CRTC digital TV licensing framework called good first step toward digital conversion

Michael McEwen sees the CRTC’s regulatory framework for the transition to over-the-air digital television (DTV) as a step in the right direction in rolling out the new technology. Unlike in the United States, the commission has not set a deadline for the transition, preferring instead to let broadcaster investment and consumer demand dictate the speed of the rollout. "It’s nice to have a licensing framework so that broadcasters can start to build it into their strategies and future plans," McEwen, who is president of Canadian Digital Television (CDTV), tells CCR. Most observers, McEwen included, believe the U.S. will not make its 2006 deadline of having digital receivers in 85 per cent of American households, with analog completely cut off. McEwen doesn’t see that target being met south of the border until 2010. He anticipates that about 70 per cent of Canadians will have access to over-the-air DTV signals by 2011 or 2012, 18 months to two years behind the U.S. But he points out that providing digital TV to the remaining 30 per cent, many of whom live in rural and remote areas, will pose real difficulties due to the cost. "You can build 15 to 20 transmitters across the country and get to 70 per cent of the population, but to get to the other 30 per cent of the population, you have to build another 200 or 300 transmitters and that’s expensive. I think there has to be some thought given to how you serve the more sparsely populated areas of our country," he says. Chris Frank, Bell ExpressVu LP’s VP of programming and government affairs, has advocated the use of satellites to aid in the digital rollout. At the Canadian Satellite Users’ Association (CSUA) conference in February, he said the use of satellites could drastically reduce the cost of going digital. "The implementation of a national digital over-the-air system would cost Canadian broadcasters in excess of a billion dollars for the transmission aspect alone, in order to serve a relatively small and diminishing percentage of viewers," stated a joint CTV Inc.-Bell ExpressVu submission to the CRTC dated Sept. 7, 2001. "Based on the present profitability of the industry, BCE is at a loss to understand where this funding would come from or what spending would be preempted to accommodate the implementation of over-the-air DTV. Given that programming is a television station’s single largest expense, our fear is that what is on the screen will be most negatively impacted by the need to fund such a total conversion." In response, the CRTC noted this month that while the distribution of new digital TV signals by broadcast distribution undertakings (BDUs) will be very important, reception of such services through a BDU cannot serve as a substitute for free, over-the-air service. The CRTC has issued a proposed framework for the distribution of digital TV channels (see sidebar). Like the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, McEwen sees the conversion to digital starting in major cities such as Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver – areas in which Canadians will have the option of tuning into digital over-the-air U.S. border stations from cities such as Seattle and Buffalo. "Certainly in key markets, like Toronto through to Windsor and down the lakeside to Niagara, in Vancouver, and perhaps Ottawa, I think we are going to see some multiplexes on the air within the next 18 months because the programs they buy from the U.S. are going to be broadcast on these U.S. border systems in high definition," McEwen points out. Laid out in Broadcasting Public Notice 2002-31, the licensing framework released June 12 is similar to the draft proposal that was released a year ago in Public Notice 2001-62 (CCR, June 7/01). Broadcasters had wanted to be able to operate digital channels in conjunction with their existing analog channels simply with amendments to their existing licences. But the CRTC is requiring them to apply for a digital licence, although it will give priority to incumbents in the licensing process. But if existing broadcasters take too long to apply, the CRTC will consider new players. "In the commission’s view, if a market driven transition to DTV is to succeed, then market forces, including those brought to bear by prospective new entrants, should not be discouraged, and innovation should be promoted," states Broadcasting Public Notice 2002-31. As suggested in the draft policy, the CRTC will allow a transitional digital TV licensee to air up to 14 hours per week of unduplicated programming, provided that it is all high definition, and 50 per cent of it is Canadian. The CRTC also recommends that two-thirds of each broadcaster’s schedule and two-thirds of Canadian content productions be in high definition by Dec. 31, 2007. The recommendation was based on suggestions made in a 1997 report produced by the Task Force on the Implementation of Digital Television, led by McEwen. "(The digital TV licensing framework) is actually quite similar to the digital radio licensing framework – the 14 hours of original programming, which I think is great," McEwen notes.

CRTC digital TV licensing framework called good first step toward digital conversion

Broadcast | June 21, 2002

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CRTC digital TV licensing framework called good first step toward digital conversion

Broadcast | June 21, 2002

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