CRTC open proceeding published yesterday @ https://services.crtc.gc.ca/pub/DocW...ppNo=201900887

Yep, another unsurprising incremental dystopia for OTA. I know it's "only" ancient analog transmitters outside of urban cities, but how long before they try to pull the plug on 'em all, DTV be damned?

So far the first intervention suspiciously reads like George Cope pretending to be an ordinary citizen from Winnipeg:

Seriously? Who would say such a thing other than someone with a vested interest in BCE?

Another 24 transmitters been added to the list, search decision 2019-0088-7 on crtc, if copy and paste works well here it is..
Nova Scotia
CJCB-TV Sydney and its transmitters
CJCB-TV-1 Inverness
CJCB-TV-2 Antigonish
CJCB-TV-3 Dingwall
CJCB-TV-6 Port Hawkesbury

CJCH-DT Halifax and its transmitters
CJCH-TV-1 Canning
CJCH-TV-3 Valley Colchester County
CJCH-TV-4 Bridgetown
CJCH-TV-5 Sheet Harbour
CJCH-TV-6 Caledonia
CJCH-TV-7 Yarmouth
New Brunswick
CKCW-DT Moncton and its transmitters
CKAM-TV-3 Blackville
CKAM-TV-4 Doaktown
CKCW-DT-1 Charlottetown, PEI

CKLT-DT Saint John and its transmitters
CKLT-TV-1 Florenceville
CKLTV-2 Boiestown
Quebec
CFCF-DT Montreal
Ontario
CFPL-DT London

CFTO-DT Toronto and its transmitters
CFTO-TV-21 Orillia
CFTO-DT-54 Peterborough

CHBX-TV Sault Ste. Marie

CHRO-TV Pembroke

CHRO-DT-43 Ottawa

CJOH-DT and its transmitters
CJOH-TV-6 Desoronto
CJOH-TV-47 Pembroke

CHWI-DT Wheatley and its transmitter
CHWI-DT-60 Windsor

CICI-TV Sudbury and its transmitter
CKNY-TV-11 Huntsville

CITO-TV Timmins and its transmitters
CITO-TV-1 Kapuskasing
CITO-TV-2 Kearns

CKCO-DT Kitchener and its transmitter
CKCO-TV-3 Oil Springs

CKNY-TV North Bay

CKVR-DT Barrie and its transmitters
CHJC-DT Burlington
CKVP-DT Welland
Manitoba
CKY-DT Winnipeg and its transmitters
CKYA-TV Fisher Branch
CKYB-TV Brandon
CKYD-TV Dauphin
CKYF-TV Flin Flon
CKYP-TV The Pas
CKYT-TV Thompson
Saskatchewan
CFQC-DT Saskatoon and its transmitters
CFQC-TV-1 Stranraer
CFQC-TV-2 North Battleford

CICC-TV Yorkton

CIPA-TV Prince Albert

CKCK-DT Regina
and its transmitters
CKMC-TV Swift Current
CKMJ-TV Marquis
Alberta
CFCN-DT Calgary and its transmitters
CFCN-TV-2 Banff
CFCN-TV-13 Pigeon Mountain
CFCN-TV-14 Harvie Heights
CFCN-TV-15 Invermere, BC

CFCN-DT-5 Lethbridge and its transmitters
CFCN-TV-8 Medicine Hat
CFCN-TV-9 Cranbrook, BC
CFCN-TV-10 Fernie, BC

CFRN-DT Edmonton and its transmitters
CFRN-TV-1 Grande Prairie
CFRN-TV-3 WhiteCourt
CFRN-TV-4 Ashmont
CFRN-TV-5 Lac La Biche
CFRN-TV-7 Lougheed
CFRN-TV-9 Slave Lake
CFRN-TV-12 Athabasca

CFRN-TV-6 Red Deer
British Columbia
CIVT-DT Vancouver

CIVI-DT Victoria and its transmitter
CIVI-DT-2 Vancouver

CFTK-TV Terrace and its transmitter
CFTK-TV-1 Prince Rupert
(Licensee: Bell Media Radio (Toronto) Inc. and 4382072 Canada Inc., partners in a general partnership carrying on business as Bell Media Radio G.P.)

CJDC-TV Dawson Creek and its transmitter
CJDC-TV-2 Bullhead Mountain
(Licensee: Bell Media Radio (Toronto) Inc. and 4382072 Canada Inc., partners in a general partnership carrying on business as Bell Media Radio G.P.)

ps looks like a few dt as well

That original list is wrong, you were looking at the wrong document. These are the transmitters that they are looking to shut down.

