Why Canada has to suck so much in this regard baffles me. Those CRTC people that are supposed to be managing all of this are doing a really bad job. :(

I would put more of the blame on the broadcasters here in Canada. They are the ones who have resisted the change. Most of them actually want to get them out of the broadcast business and become cable channels while still maintaining all the rights of a broadcaster and the CRTC said no. Now they are behind schedule and are likely hoping that the CRTC will give them an extension, but my gut feeling is that isn't going to happen.

I think a lot of it has to do with the government not doing anything with the ideas and proposals they received when the CRTC held hearings on the matter of the Digital OTA Transition in Canada. Several of us DHCers submitted interventions too. Any progress towards a complete, authoritative national politcy seemed to evaporate after that.

The CRTC sets policies, but with a topic of this scale you'd have to trace the decision-making right to the Prime Minister's Office. I'm not making an election-based statement here, I'm just pointing out how the system works in regards to these very broad and significant national policies.

I agree with Roger that a couple of the networks that aren't called CBC were really unenthusiastic about going to Digital OTA, so there's blame to go around.

I'm a major convert to over the air television. The picture quality is superb particularly where the stations are broadcasting in HD. Many of the Seattle channels I can pick up in Vancouver now offer two or more different channels, one HD and one SD or up to 5 SD channels - so that over-air I now have about 14 channels for free which the local cable company was charging me $35/month for an inferior picture quality. I anticipate I should be able to get another 2-4 more channels - most in HD - when the digital switchover occurs in Feb 2009.

I believe the major issue is that Canadian broadcasters don't understand their markets - or the potential of digital broadcasts. Once a broadcast is digital with a decent signal, it can be broadcast directly to cellphones, ultraportable laptops, and easily captured on any computer and sent via internet worldwide. It can be recorded for later playback on any digital flashdrive. A lot of American networks are making many of their programs available on their websites - I believe shortly almost all stations will be forced into this format from public demand. No doubt digital data co-broadcast with the television audio and video signals will ensure more direct advertising via downloads to cellphones, laptops, or digital televisions, so that commercials could include clickable internet links. Eventually a lot - if not most - television is going to be "on-demand" via the Internet, and conceivably over-air as well. For Canadian broadcasters not make the transition sooner is simply burying their heads in the sand. Sony Japan always liked to say that they recognized that they had to obsolete their own products, or their competitors would do it for them. Events are going to force Canadian broadcasters to change - particularly after Feb 2009 when I believe the end of analogue broadcasting will likely force a lot of unanticipated changes on the American market. Canadian television and cable has been too "insulated" from competition for too long. The wiser stations can see the inevitable, and are embracing technological change. Those that don't will be like the Music studios railing against downloading MP3 files so they can try to protect a disappearing CD market, instead of offering the public their own dowloadable MP3's - which Apple, a non-music company - ultimately did with its Apple Itunes.

The more I read about ota and the cable and satilite services the more I am leaning towards the idea that a rule change ( CRTC ) mandating that local OTA be on cable and satilite services the more I think they may thinking about a ATSC tuner in thier sets to satisfy that mandate and that reception and quality would therefore be easily passed on the local providers for those OTA services. Having this it seems somehow this would also fit the efforts that is quietly being placed as far as recording flags.

If I'm understanding you correctly that is, I think, unlikely, Dan: if cable and satellite providers used OTA directly in their tuners to satisfy their mandate there would be no way they could do simultaneous substitutions, and the broadcasters would likely be up in arms, crying that it would be the end of Canadian television because everyone would watch American channels and their ad revenues would shrink to nothing, et cetera, et cetera.

Those CRTC people that are supposed to be managing all of this are doing a really bad job.

Why do we have to go to digital? Why does the government have to mandate that we go digital? why does the government have to rule every bloody aspect of our lives?

Honestly, I'd prefer the government stay out of the business of picking winners and losers and pushing some technologies over others


Many Canadians are very happy with the analog situation as it stands and don't want to have to buy digital televisions, digital set top boxes and digital tuners because the government says so.

I love all these new innovations but I don't want the government ramming down peoples throats!

IMHO, the respective Canadian government agencies responsible for licensing TV in Canada, should have given the broadcasters transitional digital licenses and channel allotments, and obligated the broadcasters use them, say by august 31 2009.

Governments are supposed to govern, and corporations are supposed to make a profit. Consumers need both, but...

If corporations want us to keep using their highly profitable line of Daguerreotypes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daguerreotype) and Victrolas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victrola#The_Victrola) purely because of their bottom line then we have a problem. If Canada's TV networks want us to keep using their existing Analogue TV channels and do not want us to have Digital OTA when the benefits to consumers are so profound, we have a problem.

Regardless of political philosophies, governments have a role to govern over recalcitrant corporations too. That's how our system works. When the monopolistic telephone system in the U.S. was broken up by regulators in the 1970s the resulting flood of new technologies into the marketplace was proof of all the above.

