Source: Montreal Gazette
MONTREAL - Canal Savoir insists it would have made the deadline if it weren’t for the asbestos and the baby peregrine falcons.
The educational TV station on Channel 29 is the smallest of nine over-the-air television stations in Montreal, all of whom have been given a deadline of Aug. 31 to convert their transmitters to digital from analog.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, which regulates broadcasting in Canada, is requiring all television broadcasters in major cities to convert to digital – more than two years after the United States mandated the same change for all its stations – as part of a plan that will free up frequencies to be auctioned off to wireless providers. The frequencies, which correspond to TV channels 52-69, are expected to sell for about $4 billion.
Despite having had four years to prepare, and despite the clearer high-definition picture and sound these digital transmitters provide, Canada’s broadcasters haven’t been very enthusiastic about the change. Many have asked for extensions or exceptions because of the prohibitive cost of installing the new transmitters.
With less than 10 per cent of Canadian television viewers still using antennas, and many of them not yet equipped to receive digital signals, the cost of digital transmitters becomes even less justifiable. Many broadcasters are waiting until the last minute to make the switch.
Canal Savoir is largely run by volunteers and has a yearly budget of only $1.2 million, but general manager Sylvie Godbout said the station has been putting money aside for three years and the delay isn’t because of a lack of money. Its transmitter is in the tower at the heart of the Université de Montréal campus, but it’s inaccessible this month because the university is removing asbestos on the 21st floor.
In July, the problem was the recent birth of four peregrine falcons whose nest is on the tower. Named Tawodi, Rick, Éole and Altius, all male, they were hatched in May (there’s video on their blog at
fauconsudem.blogspot.com) and could not be disturbed while still in their infancy.
For these reasons, construction work, which includes strengthening the support for the TV antenna, had to be delayed until September. Godbout said they expect the new transmitter to be running by the end of September, a month before the end of the extension “graciously” given by the CRTC.
The deadline doesn’t come out of nowhere. The CRTC set it back in 2007 after concluding that the market wasn’t moving fast enough on its own.
After a report concluded that converting all of Canada’s 738 analog TV transmitters to digital would cost more than $100 million (CBC/Radio-Canada and CTV put the figure higher, saying it would cost them $400 million each), the CRTC decided in 2009 that it would impose the deadline only in certain markets – capital cities or those with large populations.
In Quebec, there are eight such markets: Montreal, Quebec City, Gatineau, Sherbrooke, Trois Rivières, Rivière du Loup, Saguenay and Rouyn Noranda/Val d’Or. Stations outside these markets can keep transmitting in analog, provided they’re using frequencies that won’t be auctioned off (channels 52-69). The CRTC has not yet set a deadline for small-market stations to switch to digital.
The concessions didn’t stop there. In March, the CRTC removed territorial capitals from the list of mandatory markets when it became clear the broadcasters would rather shut them down than convert them to digital. And on Aug. 18, with less than two weeks to the deadline, the CRTC allowed CBC/Radio-Canada to keep 21 retransmitters in mandatory markets running for another year. This includes CBC stations in Quebec City, Saguenay, Sherbrooke and Trois-Rivières, which rebroadcast CBC Montreal and produce no original programming.
CBC vice-president and chief regulatory officer Steven Guiton said last week the public broadcaster’s plan is “to keep the analog going as much as we can – a few years maybe.” This will probably mean asking for a second extension when the first one runs out on Aug. 31, 2012, Guiton said. For small-market stations, many in remote regions like Chibougamau and Îles de la Madeleine, Guiton doesn’t expect they will ever be converted to digital. “We’ll never be able to put the same footprint that exists in analog,” he said. Instead, other technologies will be used to get programming to remote regions.
For CTV Montreal, which has only one transmitter in Quebec on the huge Mount Royal antenna tower, everything is on schedule. “We’re ready to hit the button,” said general manager Don Bastien. At 12:05 a.m. on Sept. 1, just after the late newscast ends, CFCF-TV, which has been broadcasting in analog on Channel 12 since 1961, goes off the air for good, and a digital transmitter will replace it on the same channel.
While the transmitter will be high definition and carry HD programming, CTV’s flagship newscast won’t be making the switch to HD soon. The station is building an “HD-ready” studio, set to launch Sept. 6 at noon, but replacing studio cameras, field cameras and editing and control systems is a much more elaborate and expensive proposition. Because Bell Media has prioritized converting specialty channels like Space into HD first, CTV Montreal doesn’t expect to have an HD newscast for another 12-24 months, Bastien said.
Global has already switched its transmitters in Montreal, Quebec City and Sherbrooke. The Global Montreal newscast – produced out of Vancouver but with anchors and reporters in Montreal – has only its weather reports in HD, since those are done in Toronto. Once it has new field cameras, new edit suites and a faster data connection, it should be all HD. “We are optimistic that our newscast will be produced in HD by the end of the year,” said Dervla Kelly, senior director of communications for parent company Shaw Media.
CBC Montreal has had a digital transmitter since 2005, and its newscast has been fully HD since 2009. All four French networks have also been fully HD for some time.
The ninth station, the multicultural station Metro 14 (formerly CJNT), will swap its transmitters and retune its antenna on Saturday. Wayne Rabishaw, broadcast operations manager for parent company Channel Zero, said its coverage area is expected to almost double (though that’s not saying much, since it’s tiny right now).
Global Montreal also expects a significant coverage boost, while CBC and CTV expect their range to be about the same as it is now.
That’s not much comfort to the Montrealers who have to shell out money to buy new TVs or digital converters (electronics retailer Future Shop wouldn’t give any hard numbers, but said sales of digital converters “are exceeding expectations”). Those with less money are more likely not to have cable or satellite service, and unlike the U.S., which provided coupons for digital converters, the Canadian government is not providing any financial assistance to broadcasters or consumers to make this transition. It “wasn’t deemed necessary” because of the small number of people affected, said Chaouki Dakdouki, director of distribution and access policy for the Department of Canadian Heritage.
© Montreal Gazette
