ANY CANADIAN DIGITAL SUB CHANNELS?

[blackgold]

I wonder if any Canadian TV stations are looking into airing digital subchannels for their markets.

 

[w9wi]

I wonder if any Canadian TV stations are looking into airing digital subchannels for their markets.

Rumor has it the CRTC would consider a subchannel to be a separate station, requiring a separate license.

The only one I know of in Canada is an audio-only subchannel on CJON-TV (NTV) St. John's, Newfoundland. It's serving as the studio-transmitter link for co-owned CHOZ-FM but is configured in such a way that ordinary viewers can listen to it.

Actually, it's technically not legal right now, but they have applied for permission.

(and I suspect they'll get it:

1. It's not adding any more voices to the market (/competition to the advertising market) as CHOZ-FM already exists.
2. The coverage of the TV subchannel doesn't exceed that of CHOZ's regular FM transmitter.
3. It doesn't tie up a frequency that could potentially be used by someone else.
)

 

[spunker88]

It seems like they could save some money by putting multiple services on the same channel. For example you could put English and French CBC on one DTV channel. Or you could add CBC Radio channels. Through PSIP they can both have their old analog numbers with a -1 afterwards. Another example I can think of is the new CTV 2. It even sounds like a good sub-channel. This could bring CTV Two to many markets that have CTV translators and have never gotten A or CTV 2 when the translators are upgraded to digital. I don't see the problem with this, even if the CRTC wants 2 different licenses since it could save stations money.

 

[mjlarochelle]

It seems like they could save some money by putting multiple services on the same channel. For example you could put English and French CBC on one DTV channel. Or you could add CBC Radio channels. Through PSIP they can both have their old analog numbers with a -1 afterwards. Another example I can think of is the new CTV 2. It even sounds like a good sub-channel. This could bring CTV Two to many markets that have CTV translators and have never gotten A or CTV 2 when the translators are upgraded to digital. I don't see the problem with this, even if the CRTC wants 2 different licenses since it could save stations money.

I agree with the idea for CTV 2, especially for places like Montreal, Winnipeg, or in Saskatchewan that only have access to CTV 2 via satellite. This could bring CTV 2 onto cable in those areas. The question would be whether local programming would be required.

 

[Bob1370]

Don't know how much pull the industry has these days with the CRTC (especially since Mr. Harper's government could easily overrule any decision it strongly dislikes, and the commission probably doesn't want to get into a battle it might not win)---but you have to figure they'll be asking for a similar deal to the one the FCC gave U.S. broadcasters, essentially letting them program their subchannels as they please as long as each subchannel follows the same rules that apply to the main channel. Who knows what that'll bring? In a typical US market like Rochester, NY, one station (the CBS affiliate) has no additional programming other than its main stream as of now, the ABC affiliate carries the CW along with a prime-time local news hour on its second channel, the NBC station carries MeTV (a classic rerun program network) and an in-house local weather channel on its second and third channels, and the PBS station carries the World documentary channel and Create how-to channel on its second and third streams.

 

[fybush]

Time to rescan your box, Bob: "the CBS affiliate" launched a subchannel just yesterday!

 

[blackgold]

How's about CBC add TSN and TSN 2 on its subchannels? Then Radio-Canada could add RDS and RDS 2 on their subchannels, as well. That way, Canadians of both language backgrounds could watch more sports on free TV without spending money to buy cable or satellite services.

 

[azumanga]

How's about CBC add TSN and TSN 2 on its subchannels? Then Radio-Canada could add RDS and RDS 2 on their subchannels, as well.

Won't work -- Bell Media, the owners of competing network CTV, own TSN and RDS.

 

[Yeziknoradio]

How's about CBC add TSN and TSN 2 on its subchannels? Then Radio-Canada could add RDS and RDS 2 on their subchannels, as well.

Won't work -- Bell Media, the owners of competing network CTV, own TSN and RDS.

As strictly a guess, if it's going to be sports anything, I bet the CBC would more likely go with launching their own brand new CBC sports channel on one of the subchannels.

(Source: http://www.sportbusiness.com/news/167701/new-sports-channel-for-cbc )

 

[blackgold]

And maybe, Radio-Canada will launch its own sports channel in 2012, and maybe SRC will put that channel on its subchannels.

 

[Gregg]

Rather than speculating whether CBC or SRC would start up their own sports channels, I think it would make sense for the CBC to add CBC News as a subchannel and the same with SRC adding RDI.

No need for new programming. And both networks could tell the government that they're doing it to give more Canadians access to All-News channels in a world where Canadian news sometimes gets drowned out by U.S. and International news.

Maybe also give permission to CTV and TVA to carry their all-news networks on secondary channels.

(Maybe starting a new sports channel for CBC and SRC would be impractical if it is available over-the-air and only advertiser-supported. New sports channels probably need fees from the cable companies to make them economically practical. Even with ads, you can't just give sports channels away. I'm sure TSN, RDS and Rogers Sportschannels all need those cable fees to make them viable.)


Gregg
[email protected]

 

[blackgold]

Then if worse comes to worse, CBC & SRC would start subchannels dedicated to performing arts like opera, ballet, foreign films, classical music, jazz and world music. The programs themselves would run commercial free with ad breaks airing between the programming or during an intermission.