Digital Television in Canada
Digital television is one emerging media technology in Canada. Although some Television stations have begun broadcasting digital signals in addition to their VHF or UHF broadcasts, this is not yet as common place as in the United States. According to BBG, most markets have digital channel assignments already in place but to date digital broadcasts have only been introduced in the largest cities. Digital TV sets are available in Canadian stores, but most viewers still have not switched from their old analog sets.
Television networks, including CBC for one are less enthusiastic patrons of a comprehensive digital conversion strategy in Canada, citing that is not yet a viable business proposition any better than current technology. At CRTC hearings in 2007 on the future direction of regulatory policy for television, broadcasters proposed a number of strategies, including funding digital conversion by eliminating restrictions on the amount of advertising that television broadcasters are permitted to air, allowing terrestrial broadcasters to charge cable viewers a subscription fee similar to that already charged by cable specialty channels, permitting license fees similar to those which fund the BBC in the United Kingdom, or eliminating terrestrial television broadcasting entirely and moving to an exclusively cable-based distribution model.
Deadline was set in these CRTC hearings that by 31 August 2011 Canadian broadcasting should be digital all the way. This is approximately two years later than the cutoff date in the United States. As suggested by broadcasting networks, CRTC ruled in favor of relaxing some restrictions on advertising. A year later that the decision was made, CRTC issued a statement in June 2008 that the preparations for transition is not as fast as it should be. As of that date, there were only 22 digital transmitters that had been fully set up across the entire nation, falling short of the vital number of installations required to pave the way for a shift to digital broadcasting.
Ninety percent of Canadian households use cable television, making it a very common method of television programming delivery in the country. Currently, there are 739 licensed cable distributors in Canada. This streamlining of the cable distribution companies from 2000 just a few years ago is attributable both to major cable companies acquiring smaller distributors and to a recent change in CRTC rules by which independent cable operators with fewer than 2,000 subscribers are no longer required to operate under full CRTC licenses.
Major Canadian cable companies include Rogers, Shaw, Cogeco, Vidéotron and EastLink/Persona. But despite these many numbers, most cable companies do not compete with each other directly. Only one cable company serves a specific market in most Canadian cities. And in the few cities that are served by more than 1 cable company, each company is restricted to a specific geographical area within the market. For instance, in Hamilton, Cogeco Cable, Mountain Cablevision and Source Cable are all licensed operators, but each has a monopoly in a specific area of the city.
However, 2 big companies offer direct broadcast satellite delivery a different option to cable: Bell TV, which is a division of BCE Inc., and Star Choice, which is a division of Shaw Cable. Grey market DBS dishes are also available from US services such as Dish Network and DirecTV, but since these are not licensed providers, stores that sell those packages are at risk of being criminally liable.
0 comments Wednesday 04 Feb 2009 | admin | General

























