmitters are going on existing towers. I wonder what other broadcasters are spending on similar installations. I thought a number around $700 thousand was used in the CRTC documents.

CBC probably wouldn't accept the technical degradation from running two HD signals in a single DTV channel but they could run an HD and a widescreen SD. The HD could serve the majority language while the SD would serve the minority language in many markets. The largest markets should have both a French and English DTV channel.

Below is from 2011-0276-4, DM#1580418, Section G. This is the CRTC's question, followed by the CBC's response. As for the costs, CBC presents them as the net present value of the sum of capital and operating costs associated with the installation and maintenance of a digital transmitter, over the expected life of the transmitter. Anyone know the expected life of an ATSC transmitter?

2. Digital transition
a) Of the roughly 400 full-power analog television transmitters that the Corporation operates, it has stated its plans to implement 27 over-the-air digital television (DTV) transmitters by 31 August 2011 in markets where it originates local programming. Indicate the Corporation’s plans to convert any further analog transmitters to digital over the course of its next licence term.
b) Please indicate the estimated cost per transmitter associated with the digital conversion of each of the transmitters that will be shut down by 31 August 2011. Please compare this cost with the cost per transmitter associated with the digital conversion of each of the 27 transmitters that the Corporation will convert.
c) In its document entitled Q&A: CBC/Radio-Canada’s Digital Transition Plan, 16 December 2011, the Corporation indicates that “the useful life of [its] satellite distribution backbone for analogue transmission ends in 2013 [and that it] will not reinvest in that infrastructure given the inevitability of analogue obsolescence.” The Corporation also cites the decreasing availability of parts for analog transmitters in stating that “it will soon be impossible for [it] to maintain its analogue transmission infrastructure.”
i. Indicate the Corporation’s intention to maintain its over-the-air transmission infrastructure over the course of its next licence term.
ii. Provide a detailed description of the impact of any changes to the Corporation’s satellite distribution backbone to the provision of over-the-air television services as well as the timeline over which these changes will occur.
iii. Indicate any alternative distribution platforms that the Corporation can or will employ to maintain the provision of over-the-air television services for the duration of its next licence term.
Please submit your responses to these questions as part of the document entitled “2011-0276-4-CBC-SRC-General”. If you wish to submit any of your responses in an Excel spreadsheet, please do so as a new tab in the document entitled “2011-0276-4-CBC-SRC-General-Tables”.

ANSWER
a) The Company has no plans to convert further analogue transmitters to digital over the course of its next licence term.
b) i. The following table provides the estimated costs of the digital conversion in mandatory markets where the Company operates an analogue re-broadcast transmitter:
Location
Estimated Costs* ($ millions)
Quebec City (ETV only)
1.77
Sherbrooke (ETV only)
2.95
Trois Rivieres (ETV only)
2.95
Saguenay-Chicoutimi (ETV only)
4.07
Moncton (ETV only)
2.50
Calgary (FTV only)
2.37
Windsor (FTV only)
3.94
Charlottetown (FTV only)
3.59
St John’s (FTV only)
3.45
Halifax (FTV only)
4.50
Fredericton (FTV only)
2.52
Thunder Bay (FTV only)
2.35
Lethbridge
5.85
Kitchener
9.22
Saskatoon
5.66
London
9.56
Victoria
5.32
Saint John
7.27
Total all locations
$79.84
∗ The estimated costs of the digital conversion is calculated as the net present value of the sum of capital and operating costs associated with the installation and maintenance of a digital transmitter, over the expected life of the transmitter.

