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TVO also to shutter its remaining analogue transmitters

azumanga said:
This was announced back in April, but fell under the radar until now -- TVOntario announced that they will close down its remaining analogue transmitters, beginning next month, leaving only its digital transmitters that it already installed:

http://about.tvo.org/who-we-are/digital-over-air-transition
Click to expand...

Very much like CBC, there's a lot of analog transmitters that really are not needed today, but there are certain larger communities where getting rid of OTA is just plain stupid.

Perhaps the largest city that will lose TVO over-the-air is Kingston. What makes that even dumber is that from my understanding, Kingston has a lot of OTA users, and those who watch TVO will just start watching WPBS from Watertown more. What makes it even dumber is that Belleville and Cloyne will continue to get TVO over-the-air, in digital. Another sizable city that will lose OTA service is Sudbury, which was one of the first cities outside Toronto to get TVO back in the 1970s.

If the CRTC allows this to go through, I hope they realize it will drive Kingston viewers to watch more American television.

APTN is another broadcaster that is shutting down some analog transmitters this year, but they're being much smarter about it than CBC or TVO. They're keeping transmitters in key markets such as Whitehorse, Yellowknife, Iqaluit, and Goose Bay; in fact they're planning to go digital in Goose Bay.

I think it's fair to say that it's Canada's public broadcasters that are leading the war on OTA.
 
M.J. said:
Perhaps the largest city that will lose TVO over-the-air is Kingston. What makes that even dumber is that from my understanding, Kingston has a lot of OTA users, and those who watch TVO will just start watching WPBS from Watertown more. What makes it even dumber is that Belleville and Cloyne will continue to get TVO over-the-air, in digital.
Click to expand...

The only reason Belleville and Cloyne got converted, despite not being in a mandatory market, is that their analog signals were out of core (channel 52 and higher), and they were being phased out.

The big mistake is the concept of mandatory markets in general -- it would have been better if all transmitters serving sizable cities, such as Kingston, Kenora, Sudbury and the Soo, as well as all originating stations regardless of location (except community channels), have been forced to convert to digital, with rebroadcasters in rural communities (and community channels in all communities) permitted to stay analog.

In the US, all full-powered stations were forced onto digital in 2009, and all LPTVs and translators will face the same fate in 2015 -- why couldn't Canada follow the same lead?
 
FWIW, TFO (the French-language educational service) has announced they'll be closing four of their analog transmitters at the end of July.

This includes their three non-LPRT transmitters (Sudbury, Hawkesbury, and Pembroke) and the LP station at Lac-Ste-Therese. All four are co-sited with TVO transmitters which will be closed on the same date.
 
At the end of this war on OTA, Sudbury is going to be left with a grand total of two OTA signals - MCTV (CTV) and Global. And both still in analog.
 
M.J. said:
At the end of this war on OTA, Sudbury is going to be left with a grand total of two OTA signals - MCTV (CTV) and Global. And both still in analog.
Click to expand...

Actuallly, three -- CHCH also has an analogue transmitter in Sudbury, broadcasting on channel 41.
 
M.J. said:
At the end of this war on OTA, Sudbury is going to be left with a grand total of two OTA signals - MCTV (CTV) and Global. And both still in analog.
Click to expand...

I think you're likely to see an application to flip the Global transmitter to digital in the next couple of weeks.

Apparently Global agreed to convert even non-mandatory-market transmitters as part of their last renewal. They filed last week for Sault Ste. Marie & while I can't find it right now, I'm pretty sure I saw a digital conversion application for another Global rig a week or two ago.
 
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