Southshore plans multiplexing, says it’s a more efficient use of spectrum for local TV

Southshore Broadcasting Inc., which plans to become Canada’s first “multiplex” TV broadcaster later this year, says other local, over-the-air TV stations can use the technology to save spectrum, money and better serve viewers in their communities. Multiplexing, a practice widely used in countries ranging from Kenya to the United States, allows broadcasters to transmit multiple digital channels and sub-channels over a single, 6 MHz block of spectrum previously used to broadcast a single, analog channel. Multiplexing became possible in Canada after most broadcasters converted analog signals to digital on Sept. 1, 2011. “From a technical perspective, it’s not rocket science,” Tony Vidal, president and CEO of Southshore Broadcasting, who has run CFTV in Leamington, Ont. since its launch in 2005, said in a phone interview. “You need to have a certain amount of knowledge to do it cost effectively, but any community can do this.” Southshore’s CFTV station became the first broadcaster in the country to receive CRTC authorization to multiplex signals last August. Since then, the company has spent $60,000 on new equipment for multiplexing, and is now awaiting a final regulatory approval before launching three new, over-the-air channels this year, Vidal said. Other broadcasters, he said, could follow suit if they realize how easy multiplexing is and how little it costs to set up. The process makes more efficient use of radio spectrum, which has emerged as a valuable resource as mobile phone operators look for more frequencies to meet consumer demands for mobile broadband. Vidal said most of the company’s costs so far have related to the equipment necessary for its digital transmitter to handle four simultaneous signals, and to convert those television signals to an Internet protocol so that they can also be made available through an IPTV service provider or streaming on the Internet. Other costs were reduced, he said, by using homemade head-ends and other equipment where possible. The company’s community programming model involves different groups in the region assuming responsibility for creating content for each of the three new channels, Vidal said. One of those channels features content created by and for the area’s Spanish- and French-language communities; another features programming run by a nearby First Nations community. Another channel features content produced by the local government, such as council meetings and gatherings, he said. The original channel, now called CFTV-1, will continue to air programming related to the wider Essex County community, including coverage of the town of Leamington and the area’s agricultural community. It will also seek grants and other community investments instead of advertising dollars, Vidal said. Each of the multiplexed channels will be self-sustained, he said, and will not require any additional Southshore investment. “They have to come to bat financially, and with programming,” he said of the groups that will provide the content for the additional three channels. “The community has to carry it if they want it. That’s the bottom line.” Cathy Edwards, spokeswoman for the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS), said Canadian broadcasters should look at multiplexing as a way to produce more content with lower costs and to make better use of Canadian airwaves. Edwards said the CRTC should require major, local TV broadcasters like CBC/Radio-Canada, CTV (owned by BCE Inc.) and Global (owned by Shaw Communications Inc.), to let communities multiplex on their spectrum where possible, saving them the cost of running their own transmitters. “We just wish the CRTC had some more innovative policies,” Edwards said. “Especially in places where, say, Rogers owns an OMNI 1 and an OMNI 2 in the same market. They could have required them to share ” Jeff Naphin, director of digital television transition at Shaw Media, which operates the Global TV network, said Shaw is open to discussing multiplex arrangements with local broadcasters as, over the next year and a half, it upgrades its analog transmitters to digital in small municipalities across the country. The company, which agreed to look at multiplex proposals as part of its acquisition of Global in 2010, has held discussions with at least one interested broadcaster in St. Andrews, N.B., he said. “If we can facilitate a community group and its efforts to continue providing services by sharing our facilities, we’re certainly open to that,” Naphin said. Naphin said multiplexing on Global's spectrum would allow a local broadcaster to reduce costs related to running its antennas and transmitters. “These aren’t inexpensive items,” he noted. Community groups interested in broadcasting would need to invest in other equipment to transport their signals from their studios to nearby Global transmission sites, as well as other equipment to make their signals compatible with Global’s transmitters, he said. “We’re willing to share our transmitters and our existing facilities, but there are additional costs that communities would incur,” he said. Vidal said CFTV has reduced its costs by teaming up with a local IPTV provider, Gosfield North Communications Co-operative Ltd., which agreed to carry the stations’ signal over its fibre infrastructure. Still, he said CFTV had to move its studio to a new location connected to Gosfield North’s wireline infrastructure and that it is awaiting CRTC approval to relocate its transmitter to a new site that can tap into the fibre. “Industry Canada has already approved that move, so now it’s just at the CRTC level,” he said, adding that approval will likely come in June. “I’m hoping it’s before that,” he said. “We’re ready to go if they give us the green light.” Vidal said CFTV, in addition to its own programming, has broadcasted segments of each of the new channels’ content daily. Gosfield North will also start carrying each of the new channels on its IPTV service in the coming weeks, he said, making the services available to its subscribers. Vidal said the CFTV model works in Leamington because a high percentage of local farmers rely on antennas, or over-the-air signals, for their TV access. He said the model could work in other areas where community groups or small broadcasters are willing to work together to put content on the airwaves at reduced costs. “If a community wants this, it could be done, and it could be done relatively inexpensively and quickly,” he said. “ could look at a model like this when you’re in conjunction with other broadcasters in the area. You have to be not competing, but complementary. But it will work.” —With reporting by Nicholas Kyonka at nkyonka@thewirereport.ca and editing by Simon Doyle at sdoyle@thewirereport.ca

Southshore plans multiplexing, says it’s a more efficient use of spectrum for local TV

Broadcast | April 22, 2013

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