CRTC allows CBC to continue broadcasting analog television signals in 22 markets

[hugh]

From Press release today

OTTAWA-GATINEAU, August 16, 2011 — Today, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) gave the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) permission to continue broadcasting analog over-the-air television signals in 22 markets until August 31, 2012. This decision gives the CBC an additional year to find solutions for viewers who may lose access to its over-the-air signals after the transition to digital television.

In 2007, the CRTC set August 31, 2011 as the deadline for broadcasters to complete the transition from analog to digital television. The transition is mandatory in 28 Canadian markets, including provincial and national capitals, metropolitan areas with populations greater than 300,000, and markets served by more than one local television station.

The CBC operates 25 local stations in mandatory markets whose over-the-air transmitters will be converted to digital in time for the deadline. The CBC also operates 22 analog transmitters that rebroadcast its stations’ signals into other communities that are also considered mandatory markets, but does not intend to replace them with digital transmitters. For example, under the CBC’s current transition plans, the signal of its English-language television station in Montreal would not have been available in Quebec City after the transition.

As the national public broadcaster, the CBC has a unique mandate to serve the entire Canadian population. A one-year extension is necessary to guarantee over-the-air viewers in some mandatory markets do not lose access to the signals of CBC television stations and have sufficient time to find alternate means of accessing them.

The CRTC will examine the CBC’s long-term plans for its analog over-the-air transmitters during the June 2012 public hearing to renew its radio and television licences.

Following the transition to digital television, the government has reserved channels 52 to 69 for public safety and advanced wireless services. The CBC must vacate these channels by the August 31, 2011 deadline by either moving its signal to a lower channel on the dial or switching to a low-power transmitter.

This is insane. The CRTC has effectively scrapped the analog to digital conversion for a year!

What happened to all the good reasons for making the change?

[micah]

I think from IC/CRTC point of view, they have it regardless of CBC in digital. Everyone (including the CBC) is off the auctionable frequency range.

Or were you talking about the good reasons for the citizens!? Not sure anyone really cares about that!

[stampeder]

The commercial network and station owners have every right to be livid over this. They played by the rules, did the hard work, spent the bucks, but in the end are forced to watch the CBC given preferentical treatment simply because the CBC senior executives have been so patently inept, incompetent, and out of touch with reality regarding the DTV Transition. As I've said many times before, the CBC/SRC broadcasting technicians and staff responsible for DTV are an excellent group who have done terrific work for over a decade (CBC is a charter member of the ATSC) so for those fine people it is gutting to see the senior executives ruin the fruits of their expertise.

Consumers are the ultimate victim here, and should demand immediate changes to the CBC's top executive structure (firings are in order).

[hugh]

I really don't see why CBC Execs should be fired.

They argued that there was no viable business strategy for converting everything to digital and that it was a waste of millions of dollars for smaller markets. Considering the CBC is having its budget slashed every year, its ridiculous to think that they can pay millions for conversions, keep up their programming and so on.

If anyone should be fired, it's the head of the CRTC for changing the rules and for letting this situation get to this point.

[ScaryBob]

Everyone (including the CBC) is off the auctionable frequency range.

I believe the CBC is still operating at low power on channels 52-69 in some markets. The power is often so low, I doubt they will reach very many people.

[foxfan]

Don't want to get political, Hugh, but CBC's budget hasn't been slashed year after year. It's been raised to $1.1 Billion annually.

It would be nice to know where the money is going, though they are still refusing to subject their expenses to the Access to Information act.

Back to the topic, does this list include CBEFT Windsor? It's just nonsensical to have ONE analog station in a market where all the others are digital. From a user's point of view, no one will want to go through the process of turning off their box, changing remotes to tune the TV to the analog channel and then switch it back to the box for the digital channels.

[hugh]

The transmitters are as follows:
English-language television

• CBRT-6 Lethbridge, Alberta
• CBAT-TV Saint John, New Brunswick
• CBAT-TV-2 Moncton, New Brunswick
• CBLN-TV London, Ontario
• CBLN-TV-1 Paris, Ontario (serving Kitchener-Waterloo)
• CBMT-3 Sherbrooke, Quebec
• CBJET Chicoutimi, Quebec
• CBVE-TV Québec, Quebec
• CBMT-1 Trois-Rivières, Quebec
• CBKST Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

French-language television

• CBRFT Calgary, Alberta
• CBXFT-3 Lethbridge, Alberta
• CBAFT-1 Saint John, New Brunswick
• CBAFT-10 Fredericton, New Brunswick
• CBHFT Halifax, Nova Scotia
• CBAFT-5 Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island
• CBFJ-TV St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador
• CBLFT-9 London, Ontario
• CBLFT-8 Kitchener, Ontario
• CBLFT-18 Thunder Bay, Ontario
• CBEFT Windsor, Ontario
• CBKFT-1 Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

[hugh]

Don't want to get political, Hugh,

And I don't want to get political.

