Television in Australia vs Canada

[Prescott Joe]

Australia has roughly half the population of Canada. Canada is larger
in area though the far north is very sparsely populated. In Australia,
there are five major networks: ABC, SBS, Seven, Nine and Ten. Each
network has 4 or 5 diginet viewing options. In Canada there is CBC,
CTV, CTV 2, Global, French language and a few independents serving
the largest cities. There are virtually no subchannels nor diginets.
At Harvey Norman in Australia, a 55" LG television costs $1,195 Aud,
including the mandatory government duties/taxes/fees. A similar
55" LG set at Best Buy Canada costs $1,599 plus taxes.
Australia's Foxtel's basic package starts at $49 month Aud while
Bellview in Canada's basic package starts at $69.95 month.
Rural areas in Australia are served by Southern Cross, WIN and
possibly a third network, each offering diginets. Rural areas in Canada
are not served at all by OTA television.

Why are there such huge differences????

 

[louis_p]

The CRTC does not permit digital sub channels in Canada. The only exception (to my knowledge) is when Global aired a .2 sub channel which was a 4:3 picture format of their 16:9 feed but all programming was identical.
Apparently, a few videophiles argued that sub channels deteriorate video quality and the CRTC bought it. Now we have this situation where OTA signals cannot be received beyond a few major urban areas. There’s no reason why CBC/RCI, CTV/CTV2, and City/Omni cannot use the same transmitter networks and provide more extensive coverage.