ii. The following table provides the estimated costs of the Company’s 27 digital transmitter plan; i.e. the estimated costs of the digital conversion in mandatory markets where the Company operates a local TV station:
Location
Estimated Costs* ($ millions)
Yellowknife (ETV only)
2.3
Halifax (ETV only)
4.9
St John’s (ETV only)
3.8
Fredericton (ETV only)
2.8
Charlottetown (ETV only)
3.1
Windsor (ETV only)
3.6
Calgary (ETV only)
5.2
Trois-Riviere (FTV only)
2.9
Sherbrooke (FTV only)
2.6
Saguenay-Chicoutimi (FTV only)
2.1
Moncton (FTV only)
2.4
Rimouski (FTV only)
4.0
Quebec (FTV only)
6.8
Montreal
16.0
Ottawa
11.8
Toronto
12.1
Vancouver
8.3
Edmonton
9.0
Winnipeg
8.5
Regina
6.0
Total all locations
$118.1
∗ The estimated costs of the digital conversion is calculated as the net present value of the sum of capital and operating costs associated with the installation and maintenance of a digital transmitter, over the expected life of the transmitter.
c) i. The Corporation operates approximately 650 analogue OTA television transmitters in Canada. Our intention is to maintain our analogue OTA infrastructure in non-mandatory markets for as long as technically and financially feasible. The Company intends to file an application seeking permission to continue analogue transmission for a limited time period, in mandatory markets where the Company operates re-broadcast transmitters (i.e. mandatory markets where the Company does not operate a local TV station.)
ii. The satellite distribution of the Company’s analogue OTA signals is dependent on encoding and decoding equipment which is no longer manufactured in the world, given the switch to digital. The Corporation’s analogue satellite distribution backbone is currently operating beyond its official useful life. Once it fails, it will be impossible to feed the analogue transmitters with an analogue TV signal, and will therefore cause the cessation of analogue transmissions.
iii. Beyond its 27 digital transmitters, and the transmitters identified in (i) above, the Company will not maintain any OTA television services beyond September 1, 2011.

See CBC's reply to Bell Media re: flood of recent applications to stay analog in some markets.

https://services.crtc.gc.ca/pub/ListeInterventionList/Default-Defaut.aspx?en=2011-1109-6&dt=r&lang=e

Instead of maintaining a poor quality analog signal into some of these locations, maybe it would be cheaper to provide a decent quality CBC signal on a sub-channel of a nearby digital station. Why not put CBLN on a sub-channel of CFPL, it's got to be cheaper than maintaining a low power analog transmitter.

Because we pay a lot to the CBC and a sub channel is not good value. Thats why!

A digital sub-channel may not be HD, but it's bettter than a snowy analog picture.

A digital sub-channel may not be HD, but it's bettter than a snowy analog picture.
I'd have to agree! [but limited to SD quality viewing on smaller screen sizes]

The only people who really do benefit from HD is the big screen sports fanatics who sit close to the screen with their beer and pretzels. :p And that is only if the original program source is in HD. But, I suppose if you drink enough beer, then SD would be good enough even on a 60" screen.;)

On most smaller TVs up to 32" screens, OTA SD16:9 is as good or better quality than cable or satellite. Not many human eyes would be capable to see any notable differences between SD & HD on the smaller TVs.

I am really getting tired of people bringing up the sub-channel option. It's not an option. The CRTC will not approve it and it doesn't fulfill the mandatory digital conversion requirement. I've seen some subchannels on US stations. No thanks. They look terrible and degrade the main channel HD signal as well. It's also off topic for this thread.

∗ The estimated costs of the digital conversion is calculated as the net present value of the sum of capital and operating costs associated with the installation and maintenance of a digital transmitter, over the expected life of the transmitter.
That's sort of like adding 10 years of gas, service and insurance to the price of a vehicle and saying that buying a new car is too expensive. You are going to pay for that anyway. Purchasing digital transmitters will lower operating costs. The total cost must be compared to the total cost of operating the current transmitters. Just like replacing a gas guzzler with a cheaper to maintain, energy efficient automobile, converting an analog transmitter to digital could actually save money over it's operating life. The CBC is using deceit to make it's case before the CRTC. I hope someone points that out. Now that the window for submissions is closed, it looks like the CBC is pulling all its FUD out of the closet.

Yes I agree, the CBC is pulling an eleventh hour tantrum to get the issues to the attention of the public in hopes of tapping into some bailout funding.

The licensing of the CBC is to provide ota as a Canadian national broadcaster having coast to coast coverage ota. That is why the Canadian taxpayer pays into the CBC.

I am really getting tired of people bringing up the sub-channel option. It's not an option. The CRTC will not approve it and it doesn't fulfill the mandatory digital conversion requirement. I've seen some subchannels on US stations. No thanks. They look terrible and degrade the main channel HD signal as well. It's also off topic for this thread.
The mandatory digital conversion requirement is to end analog ota broadcasts and replace the ota services with digital broadcasts.