There is no disputing the benefit to consumers of Digital OTA over Analogue.

Why do we have to go to digital? Why does the government have to mandate that we go digital?

The primary incentive for the government to mandate the transition to DTV is increased bandwidth efficiency. After the analog shutdown, the entire 700MHz band will be available for other purposes.

After the analog shutdown, the entire 700MHz band will be available for other purposes.

You mean for sale.

Buggy whips and VHS tape recorders did not disappear because of government legislation.

VHS tape recorders did not disappear because of government legislation.

In the US, stand alone analog VCRs did when the FCC required that all units with an NTSC tuner also required an ATSC tuner. This was the straw the broke the camel's back and caused all manufactures to stop selling them. You can still get them here in Canada however. Granted there were other factors in play.

IMHO, the respective Canadian government agencies responsible for licensing TV in Canada, should have given the broadcasters transitional digital licenses and channel allotments, and obligated the broadcasters use them, say by august 31 2009.

Industry Canada did give all exisiting analog stations a transitional digital allotment. It was up to the broadcaster to apply to the CRTC and IC for a license to use that allotment.

So I guess you're just saying the governemnt should have forced the broadcasters to apply and then build out their transitional licenses?

Don't forget that the the fire behind the FCC's haste in forcing broadcasters to switch over was the fact that they'd already sold the spectrum.

IC has made a bundle already on the recent microwave frequency auctions. Where's the fire here?

No, that that allotment includes a license to use it, and a construction permit for a digital transmitter. Or at least a loan on it, payable by the end of 2011, or something like that. Perhaps some sort of obligation or incentive to use it. Anything reasonable to get digital transmitters up ASAP, and TV viewers using them.

You will have an oppertunity to voice your concern about the pace of conversion in the spring. Private OTA broadcasters renew their licenses in April 2009, CBC in the fall of 2009.

Why do we have to go to digital? Why does the government have to mandate that we go digital?
To put it very bluntly, many people in border areas will switch from from NTSC OTA to ATSC OTA. If the government does nothing, OTA viewers will only have American high-def signals to watch. And Canadian OTA stations near US large border cities will see their viewership plummet.

Take the Olympic games this past summer as an example. If you were an OTA-only viewer with a high-def TV, would you REALLY have considered watching SDTV on CBC rather than 1920x1080i on NBC?

Honestly, I'd prefer the government stay out of the business of picking winners and losers and pushing some technologies over others
How far do you think digital TV would be in Canada if broadcasters were allocated 6 mhz, and allowed their choice of NTSC, PAL, SECAM, ATSC, QAM, etc, etc for broadcast format. Would you have spent thousands of dollars on a home theatre, knowing that a few hundred million dollar bri^H^H^H "sales incentive" by a competing manufacturer could make your chosen format the next BETA or HD-DVD? Or would you be willing to buy 3 or 4 tuner boxes for your TV, to be able to pick up all available broadcast channels?

Many Canadians are very happy with the analog situation as it stands and don't want to have to buy digital televisions, digital set top boxes and digital tuners because the government says so.
We'll see how many Canadians in border areas will be unhappy come February 17th.

I watched This Old House and they were helping Americans transition to digital TV in the home. One home owner had a regular TV antenna on his roof and he received 29 channels after hooking up the converter box.
In Winnipeg I can only get 5 OTA channels, all in analogue.

I'll bet less than half of those 29 channels were HD. The rest were probably severely compressed SD sub-channels. I watched the PBS program and as with most of these how-to shows, a lot of details are glossed-over or ignored. I think they only once mentioned that viewers would be receiving HD for free (and just in passing).

On another note, do you suppose that the CRTC might consider subsidizing the building of (or conversion to) OTA digital transmitters across Canada with the enormous profits they're likely to make from selling off the vacated analog spectrum?

CRTC might consider subsidizing the building of (or conversion to) OTA digital transmitters across Canada with the enormous profits they're likely to make from selling off the vacated analog spectrum

CRTC (an independent agency that reports through the Heritage ministry) does not directly benefit from the spectrum auction performed by Industry Canada (a different depeartment).

Unlike in the States, where broadcast licensing and radio frequency management both fall under the FCC, here in Canada, the reposinsibility is split between Industry Canada (tenchincal management of the whole radio frequency spectrum, including both broadcasting, point to point radio, and cellular) and the CRTC (cultural management of TV and Radio broadcasting and Broadcast Distribution undertakings(cable and satellite), as well as telecommunications.)

leglamp, Digital OTA does not necessarily mean HD. The ATSC standard includes many resolutions between 480i through 1080p in SD and HD. That has always been the case. Most broadcasters show their HD programming in 1080i while some use 720p. Most that run SD programming use 480i and I believe some have been using 480p.

Are you letting us know that the WNED program was confusing DTV with HD? :)