CRTC grants CBC permission to turn off repeaters

[azumanga]

On July 17, the CRTC has given approval to the CBC to shot down its translators effective August 1, less than two weeks from now:

http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2012/2012-384.htm

 

[mjlarochelle]

The CRTC basically just rubber-stamped it without much critical thought. Sure, they acknowledged the interventions, but they seemed to mean nothing. And what's this Shaw plan for free satellite services that CBC is talking about? Does this actually exist?

 

[blackgold]

Lots of people who don't have digital services in local areas of Canada are being shafted!

 

[mjlarochelle]

Lots of people who don't have digital services in local areas of Canada are being shafted!

In CBC's little world, it's so few people it's not even going to cost them money. In the real world, it's going to be a lot of people. I know if I were a major advertiser I'd be demanding a reduction on my rates.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

There goes OTA CBC TV in London, not exactly a small city in the middle of nowhere.

 

[spunker88]

There goes OTA CBC TV in London, not exactly a small city in the middle of nowhere.

Why was the London CBC never switched to digital last year, was that one of the signals they got an exemption on? Now they are shutting it off for good in a city of 366,000 people, that seems kind of foolish. Would make a good signal for somebody like Corus to take over if they could get it for cheap. Corus operates private CBC affiliates in Kingston and Peterborough.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

CBLN is going away because CBC doesn't have a studio in London.

The station is a repeater of CBLT/Toronto, presumably give or take some London market advertising. And yes, it was one of the signals that kept analog going in the short term, though they moved off full power channel 40 to low-power 23 in the last year.

I still say CBC should cut a deal with TVOntario to air its programming on a subchannel of TVO's digital transmitter in London. But A) Canadian TV seems allergic to subchannels and B) I don't know the likelihood of a deal between CBC and TVO.

 

[azumanga]

There goes OTA CBC TV in London, not exactly a small city in the middle of nowhere.

Why was the London CBC never switched to digital last year, was that one of the signals they got an exemption on? Now they are shutting it off for good in a city of 366,000 people, that seems kind of foolish. Would make a good signal for somebody like Corus to take over if they could get it for cheap. Corus operates private CBC affiliates in Kingston and Peterborough.

It seems in recent years that private broadcasters are unwilling to affiliate its stations with the CBC, or buying CBC transmitters, as evident by the defections in Medicine Hat, Red Deer and the BC Interior, as well as no one stepping up to buy the CBC transmitters, at least in the cities. The few private stations still affiliated with the CBC do so either out of an act of goodwill or they felt that there are no other alternative programming sources available.

Several years ago, CTV sold off its CBC stations in Northern Ontario and Saskatchewan to the CBC, only for these stations, now CBC repeaters, to leave the air at the end of the month. Now that Bell is buying Astral Media (who owns CBC station CFTK Terrace and CJDC Dawson Creek), who knows if those stations will stay with the CBC or switch to CTV.

After the CBC repeater closures, many large cities will be without a CBC transmitter -- including London, Saskatoon, Northern Ontario, and the province of Quebec outside of Montreal and Ottawa will be without terrestiral CBC service.

 

[FreddyE1977]

ahhh.....the field has now been cleared for us American Cultural Imperialists
to move in and take over....Excellent!

 

[mjlarochelle]

It seems in recent years that private broadcasters are unwilling to affiliate its stations with the CBC, or buying CBC transmitters, as evident by the defections in Medicine Hat, Red Deer and the BC Interior, as well as no one stepping up to buy the CBC transmitters, at least in the cities. The few private stations still affiliated with the CBC do so either out of an act of goodwill or they felt that there are no other alternative programming sources available.

I think it has been the other way around in some cases. The reason CKX Brandon shut down was because CBC forceably took away the affiliation from the station, and CTV was unwilling to operate the station without a CBC affiliation. CBC tried to pull the same thing with CKPR in Thunder Bay, but Dougall Media faught tooth and nail to keep the CBC affiliation, and they won (anybody from Thunder Bay knows that the Dougall Family are very powerful). The result has been that Thunder Bay viewers have a digital transmitter broadcasting CBC programming.

CBC also terminated their French affiliation agreements in Sherbrooke, Trois-Rivieres, and Saguenay, but they chose to directly acquire the stations and continue operating them as local stations, as being French stations they likely would've shut down without any network affiliation.

Some other disaffiliations have been initiated by the stations themselves, generally for corporate interests or strategic reasons. Global owned CHBC Kelowna and CKRD Red Deer, and I believe it was a strategic decision for them to not be affiliated with a network that competed with Global itself. Others, such as CFPL London and CKNX Wingham, had unrealistic ambitions of becoming part of an independent province-wide television system which never materialized.

Anyways, I don't think a lot of viewers are going to notice the loss of CBC right away, but once hockey season comes and viewers look for CBC for the first time since the Stanley Cup final, viewers will notice, and complain. Especially in Southern Ontario where there are a lot of Leaf fans.

 

[blackgold]

And tonight's the night when CBC/Radio-Canada turns off its 623 repeater stations, depriving millions in rural areas who can't afford cable or satellite the opportunity to see homegrown and unique television. Shame on the CBC!