'A' Television Stations in Wingham and Windsor to be Shut Down

[tvlurker]

Countdown, where did you get this info from about CFPL being shut down?

http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2007/db2007-263.htm

Leamington


66. The licensee is authorized to distribute, at its option, CFPL-TV London, CHCH-TV Hamilton, and CFMT-TV and CITY-TV Toronto, Ontario as part of the basic service.

Windsor


82. The licensee is authorized to distribute, at its option, CFPL-TV London, Ontario, CHCH-TV Hamilton, Ontario, and CFMT-TV and CITY-TV Toronto, Ontario as part of the basic service.

[foxfan]

Well now that there will only be CBC (and Radio-Canada) broadcasting in the Windsor area, I hope they get allowed/encouraged to flash-cut immediately to digital on channel 9 this summer in line with the Detroit stations' analog shut-off. Over the air viewers will all have converter boxes (mostly digital-only) and wouldn't be able/willing to unplug the converter every time just to watch one channel (CBC).

I can't think of anyone who would be negatively affected by an early Canadian transition in the Windsor area.

[alebowgm]

foxfan, the flipside though is those in Detroit who dont have the converter boxes will ONLY be able to get CBC from Windsor... sounds like full market penitration to me...

[ppauper]

I guess everyone saw the story on A-News last night about the planned closure of the `A' stations in Windsor and Wingham

[Rock On]

It's a sad day for the communities that these stations serve.CTV shut down CJCB TV in Sydney and CKCW TV in Moncton in 1983;ending all local news. They still sell local advertising in these communities which at that time was a direct violation of CRTC policy.In the case of CJCB television in Sydney,they take 10 million dollars a year out of Cape Breton without any local programming.
The same thing will happen in Windsor.

[crockett18]

A while ago I emailed A Channel about upgrading the signal to HD, at the time I was told by the Station Manager that it would cost about $1 Million. Perhaps the upcoming Canadian Digital transfer (seems like forever away) could have caused this as well as other factors.

[TVProducerguy]

When I used to work at CKCO (CTV affiliate in Kitchener, Ont.) in the late 1990's there was lots of talk bqck then to close CKNX and CHWI and just rebroadcast the CKCO signal there. We used to do a seperate newscast for those areas anyway for our TX's in those areas. The CRTC said "no, you must serve those areas." Now CTV gets to blame the "economic crisis" to get to close those stations. Have you seen the amount that CTV spends on US programming? enough to keep those stations running for years. The sad fact is that some of the shows they buy they cannot show as there is no room in the schedule, but CTV didn't want Global to get them. This is why you have some CTV stuff showing up on the "A" channels. The stations they want to close are faily small potatoes in the grand scheme, but it does make good headlines.

[saddlelite]

"It's clear that CTV's parent company has more interest in getting you to subscribe to their Bell Sat Service than operate a OTA network. "

Bell is no longer the parent company of CTV. CTV is a division of CTVGlobemedia who's majority share holder is Woodbridge Holdings, a Thompson Family business. One of the other majority holders is the Ontario Teachers Pension Fund.

[roger1818]

Originally Posted by saddlelite

Bell is no longer the parent company of CTV. CTV is a division of CTVGlobemedia who's majority share holder is Woodbridge Holdings, a Thompson Family business. One of the other majority holders is the Ontario Teachers Pension Fund.

This is off thread but (according to Wikipedia) CTVgm's ownership breakdown is as follows:

The Woodbridge Company (Thomson family) - 40%
Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan - 25%
Torstar - 20%
Bell Canada - 15%

So BCE is still a partial shareholder, but not the largest.

[RingtailedFox]

Is it possible that all these stations are going down/for sale becuase they are close to the border, and possibly going to interfere with new american channel allocations after the digital transition? All these CTV/CBC stations (including wingham and CKX-TV) are within the 500 km/300 mile border zone with the USA...

[alebowgm]

Since the farthest reception one can ormally get OTA is 150miles (and that is with a very good deep fringe setup), I can say that it doesn't have to do with channel allocation and the U.S. change to digital.

Now the impeding Canadian change to digital and the cost that needs to be undertaken to conduct that swap is a reason as to why a lot of stations have gone up for sale due to the costs of implementing the change...

[RobWindsor]

Now the impeding Canadian change to digital and the cost that needs to be undertaken to conduct that swap is a reason as to why a lot of stations have gone up for sale due to the costs of implementing the change...

Exactly right. Why was it easy for the US to go digital while in Canada, were dragging our feet in the sand? In Canada, the networks opted to just buy all their stations instead of having affiliations with the local TV stations, while in the US, theres hundereds of companies who own only a few stations. The cost to each company in the US is to just digitize their few stations. In Canada, the networks would have to digitize nation-wide, a lot more, a lot more money as well.

[alebowgm]

Networks are only able to O&O something like 38 or 39% of the population, hence why the need for multiple ownership and local affiliates... no such rule in Canada and that is why most stations are O&O...

[PlayitSimple]

Networks are only able to O&O something like 38 or 39% of the population, hence why the need for multiple ownership and local affiliates... no such rule in Canada and that is why most stations are O&O...

So maybe its time they implement such as rule. I think these threats of shut downs wouldn't be happening if there were a system in place like the one they have in the US. These guys are cheap and don't want the to spend the money, if most of the stations were owned by smaller, independent companies then the costs would be minimal to CTV, Global, etc.

Me thinks its time the Canadian television system underwent a major overhaul.

[nakedgord]

Originally Posted by RingtailedFox

Is it possible that all these stations are going down/for sale becuase they are close to the border, and possibly going to interfere with new american channel allocations after the digital transition? All these CTV/CBC stations (including wingham and CKX-TV) are within the 500 km/300 mile border zone with the USA...

True they're next to the American border but so are most Canadians.

I'm starting to wonder if the CRTC is playing along with the destruction of Canadian TV itself by just forcing customers to tune into the US signal so in 5 years or so Bell/Rogers etc can just sell themselves to DirectTV, Time-Warner cable etc.