Canadian FTA Channels ? - Page 3 - Canadian TV, Computing and Home Theatre Forums

Pinza · 2008-11-20, 05:05 PM

Am I mistaken because I seem to recall a proposal from Bell ExpressVu, as they then were, to set up a new Tier of programming for when the Analog OTA Signals stopped. They were talking of the installation of a Dish and a receiver with limited programming of just the very basic channels, CBC, etc.

Did I dream that.?

Marc · 2008-11-20, 05:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by i hate tv

Marc, would there be any additional cost to have CBC as an FTA channel?

Yes to rent a transponder, or part of one, is an expensive proposition. You would also need addtional uplink and encoding capability. More channels, more money. Pick a number and add five or six zeros.

i hate tv · 2008-11-20, 05:50 PM

I figured as much, and to benefit so few, I guess that is why there is no CBC FTA channel.....

WillDekkard · 2008-11-20, 11:42 PM

With the advent of the throne speech and the government forcasting a possible deficit and cuts in spending. Is this 40th parliment the one that says to the CBC - time to sink or swim ? No more money for the CBC ?

Marc - maybe you can't answer this one ? But any thoughts or opinions ?

classicsat · 2008-11-23, 10:10 AM

AFAIK, the CBC alrerady has trasnponders on F1 and F2 Ku, at least one active on Starchoice. It wouldn't be too hard to put some national free feeds there. Of course, you'd need a DCII receiver, and you cannot get many of those, and their locked down. I'd like to see a genuine DVB-FTA system where we could use any reciever or DVB-PCI tuner card.

That said, I wonder how a UK style TV license will go, and with one or without, it would be doable to set up a UK style TV system here.
There, except for cable, the BBC and other broadcast channels are free from antenna and satellite (including HD). The BBC (and I think other) terrestrial transmiter faclilites are at least managed by
private companies (such as Crown Castle). Typically, with digital antenna and satellite, one can get around 40 channels free.
Mind you, they are a denser country, and have hand the license for years. It might take time for Canada to do the same,

Pinza · 2008-11-23, 11:52 AM

Quote:

the BBC and other broadcast channels are free from antenna and satellite (including HD).

And what is the cost of the Licence.?
Then the cost of Dish and Receiver, if you choose to get "free" TV from that source.?

i hate tv · 2008-11-23, 11:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by classicsat

.Typically, with digital antenna and satellite, one can get around 40 channels free.

Correct me if I'm wrong (it won't be the 1s time

) but don't you have to pay a yearly "license fee" to receive these "free" channels? A friend who lived there many moons ago told me this, if I remember correctly.

WillDekkard · 2008-11-23, 10:37 PM

In England it you are watching TV without a Licence - you have to be on the watch for the TV bobbies. A Van go to houses that have purchased a TV, but not a Licence. Their are ways to mask the the transmissions that the Van picks up but the prevention is usually so expensive that most just buy a Licence. Sorry - I don't know how much that Licence is - but big brother is watching if you are watching.

Really - This type of system takes the Free out of Free-To-Air.

Pinza · 2008-11-24, 07:57 AM

The licence in England in NOT for FTA, or any kind of FREE TV, it is for a Television Receiver.

So if you own a TV, you need a Licence, regardless of if you JUST pick up the FREE channels.

Even more crazy, there used to be 2 levels of Licence, Black & White or Colour. Colour was way more expensive than the B & W licence of course. Now going one more step, if you owned a Black & White TV and had a Video Recorder, you still needed the Colour Licence because the VCR was recording all programming in Colour.....lol

Not sure if there is still a 2 tier system.

Way back in the 70's you also required a licence for a Radio.....In England....

classicsat · 2008-11-25, 07:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pinza

And what is the cost of the Licence.?
Then the cost of Dish and Receiver, if you choose to get "free" TV from that source.?

The License is £139.50

You can get a Freesat system installed for £75 or £150. It has a couple hundred free channels I think. It is very easy to upgrade to get the pay channels, since they use the same satellite/dish/receiver platform.

Freeview (from an antenna, typically a UHF affair mounted outside) has under 50 channels, and those boxes are reasonably cheap, typically <£50, and come built into modern TVs.

You need a license receive from any TV service, or live TV from the web, regardless of equipment.

You don't need a license to watch downloads, DVDs and other pre-recorded content.

If you can prove to inspectors your TV receiving viewing apparatus is not being used illegally, you are excused from paying the license fee and probably fines.

