Bold HD possibly launching in time for the World Cup

[musimax]

Note, this hasn't been confirmed yet and is technically a rumour at this point, but it looks as though the CBC willl launch an HD channel for bold in time for the World Cup. Here's an excert from a blog post that claims sources close to the CBC have said it will launch.

Soccer fans will be pleased to learn that the CBC’s secondary World Cup channel, Bold, will be made available in HDTV by some cable distributors.

Sources close to the CBC report that a HDTV channel for Bold will be up and running before the start of the World Cup, which is June 11.

I reported last week that footy fans had spotted a weakness to the CBC’s wall-to-wall World Cup coverage. It was the absence of HDTV on Bold, which will function mainly as a World Cup encore channel, but will also air live telecasts late in the first round.

“The CBC anticipated this (fan unrest over no HDTV on Bold),” a source said. “The network knows soccer fans!”

No word yet on which carriers – cable and/or satellite – will make available the Bold HDTV channel.

Full post here: http://www.truthandrumours.net/2010/...for-world-cup/

[SportsFan]

They have a licence for it. Without the live World Cup games they'd have trouble convincing anyone to pick it up.

[InMontreal]

Could someone tell me how will it be possible for bold to broadcast the World Cup considering they were ordered by the CRTC last month to revert back to "the living realities of rural Canadians" within 30 days after the decision?

Reference: http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2010/2010-214.htm

[CDN Viewer]

Could someone tell me how will it be possible for bold to broadcast the World Cup considering they were ordered by the CRTC last month to revert back to "the living realities of rural Canadians" within 30 days after the decision?

Speaking of which, haven't those 30 days come and gone?! I think they were to have submitted a proposal to the CRTC, anyone know if that has happened and if they don't act then what recourse does the CRTC have under their dumb rules- can they shut down the channel?!

I am thinking they may just tweak the programming a bit and still try and get away with airing much of what they do now- not sure if it will work though?!

[musimax]

Could someone tell me how will it be possible for bold to broadcast the World Cup considering they were ordered by the CRTC last month to revert back to "the living realities of rural Canadians" within 30 days after the decision?

Reference: http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2010/2010-214.htm

The CRTC didn't tell the CBC to cease all non-rural shows after 30 days and impliment a new rural-themed schedule, they just wanted the CBC to submit a new programming proposal that the CRTC must approve of, that is reflective of bold's nature of service. Once the CRTC approves, I'm guessing it will take some time (maybe a couple months) before the CBC impliments a new schedule, because the CRTC is going to have to give the CBC some time to makeover the channel in some way, they're not going to make the CBC re-jig the entire channel's schedule and possibly with that, it's name and whole identity overnight.

So until that time, the CBC is going to continue with what it's doing with bold now.

[musimax]

Someone apparenlty connected to the CBC from Digital Home has confirmed that some BDUs have begun testing bold HD and that it will launch in the coming days. So stay tuned.

[NB Josh]

The guy from DigitalHome works in tech support at the CBC or something, his information is always good and rarely (if ever wrong).

Anyway, it has been confirmed on CBCSports.ca, it will launch tomorrow on Rogers (only confirmed in Ontario) and June 9 on Cogeco. Hopefully Shaw Direct adds it soon, but I'm not counting on it.

[musimax]

To me, the wording seems to suggest that the channel will be in available, so far, only in Cogeco Ontario and I'm guessing all three provinces (ON, NB abd NL) on Rogers. But who knows.

[NB Josh]

Yea it could be interpreted that was as well, it was oddly worded. I guess we will see tomorrow.

[radrick]

Although I saw CBC advertising a free preview of BOLD this is not so for Cogeco. I wanted to see the live broadcast of the France vs. South Africa World Cup game today and had to subscribe for $2.50 or watch it delayed. If it is being previwed free on other providers I am not impressed!!

[SportsFan]

CBC was running this on their crawl today:
"CBC Bold HD Free View

Catch 8 exclusive live games on Bold HD free! Available on Bell TV, Cogeco, MTS, Rogers, SaskTel, Shaw cable and Videotron Check cbc.ca/bold for more details"

[Strongman]

Bell TV is only carrying the SD signal CBC's webpage refers to Bell TV channel 641.

[SportsFan]

CBC was running this on their crawl today:
"CBC Bold HD Free View..."

Today CBC listed the channel numbers for bold. Only Rogers and Cogeco had an HD channel indicated. Did someone at CBC screw up?