Conventional broadcasters look at ‘mulitplexing’ to reduce costs, increase services

A CRTC decision to allow a Southern Ontario broadcaster to “multiplex” its over-the-air channel is the first of its kind in Canada and may pave the way for other conventional broadcast stations to offer more services at a lower cost, industry insiders said. In a decision Friday, the CRTC said Ontario station CFTV Leamington can “multiplex” its digital over-the-air signal. That means the station can offer four separate digital TV channels over the spectrum that the broadcaster now uses to transmit one channel in analog. Francois Gauthier, a Montreal-based broadcasting consultant and a former director of spectrum engineering with CBC/Radio-Canada, said in a phone interview this is the first time the CRTC has given a broadcaster permission to multiplex its signals. “I think it’s very, very good news, especially for people that want a different offer than cable and satellite,” he said, referring to people who watch local, over-the-air TV channels using antennas. “It’s good news for Canadians and also, I think, good news for the industry.” Gauthier said multiplexing became possible when broadcasters started converting their old analog signals to digital. Canada's switch to digital television broadcasting in major markets took place on Sept. 1, 2011. He said the switch to digital increased the efficiency of over-the-air broadcasting because digital signals require less spectrum than analog. An analog broadcast tends to require 6 MHz of spectrum while digital signals can be delivered with less than one-fifth of that in standard definition, or less if those signals are compressed, he said. High-definition digital signals use about half of the 20 Mbps broadcast “pipe” used to broadcast an analog channel, he added. “Digital television is a data stream, and when you talk about a data stream, you can pipe in anything you want,” said Gauthier, who left the CBC in 2007 to start the firm Spectrum Expert. “You can pipe in one HD or two, three, or four programs.” Gauthier said multiplexing allows local broadcasters in rural and remote communities to expand their channel offerings or cut transmission costs by delivering signals using a single transmitter, which lowers one-time construction and ongoing energy expenses. Cal Millar, president and chief operating officer of independent broadcaster Channel Zero Inc., which runs over-the-air station CHCH in Hamilton, Ont., said in a phone interview that local broadcasters will now take a closer look at their multiplexing options. “It’s a fascinating development because we’ve all known that these point-two and point-three channels are out there, and the question becomes, 'What are you going to do with them?'” he said. He said Channel Zero has not yet given “any consideration” to multiplexing but will now do its “homework” to develop a greater understanding of the CRTC's new rules for multicasting licences. Cathy Edwards, a spokeswoman for the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS), said community broadcasters could enter agreements with out-of-area broadcasters and national TV networks to rebroadcast signals in areas where channels don’t have coverage. She said this could become an “important financial model” for over-the-air community stations, which could charge other broadcasters to carry their signal. “It’s a great, really cheap, basic way of offering cheap TV,” she said. In its decision, the CRTC said it recognized the “positive contribution” multicasting could make to the Canadian broadcasting system in its 2002 policy requiring over-the-air broadcasters to convert analog signals to digital. Edwards speculated that one of the reasons other broadcasters aren’t rushing to get the CRTC’s permission to multiplex relates to signal quality. She said most broadcasters are weary of downgrading their HD signal to standard definition to facilitate multicasting on their spectrum. “Where there’s new technologies, people always want the new technologies,” she said. Gauthier said multiplexing is common in countries that have switched to digital, such as the United States and countries in Western Europe. In Europe, he said, it is common for broadcasters to share spectrum. In the U.S., some broadcasters have started trials to multiplex HD signals with a secondary signal designed for viewing on mobile devices, Gauthier added. “It was pretty much only Canada where we had one licence per channel,” he said. In an emailed statement Monday, CRTC spokesman Denis Carmel said large Canadian broadcasters did not show much interest in multiplexing before or after the digital transition. “hile the technical feasibility has been there for a number of years, we have not witnessed any interest from the big networks about multiplexing,” he said. Edwards, who urged the commission in 2010 to require Global Television to multiplex its signals to increase local over-the-air options in rural communities, said Global owner Shaw Communications Inc. has since told her that the company is still open to multiplexing if it received a request from a local broadcaster in an area where it had space on its transmitter. Shaw did not respond to requests for comment by deadline. Gauthier said CBC/Radio-Canada has been testing multiplexing to see if it can take advantage of its spectral efficiency. “But it has been mainly tests to this point,” he said. CBC spokesman Chris Ball said in an emailed statement that the public broadcaster has no plans to introduce multiplexing at this time. “With regard to multiplexing, we continue to evaluate multiplexing in our Engineering lab, however, we want to ensure that our audience is receiving the highest quality over the air HD signal possible,” he said. “We don't currently have plans to start multiplexing DTV signals, however, that may change as the technology improves.” Gauthier and Edwards said CBC could have used multiplexing to avoid cancelling over-the-air services for many rural Canadians. In an effort to cut costs, CBC started decommissioning 607 analog broadcast transmitters this summer. They said CBC could have teamed up with Ontario public broadcasters TVO and TFO to multicast signals at a fraction of the cost. nkyonka@thewirereport.ca

Conventional broadcasters look at ‘mulitplexing’ to reduce costs, increase services

Broadcast | August 20, 2012

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