Way back in the 30s and 40s us Canucks needed a license for a radio. I have a label on an old radio from that era that states such.

WillDekkard · 2008-12-04, 12:45 AM

Before the invention of the automobile - man traveled by horse and cart. Before the invention of the internet and email, man communicated by fax, before fax it was phone, before phone it was the telegragh, and before telegragh it was messenger ponies.

My point is tech advancements occur and will continue to occur - So why would the CBC, CTV, Global place money in and maintaining OTA transmission towers when Digital Satellite transmission is far easilier and and cheaper to maintain and easier to deliver to all canadians ?

Second there was a time when TV stations delivered programming and generated their revenue from the commercials that were on their stations ? This has not changed - just the way that signal is delivered has changed or has not changed.

EmmEff · 2008-12-04, 12:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by classicsat

AFAIK, the CBC alrerady has trasnponders on F1 and F2 Ku, at least one active on Starchoice. It wouldn't be too hard to put some national free feeds there. Of course, you'd need a DCII receiver, and you cannot get many of those, and their locked down. I'd like to see a genuine DVB-FTA system where we could use any reciever or DVB-PCI tuner card.

I remember the good ol' days when I could pick up a full bandwidth, analog NTSC (for those unfamiliar, the term "DVD quality" would be a close approximation) CBC feed from Anik E1 using my 10' C-Band dish. Hockey Night in Canada and Blue Jays baseball never looked so good!

Unfortunately, the digital age came and stomped that when they moved to an encrypted DVB signal

classicsat · 2008-12-04, 03:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WillDekkard

My point is tech advancements occur and will continue to occur - So why would the CBC, CTV, Global place money in and maintaining OTA transmission towers when Digital Satellite transmission is far easilier and and cheaper to maintain and easier to deliver to all canadians ?

The deal is those satellite feeds do not belong to the respective stations or networks, but are the private property of the pay TV service transmitting them. That fact is the basis of jrose's concerns, and to a certain degree mine (I too would like to receive Canadian network stations for free on satellite, quite possibly in HD, but I know the facts of the matter).

For things to change, the broadcasters need to take over the satellite distribution of their stations, and come up with a reasonable scheme to make them available on the same or similar basis they would as if they were terrestrial broadcasting.

As to why to keep or even improve the terrestrial broadcast network, they'd do that keep viewers that don't want to pay for satellite or cable, and and possibly keep Canadians from viewing US OTA in HD, not to mention maintaining a system for the sake of simsubs.

Quote:

Second there was a time when TV stations delivered programming and generated their revenue from the commercials that were on their stations ? This has not changed - just the way that signal is delivered has changed or has not changed.

It has not changed at all. The broadcast stations are still there to receive by antenna, for free.

If you are receiving your broadcast stations from a pay TV service, you are essentially receiving a private redistribution from that pay TV provider, not a public broadcast belonging to the broadcaster.

WillDekkard · 2008-12-12, 01:22 AM

classicsat:"As to why to keep or even improve the terrestrial broadcast network, they'd do that keep viewers that don't want to pay for satellite or cable, and and possibly keep Canadians from viewing US OTA in HD, not to mention maintaining a system for the sake of simsubs."

Having Canadian OTA in HD does not keep Canadians from viewing US OTA in HD - It just gives them more choice. Unfortunately these US OTA channels are only available in those metropolitian border communities. The other 80% of canadians are stuck with 1 to 3 OTA Canadian channels where as the TV market of Toronto has 25 OTA channels. Shame that this type of TV vareity is not made available to all Canadians via FTA Ku Band satellite as a FTA setup is realitively inexpensive ?

EmmEff · 2008-12-12, 11:55 AM

How do you convince people they need a separate receiver for each TV? The same people for the past 50 years have been able to pull a signal down on any TV tuner using the antenna on their roof. The US is going through this right now with the DTV switchover. There are still many people who do not understand what's happening and will be surprised when the analog OTA is turned off in early '09.

2008-11-20, 11:42 PM	#34
WillDekkard Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Off World Colony Posts: 57	These Times What They Are ? With the advent of the throne speech and the government forcasting a possible deficit and cuts in spending. Is this 40th parliment the one that says to the CBC - time to sink or swim ? No more money for the CBC ? Marc - maybe you can't answer this one ? But any thoughts or opinions ?