Who said the CRTC will not approve subchannels? Multiplexing is definately going to be an option and it will have it's place in the future,.. whether we like or not,.. if we don't like it then don't watch it. Anyone who is so strongly opposed to the quality performance of digital SD subchannels should take their antenna down and dig very deep into their pockets to hire a BDU to develop a costly direct feed fiber optic service.

After all, It's only TV for god sake!:o

I believe the CRTC already has provisions in place for multiplexing.

http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/smt-gst.nsf/eng/sf09261.html

Date Modified:2011-05-09

B-4.2 Stereophonic and Multiplex Subcarriers in the Aural Baseband

B-4.2.1 Purpose
This section outlines the technical requirements for stereophonic and multiplex operation in the aural baseband of the television transmitter. TV broadcasting stations proposing stereophonic and/or multiplex subcarriers shall meet the requirements of this section and Broadcast Transmission Standard 3 (BTS-3), when the station operates the aural transmitter in a stereophonic or multiplex mode.

B-4.2.2 Use of Aural Baseband Subcarriers
TV broadcast stations may transmit subcarriers and signal within the composite baseband of the aural transmitter for the following purposes:

•stereophonic, biphonic, quadraphonic, etc., sound programs;
•transmission of signals relating to the operation of the station such as relaying broadcast material, remote cueing, order messages and telemetry signals from the transmitting plant;
•transmission of pilot or control signals to enhance the station's program service such as activation of noise reduction decoders in receivers, for any other receiver control purpose, or for program alerting and program identification;
•subsidiary communications services;
•any other services authorized.
B-4.2.3 Stereophonic Aural and Multiplex Subcarrier Operation
A broadcasting station may transmit multichannel aural programs upon installation of multichannel sound equipment. Prior to the commencement of multichannel broadcasting, the equipment and transmission system shall be measured to ensure compliance with the requirements of this section and Broadcast Transmission Standard 3 (BTS-3).

Multiplex subcarriers may be transmitted on a non-interference basis to broadcast programming. Transmissions shall comply with the requirements of this section and Broadcast Transmission Standard 3 (BTS-3).

Subsidiary communications services are those transmitted within the TV aural baseband signal but do not necessarily include services relating to the main program broadcast.

The holder of the broadcasting certificate should retain control over all transmitted material with the right to reject any material deemed inappropriate or undesirable.

B-4.2.4 Definitions
The definitions applicable to multichannel television sound transmission appear in Broadcast Transmission Standard 3 (BTS-3).

B-4.2.5 Changes in Equipment
The addition of stereophonic or subcarrier generators to a type-approved transmitter is acceptable.

Mechanical or electrical alterations and adjustments to existing approved transmitters to accommodate stereophonic sound or subcarrier operation will be permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

a.the stereophonic or subcarrier generator is designed for interfacing with the transmitter;
b.alterations and adjustments to the transmitter are based on the recommendations of the transmitter manufacturer and are implemented by qualified persons;
c.performance measurements shall be made to ensure that the system satisfies the applicable requirements of Broadcast Transmission Standard 3 (BTS-3);
d.the transmitter, after alteration shall be certified by a professional engineer to be capable of equaling or bettering the performance requirements of the original approval specification.

^^^^
Unless I'm misreading that, it's about stereo audio, data etc. in an analog channel. There is no separate baseband audio or subcarrier in digital.

^^^^
Unless I'm misreading that, it's about stereo audio, data etc. in an analog channel. There is no separate baseband audio or subcarrier in digital.
Yes,.. probably limited to surround, stereo, language etc.// it does beg some questions!
Date Modified is:2011-05-09?
Why would they modify this in May 2011 if it wasn't applicable to digital?

Somewhere I thought I had read that general license conditions for analog will apply after the digital transition.
______________________
In another document I read:
http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2010/2010-69.htm
Date Modified: 2010-02-10

8. The Commission considers that broadcasters should, to the greatest extent possible, ensure that Canadians do not lose access to free over-the-air television services as a result of the transition to DTV. Consequently, it encourages broadcasters to provide digital coverage that matches their current analog coverage.

Therefore the CBC is being pretty brazen to now throw their hands up in the eleventh hour.