CJCB-TV-3 Dingwall
CJCH-TV-3 Valley Colchester County
CJCH-TV-4 Bridgetown
CKAM-TV-3 Blackville
CKAM-TV-4 Doaktown
CKLTV-2 Boiestown
CJOH-TV-47 Pembroke
CKCO-TV-3 Oil Springs
CJOH-TV-6 Desoronto
CKNY-TV-11 Huntsville
CITO-TV-2 Kearns
CKYA-TV Fisher Branch
CKYD-TV Dauphin
CKYF-TV Flin Flon
CKYP-TV The Pas
CKMC-TV Swift Current
CFQC-TV-1 Stranraer
CFQC-TV-2 North Battleford
CKMJ-TV Marquis
CFRN-TV-3 WhiteCourt
CFRN-TV-4 Ashmont
CFRN-TV-5 Lac La Biche
CFRN-TV-7 Lougheed
CFRN-TV-12 Athabasca
CFRN-TV-9 Slave Lake
CFCN-TV-15 Invermere
CFCN-TV-9 Cranbrook
CFCN-TV-10 Fernie

Mr. George Cope probably should have disclosed how many BCE shares he owns, how many of his family members work for Bell, etc. before making that comment.

phew, thats good, finally shutting down analog? its about time eh? and noticed theres no analog towers in the GTA, thats good! we are finally moving forward in life. we can not stay on dinosaur technology for ever

Yeah, moving forward but not replacing them with digital?

You don't get subscribers for your IPTV service by putting up digital transmitters.

true, i'm not even gonna comment on that scenario.

But that is the scenario. No one is converting to digital unless they have to. And most broadcasters in Canada feel that they have to.

No stations have (or had) to be converted. During the first transition, broadcasters in larger centres (>300,000 pop.), had a choice of converting to ATSC or shutting them down. Most of those were converted but a few were shut down. More were converted and shut down at a later date. CBC and SUN are examples of broadcasters that shut down digital transmitters in larger cities after 2011.

A lot of analog transmitters were shut down at a later date, for example all of the CBC analog transmitters.

Global converted it's transmitters only due to a condition of its acquisition by Shaw. I believe a few of those have since been shut down.

CTV continued to operate some of it's analog transmitters on unassigned frequencies, causing other networks and stations problems due to interference. Some of those frequencies are now being reassigned to other uses and must be converted or shut down. For example, CTV's analog transmitter in Oil Springs continued to operate on 43 despite the reassignment of that frequency for use by TVO. Channel 43 transmitters must now be shut down due to that spectrum now being reassigned to other uses. It's no secret that CTV wants to shut down all of its OTA transmitters but they would lose simsub rights on BDUs.

Interestingly enough, this latest CRTC filing reveals they don't care about that anymore:

"Moreover, we are fully aware of the loss of certain regulatory privileges as a result of any transmitter shutdown, such as distribution on the basic service and the ability to request simultaneous substitution."


After this latest exercise in pandering to shareholder greed is rubber-stamped, Bell will probably try to shut down every transmitter except one per province, then every one except Toronto, then everything.

CJOH-TV-6 Desoronto is getting close.

Gosh, I remember that one turning on ... it provided Kingston and Belleville with CTV for the first time.

Hmm, with CKWS going to Global, then no terrestrial CTV signal now in Kingston? Must be 150,000 or more in the footprint. ... edit ... probably over 300,000 now I dig further with southern portions of Frontenac, Lennox/Addington/Hastings. Prince Edward + Kingston, Bellevile, Quinte, etc.

Edit ... is the CJOH analogue transmitter in Cornwall that can be picked up in Montreal still there? It's not on the cut list, and I think it was still there in 2016.

Part of the reason is that CTV simsubs everything on their own BDUs regardless of whether it is required. Bell owns the largest satellite service and substitutes everything with its Toronto and Vancouver stations. They also throw in other random substitutions such as TSN programming that is also on US stations. That's affects about 2/3 of Canadians with satellite TV. That also spills over onto Telus satellite and anything else that relies on Bell satellite feeds such as smaller cable systems. Bell also substitutes everything on their IPTV service which is growing in metropolitan areas with high speed internet. That may extend to other IPTV services that rely on Bell IPTV feeds.

The remaining digital stations cover the majority of Canadians with a grade B contour who will still get simsubs. After everything is factored in, Bell will still get simsubs for the majority of Canadian BDU subscribers. The analog transmitters being shut down all serve markets under 300,000 people. The Oil Springs transmitter, for example is a repeater that serves a mainly rural region that has very low population density. In the surrounding counties, including Sarnia and Chatham, it probably serves close to 200,000 people. That's tiny compared to the population served by their Toronto transmitter.

I wonder what CTV plans to do with the remaining transmitters that are not on the list. Mainly CHRO in Pembroke and the many CTV stations in Northern Ontario and Saskatchewan. I mean it's 2019. Are there any countries left other than Canada with analogue? Even Cuba switched to digital several years ago. Pretty much most of Latin America, Europe and Asia is all digital.

This is going back at least 3-4 years (maybe longer). CTV had a transmitter failure on their channel 2 transmitter in Wiarton. It was down for weeks and they didn't receive one call about it.

As much as people may not like that there is no plans to convert to digital, there is no point in keeping any of the analog transmitters operational. I seriously doubt more than a handful of people are watching. They probably found some other means to watch TV years ago. Outside of major cities, you are lucky if you even get one channel these days.

In regards to simsubs, it's not just Bell that centralizes simsubs. Shaw and Eastlink centralize their simsubs too and I will bet you all the communities above will still be subjected to simsubs even after the transmitters shut down.