2008-12-04, 12:45 AM	#41
WillDekkard Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Off World Colony Posts: 57	Back to the Topic ? Before the invention of the automobile - man traveled by horse and cart. Before the invention of the internet and email, man communicated by fax, before fax it was phone, before phone it was the telegragh, and before telegragh it was messenger ponies. My point is tech advancements occur and will continue to occur - So why would the CBC, CTV, Global place money in and maintaining OTA transmission towers when Digital Satellite transmission is far easilier and and cheaper to maintain and easier to deliver to all canadians ? Second there was a time when TV stations delivered programming and generated their revenue from the commercials that were on their stations ? This has not changed - just the way that signal is delivered has changed or has not changed.

Thread Tools	Search this Thread
Show Printable Version Email this Page	Search this Thread: Advanced Search
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode

2008-11-20, 05:05 PM	#31
Pinza Veteran Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: GTA Posts: 8,684	Am I mistaken because I seem to recall a proposal from Bell ExpressVu, as they then were, to set up a new Tier of programming for when the Analog OTA Signals stopped. They were talking of the installation of a Dish and a receiver with limited programming of just the very basic channels, CBC, etc. Did I dream that.?

2008-11-20, 05:50 PM	#33
i hate tv Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 2,317	I figured as much, and to benefit so few, I guess that is why there is no CBC FTA channel.....

2008-11-23, 10:10 AM	#35
classicsat Veteran Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Kincardine ON. Posts: 4,008	AFAIK, the CBC alrerady has trasnponders on F1 and F2 Ku, at least one active on Starchoice. It wouldn't be too hard to put some national free feeds there. Of course, you'd need a DCII receiver, and you cannot get many of those, and their locked down. I'd like to see a genuine DVB-FTA system where we could use any reciever or DVB-PCI tuner card. That said, I wonder how a UK style TV license will go, and with one or without, it would be doable to set up a UK style TV system here. There, except for cable, the BBC and other broadcast channels are free from antenna and satellite (including HD). The BBC (and I think other) terrestrial transmiter faclilites are at least managed by private companies (such as Crown Castle). Typically, with digital antenna and satellite, one can get around 40 channels free. Mind you, they are a denser country, and have hand the license for years. It might take time for Canada to do the same,

2008-11-23, 10:37 PM	#38
WillDekkard Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Off World Colony Posts: 57	In England it you are watching TV without a Licence - you have to be on the watch for the TV bobbies. A Van go to houses that have purchased a TV, but not a Licence. Their are ways to mask the the transmissions that the Van picks up but the prevention is usually so expensive that most just buy a Licence. Sorry - I don't know how much that Licence is - but big brother is watching if you are watching. Really - This type of system takes the Free out of Free-To-Air.

2008-11-24, 07:57 AM	#39
Pinza Veteran Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: GTA Posts: 8,684	The licence in England in NOT for FTA, or any kind of FREE TV, it is for a Television Receiver. So if you own a TV, you need a Licence, regardless of if you JUST pick up the FREE channels. Even more crazy, there used to be 2 levels of Licence, Black & White or Colour. Colour was way more expensive than the B & W licence of course. Now going one more step, if you owned a Black & White TV and had a Video Recorder, you still needed the Colour Licence because the VCR was recording all programming in Colour.....lol Not sure if there is still a 2 tier system. Way back in the 70's you also required a licence for a Radio.....In England....

2008-12-12, 01:22 AM	#44
WillDekkard Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Off World Colony Posts: 57	classicsat:"As to why to keep or even improve the terrestrial broadcast network, they'd do that keep viewers that don't want to pay for satellite or cable, and and possibly keep Canadians from viewing US OTA in HD, not to mention maintaining a system for the sake of simsubs." Having Canadian OTA in HD does not keep Canadians from viewing US OTA in HD - It just gives them more choice. Unfortunately these US OTA channels are only available in those metropolitian border communities. The other 80% of canadians are stuck with 1 to 3 OTA Canadian channels where as the TV market of Toronto has 25 OTA channels. Shame that this type of TV vareity is not made available to all Canadians via FTA Ku Band satellite as a FTA setup is realitively inexpensive ?

2008-12-12, 11:55 AM	#45
EmmEff Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Newmarket, Ontario Posts: 371	How do you convince people they need a separate receiver for each TV? The same people for the past 50 years have been able to pull a signal down on any TV tuner using the antenna on their roof. The US is going through this right now with the DTV switchover. There are still many people who do not understand what's happening and will be surprised when the analog OTA is turned off in early '09.