CBC shutting down all tranlsator stations at end of month

[rogerduncan100]

You might well be right, it just isn't going to happen because that's just not the way FTA is in North America.Fact is, 80% of Canadians live in cities and I am only thinking about the ones in rural areas which is not that many people.Also, I like the idea of a direct link from TV station to viewer but Rural Canada is already served by Bell and Shaw so it's "too late".

 

[Mr Tony]

most of the rural folks probably have satellite or (if its there) cable

 

[Mr Tony]

info from the CBC themselves
Analogue TV • CBC/Radio-Canada

actually some good info on this site if you dig around

 

[CK SatGuy]

620 transmitters for just 1.7% of the population? When you look at it that way, I don't blame them for shutting them down. On the other hand, some of those transmitters are in big towns such as London, Kitchener, and Barrie in Ontario where they now lost both CBC and its French counterpart SRC. To me if the CRTC had their priorities straight, instead of cutting CBC's budget by $115 million, they should've increased that budget or at least give CBC some kind of loan to help convert the analog transmitters to digital in at least the remaining mandatory markets by the deadline. Now CBC/SRC only has 23 out of the 28 mandatory markets broadcasting in digital with etiher CBC or SRC or both. And with the corporation trying to figure out how to pay $200 million in expenses in the next 3 years, I don't see how they're going to fill the remaining mandatory markets.

 

[Mr Tony]

I thought they said 1.7% of the population used OTA?

Alot of those transmitters were like 10 watts (the TVO ones) in real remote spots

 

[CK SatGuy]

I thought they said 1.7% of the population used OTA?

Alot of those transmitters were like 10 watts (the TVO ones) in real remote spots

That's true. My point was that if Canada was really serious about going digital like the U.S did, instead of cutting CBC's budget, the CRTC should've increased it and help them go digital in the markets that were required to go digital. Instead, the CRTC practically did nothing and that's why some towns like the ones I mentioned earlier now don't have CBC or SRC available through OTA. I agree that they should've shut down the ones that were in really remote areas and they did.

 

[Mr Tony]

The big difference between translator stations in the states and Canada is in the states most are run by a co-op or someone other than the station themselves. In Canada most of those SRC & CBC translators were owned by the CBC (all of TVO's were O&O)

The government (dont make it political) had grants that the translator station owners could get so they could upgrade quicker than 2015.
Sadly some of these translator markets have a better selection than we have in major cities.