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Broadcasters need to switch from analog to digital TV by 2011, and the regulator suspects they won’t be ready
Canada’s broadcast regulator has expressed grave concerns about the readiness of the nation’s broadcasters to make the switch from analog to digital television by next year’s deadline. In a speech to the Banff World Television Festival on Monday, the chair of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission stressed the need for broadcasters to be proactive in making the switch, with the deadline just 14 months away.
“The whole world ... has converted and we are behind,” Konrad von Finckenstein told a packed room. “It’s time we catch up.”
"The date ... is cast in stone. It’s not going to be changed."
Broadcasters in more than 30 Canadian cities must switch from analog to digital signals by Aug. 31, 2011. Von Finckenstein has warned in the past of the potential for a “crisis” if the industry isn’t ready, but in Banff, with the deadline looming, he stressed that there would be no extensions. “The date ... is cast in stone,” von Finckenstein said. “It’s not going to be changed.”
The CRTC is considering a trial in which two cities – Winnipeg and Quebec City – make the switch four months earlier, in order to iron out any bugs.
Von Finckenstein acknowledged it has been a difficult time for the industry, and he is aware that the transition is an expensive proposition, but said organizations have no choice and should not drag their heels.
“We’ve always said that it’s going to be a challenge to meet 2011,” said Paul Sparkes, executive vice-president of corporate affairs for CTVglobemedia, citing the current climate and in particular the ongoing battle between broadcasters and cable and satellite providers.
CTV estimates the cost of making the switch to digital at more than $1-million per transmitter, in addition to the cost of upgrading studios and buying new equipment. “It’s an expensive venture without any way of recouping the investment. An advertiser’s not going to give us an extra nickel because we’re HD.”
But von Finckenstein warned the status quo could be costly in other ways. “Canadians want high-definition television ... and if you don’t deliver it, we don’t have it on our airwaves, they will turn more and more to foreign programs – mostly U.S.”
Based on industry estimates, roughly 900,000 households in markets that will be switching to digital currently rely on over-the-air signals and will not be able to receive the new digital signal unless they buy a converter box, at a cost of about $75. Von Finckenstein urged the government to consider a $67-million subsidy program to cover that cost.
He said an additional $13-million subsidy program could help as many as 44,000 households in rural and remote areas that might lose their access to free local television, by covering the cost of satellite receivers and dishes. Von Finckenstein suggested cable and satellite companies provide local and regional signals at no charge – and said the CRTC is prepared to alter broadcast regulations to allow that to happen.
In the United States, Americans who required converters to accommodate last year’s switch to digital were offered coupons. But the FCC “drastically underestimated” the number of boxes required, von Finckenstein pointed out, and had to distribute 14 million more coupons than anticipated.
He urged quick action on the part of the government, cable and satellite companies and broadcasters to avoid a similar debacle here.
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