TVO DTV plans

[InMontreal]

3. TVO's Digital Over-the-air Conversion Plans

TVO will convert directly from analog to digital in nine markets. These include the mandatory markets of Toronto, Kitchener, London, Windsor, Ottawa and Thunder Bay. They also include transmitter sites in Belleville, Cloyne and Chatham, where we are required to cease analog broadcasting because the local channel is between 52 and 69.

Here is our conversion schedule:

In London, Kitchener, Ottawa and Thunder Bay, TVO will cease analog transmission at 1 am and begin digital transmission at 6 am on Tuesday August 16 on the following channels:

-London: digital channel 18
-Kitchener: digital channel 28
-Ottawa: digital channel 24
-Thunder Bay: digital channel 9


In Windsor, Chatham, Toronto, Belleville and Cloyne, TVO will cease analog transmission at 1 am and begin digital transmission at 6 am on Thursday August 18 on the following channels:

-Windsor: digital channel 32
-Chatham: digital channel 33
-Toronto: digital channel 19
-Belleville: digital channel 26
-Cloyne: digital channel 44

Source: http://tvo.org/digitalovertheair

[InMontreal]

2. Analog over-the-air Transmission

TVO will be moving forward with a plan to decommission our analog OTA transmitters over the next 18 months. We operate 100 analog low-powered relay television (LPRT) transmitters and 14 analog medium/high power transmitters that deliver the TVO signal over-the-air.

These analog transmitters serve an estimated 1% of Ontario households. More than 90% of Canadian households subscribe to cable or satellite, and online and mobile media consumption are growing fast. Given the very small number of analog OTA viewers, the current fiscal reality and TVO’s need to reduce its reliance on Government grants, we do not have the means to convert our analog transmitters to digital or to spend our limited resources on maintaining our ageing equipment.

Low-powered relay television transmitters (LPRT)

* The LPRT sites were installed in the late 1980s with special one-time funding as part of the Television Extension in Northern Ontario (TENO) initiative. A decade later, Direct to Home (DTH) satellite subscription services came to market with the ability to provide a broad selection of television programming services to the North. As a result of the increased choice, more than half of the originally installed TVO LPRTs have already been removed or transferred to the community at the request of the community.

* TVO has reached out to every community that still has an LPRT transmitter to inform the community of our plans and to make arrangements for TVO technicians to come and remove our equipment. We have extended the option to each community to transfer ownership of the local transmitter tower and satellite dish. Many communities that formerly had TVO LPRT transmitters now use the tower for local wireless services.

* Decommissioning work of the 100 LPRT sites will begin immediately, and it is anticipated that TVO will be able to decommission about 50 LPRT sites per year, completing the work by October 2013.

Medium/high power transmitters

On July 31, 2012 TVO will cease transmission at its 14 medium/high power sites, and then we will begin to decommission those sites. After July 31, 2012 over-the-air viewers in the following communities can receive TVO by subscribing to a local television service provider:

Bancroft channel 42
Hawkesbury channel 48
Huntsville channel 13
Kenora channel 44
Kingston channel 38
North Bay channel 6
Owen Sound channel 12
Parry Sound channel 42
Pembroke channel 29
Penetanguishene channel 51
Peterborough channel 18
Sault Ste. Marie channel 20
Sudbury channel 19
Timmins channel 7

Source: http://about.tvo.org/who-we-are/digi...air-transition

CRTC document 2012-0566-7 (Public Proceedings). Deadline to submit an opposition (or support): July 9th, 2012

[bigoranget]

I think at the very least TVO should transition Kingston, Sudbury and Peterborough to digital.

[InMontreal]

Exactly, that's the thing that doesn't make sense. TVO already upgraded 9 transmitters to digital, keep small transmitters operating but shutting down 14 medium-size market analog transmitters first without any replacement.

It would be more logic to upgrade mid-size market transmitters to digital, and shut down those small low-power transmitters that their respective community doesn't want to take over.

The CBC plans on shutting down ALL of the 620+ analog transmitters remaining have leverage: protesting their budget cuts, they want the public to speak for them and hopefully restore their budget. What is TVO's leverage in this?

[InMontreal]

Now TFO is requesting to shut down transmitters located in Pembroke, Lac Ste-Thérèse, Hawkesbury and Sudbury, apparently because TVO is shutting down their analog transmitters located at the same sites.

http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2012/lb120626.htm

[bigoranget]

what is with Canada and OTA? We seem to be the only Country that wants to completely ditch over-the-air reception.

There is a few special interest groups in the US trying to get more of the broadcast spectrum but many broadcasters are fighting this.