The point is that the CRTC is the government. It's the guys that make the rules and enforce them. Over the last few years its changed the rules and changed its mind too many times.

Regardless of what you think of the CBC, it's the CRTC's job to "get er done" and on that criteria, it has failed miserably.

[stampeder]

Letting huge sections of Canada go dark is completely against the intent of the CBC/SRC's existence. The fact that the senior executives purposely attempted to force Canadians into supporting the business models of the BDUs or "do without" is completely worthy of firings. They have been erronious and misleading in their DTV stance, which is also worthy of firings. They have been duplicitous in their cost estimates, as has been pointed out frequently here at our site, which is especially worthy of firings.

This is about responsibility. The CBC senior executives are responsible for a mess of their own making and they must face the consequences. The CRTC must never be handed a box of some company or organization's mess and be expected to clean it up for them. The CRTC gave the CBC senior execs a "get out of jail free" card on this one, which is totally unfair to all those broadcasters who followed the rules.

[micah]

OK,

So everyone keep on doing what we have been doing the whole time. Talk to your MPs, MPPs and city counsel members. These efforts have paid off so far (sort of), but we have to persist.

The CBC was just going to shut it down. I believe that due to our public pressure they asked the CRTC if the service could stay on in analogue to appease all of the politicians (who see analogue access equivalent to digital -- access is access). But, it didn't really work out how they wanted. Now we have to persist and make sure the people who have been pushing all along continue to do so for a permanent digital solution.

[micah]

Also, I agree with stamp. The creative people are doing a fine job, its a management problem IMO. If they are not interested in broadcasting then they shouldn't be working for a public broadcaster.

[hugh]

There are many of us who are comfortable with transmitters being shut down. IMO, The cost of the digital transition is too high. We've had this argument several times over the last few years.

Here is what I said in April 2009 in that thread

Honestly, I wonder if its $424 million worth spending? I mean the majority of the population will never use it. Sure we technogeeks like it but are we not just asking taxpayers to subsidize our HD entertainment?

and

I agree that spending hundreds of thousands of dollars (and up to millions) for small areas where the number of "digital" tv users might number in the hundreds is a ridiculous waste of money.

I believe the CBC should not bother spending millions where viewership is low whereas others disagree. That's fair. We all have our opinion. However, its the CRTC's job to ensure the decisions are made, the rules in place and that the rules are enforced. The CRTC has been incompetent in both how it went about this, how it changed the rules and how it was all enforced.

Blaming the CBC for the CRTC's mistakes is like the politicians blaming the voters for the government spending too much.

[stampeder]

The reason I lay blame and acrimony at the door of the CBC senior executive suite is that so much of their words and decisions regarding the DTV Transition have been easily shown to be wrong, and we've been pointing out those errors for quite a long time. To me the intent has always seemed to be cynical.

In another thread I have advocated that CBC Transmission (the component of the bigger corporation that is specifically involved in the physical management and operation of the CBC's OTA TV and Radio broadcast transmission assets across the country) be spun off into a completely independent entity with adequate funding, and that the CBC be directed to no longer address the technical issues of providing signal anywhere.

Let them provide only an uplink, and let them focus on everything else the CBC is supposed to be doing, but get them out of the business of deciding who can and cannot receive their signals.

[hugh]

The notion of separating physical assets from content creation is reasonable athough I still think you would have arguments over funding and it would have a lot of overhead that would ultimately cost even more to administer.

But once again, regardless of what you think of CBC execs, who's running the show here?

The execs at CBC, CTV, and Global are always going to argue for what is best for their respective corporations. Self interest and self preservation is not unique to the CBC. The point is that its the CRTC, acting as a regulator and enforcer for the government, job is to get it done.

The CRTC has dropped the ball and failed to carry out what it was supposed to do. Fire the head and let federal agencies know that there is some accountability.

[ScaryBob]

There are many of us who are comfortable with transmitters being shut down. IMO, The cost of the digital transition is too high.

How about cost?

Total cost to the CBC, $4,000,000 over the life of a digital transmitter. (Using the CBC's own figures that include operating costs.)

Cost to consumers in a market 500,000 people = 30,000 x $40/month x 240 months = $288,000,000. (This assumes a rather conservative 6% OTA CBC viewership, $40 per month basic cable/satellite subscription and a 20 year transmitter life.) If surrounding areas are taken into account (rural areas and small towns that are not considered part of the main market), costs to the public become even more staggering. Note that many of those viewers will lose coverage anyway when the CBC's reduced analog power plans goes into effect.

Terminating OTA broadcasting is a decision that essentially passes costs off to the Canadian public at more than 72 times the savings to CBC. The internet is not a suitable option since the cost analysis is similar and high speed internet is not available to rural viewers. In no uncertain terms, the CBC and the CRTC are shirking their responsibilities to the Canadian public and draining millions of dollars from small to mid-sized cities and regions that cannot afford the economic hit.