[opendtv] Canada's Minimalist Approach to the DTV Transition
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 1 Apr 2011 16:35:33 -0500
Not sure why the Scott Hutton feels that the US acted too soon. Reading the
article, it seems fairly obvious that Canadian households today, two years
after the US transition ended, are no better prepared than US households were.
In fact, less so.
I think the US could have ended analog on the original date of 31 Dec 2006
(IIRC) with no big catastrophe. Very decent receivers had already become
available, in quantity, three years prior. It's all a matter of "getting off
the pot."
Bert
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http://www.tvtechnology.com/article/117022
Canada's Minimalist Approach to the DTV Transition
by James Careless, 04.01.2011
OTTAWA-The clock is ticking: On August 31, 2011, up to one million Canadians
who rely on over the air broadcast television will lose their analog TV
signals. In fact, up to 9.7 million Canadians could be affected by the shutdown
of analog television when the Canadian DTV Transition takes place, because 29
percent of Canadian households have at least one TV using an OTA antenna,
according to Ian Morrison, spokesperson for the Friends of Canadian
Broadcasting, a Toronto-based nationwide voluntary organization tasked with
defending and enhance the quality and quantity of Canadian programming.
For the record, the DTV transition will affect Canada's 31 "mandatory markets,"
defined as the country's national, provincial and territorial capital cities;
areas with a population over 300,000, and any smaller areas with more than one
local OTA TV station. Smaller market broadcasters are being allowed to stay in
analog mode below Channel 52 as long as they don't interfere with DTV signals.
U.S. ACTED 'TOO EARLY AND TOO BIG'
With less than six months to go, most Canadians remain unaware and uninformed
about the impending DTV Transition. Only a handful of articles in the trade
press have broken the story, but the Canadian media is otherwise not focused on
the approaching analog TV shutdown, and hence, the public that relies on them.
As for the Canadian federal government? Currently the flagbearer of their
minimal efforts is a government Website. Under the banner, "Canada's Transition
to Digital Television (DTV)," the site simply says, "Following a decision from
the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), many
Canadian local television stations will have stopped broadcasting in analog and
will be broadcasting in digital by August 31, 2011. The vast majority of
Canadians will not be affected because they receive their television signals by
cable, by satellite or via the Internet. If you receive TV signals using a
rooftop antenna or 'rabbit ears,' you may be affected."
The government website's advice for those who are affected is to buy a new
digital TV set; subscribe to cable, Internet or satellite TV, or buy a digital
set-top converter at their own expense.
This minimal messaging will soon be bolstered by a national PSA public
awareness campaign, according to CRTC spokesperson Scott Hutton. Asked why PSAs
are only now being launched less than six months before Canada's DTV
transition, Hutton responds by saying the United States "went too early and too
big" in its DTV transition and $1 billion set-top converter box coupon
programs. Because an estimated 93 percent of Canadians are already on cable,
Internet and satellite TV, and because Canada will not subsidize digital
converters for the remaining 7 percent, the Canadian DTV transition is of a
"more manageable size," he says.
Besides, converters only cost $30, Hutton notes. That's a number that the CRTC
"has deemed to be affordable" for all Canadians.
PICKING UP THE TAB
Consumers are not the only ones not being helped with the DTV transition.
Broadcasters have also been left to pick up the estimated $77 million
conversion bill.
Meanwhile, the Canadian government stands to earn up to $4 billion by
auctioning off vacated analog TV spectrum in the 700 MHz band. Yet Canadian
Heritage Minister James Moore-the man legally responsible for Canada's
broadcasting system-is on record as saying, "Our Government expects
industry-led solutions that will ensure a smooth transition for consumers."
Hutton is similarly unsympathetic to broadcasters' calls for help, even though
he says they were hurt by the recession. "There's no help coming from other
areas," Hutton tells TV Technology. "You must get this done."
That may be okay for commercially funded broadcasters such as CTV and Shaw
(formerly CanWest). But even the publicly funded, cash-strapped Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation (CBC-TV) has not been given money to cover the expense
of installing digital transmitters.
"The government made a deliberate decision not to fund the CBC for this
transition-or fund anything else as part of the transition," says former CBC-TV
executive Michael McEwen. He headed up CDTV, aka Canadian Digital Television.
Launched by broadcasters to manage the DTV transition after the CRTC announced
it in 2002, CDTV died four years later when some of its members quit. "On the
other hand, both private and public broadcasters have had a decade to build out
their digital networks and failed to do so," McEwen adds. "In my view, both the
industry and government have a lot to answer for."
Whoever is to blame, the fact remains that time is running out for Canadian OTA
analog television-and some people are likely to be unpleasantly surprised or
worse when the DTV transition occurs. "It would be naive to think otherwise,"
says Wayne Stacey, one of Canada's most respected broadcast consultants. "Even
the U.S. with its massive publicity campaign did not get the necessary info out
to all OTA viewers on time."
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