AS OF YESTERDAY, there were 17 months left for Canada to make the transition from analog over-the-air TV broadcasting to digital. Given the lack of action so far, hitting the August 31, 2011 deadline for the shut off of analog TV is now nearly impossible.
Everyone in and around the industry knows it. Everyone. It was openly talked about during the two CRTC hearings in the fall. It was as if the deadline meant nothing. But few want to acknowledge the industry’s and the federal government’s failure to act. In fact, as you’ll read, the federal government still hasn’t even decided which ministry is going to handle the issue.
Even if we do manage to shut off the transmitters by the deadline, this has the potential to be a disaster for the industry because Canadians have not been told what’s going to happen.
Just last week in its report to the Minister of Heritage entitled: “The implications and advisability of implementing a compensation regime for the value of local television signals”, the CRTC itself asked for something, anything, be it direction or at least some cash from the federal government to nudge forward the digital transition file.
Recalling the December 2009 public process that fed it, the report reads: “(P)arties recommended that the government fund a program for the purchase of digital receiving equipment by consumers in order to maintain access to local television stations for those currently relying on OTA signals.” Parties have been recommending this since the CRTC set the 2011 deadline back in 2007.
There were, and have been, all kinds of suggestions for what on earth the industry is going to do in order to make the switch to digital. Both Bell Canada and Shaw Communications have proposed a so-called “Freesat” satellite solution. New company FreeHD Canada has its own idea. Some in the broadcast community think cable, satellite and telco TV companies should simply deliver the signals with no OTA component at all (wonder how those value-for-signal negotiations would go then…). Others suggest splitting a transmitter for each small community among broadcasters, multiplexing the digital signal so that each private broadcaster can still distribute over the air, but share the cost.
The Regulator has launched another public process trying to figure out how many Canadians will be affected by the analog shut off and how to make sure those people don’t suddenly lose TV when they turn their set on September 1, 2011. This sounds like the Commission acting late, but it’s not. The Commission set a deadline back in 2007, expecting the industry to act. It has moved very slowly so the Regulator is doing all it can now to force the issue and provide some intelligence.
It even relaxed the rules last year on where the transition must happen, saying it is only mandatory that all markets of 300,000 people and above, plus all provincial and territorial capitals have to be digital by August 31st 2011. But broadcasters are saying they can’t even do that.
The CRTC’s next step would be to deny license renewals next year for those not complying. But we’re not there yet.
What’s really hindering this is that the federal government isn’t just undecided on the issue, it can’t even decide who’s going to decide.
I talked to Heritage Minister James Moore about it last week. I asked him at the Canada Media Fund launch what the federal government has in mind for the digital transition here. A U.S.-like coupon program to help people purchase digital over-the-air decoders? New funding for the CBC so it can overhaul its transmission network? A directive to Canada’s private broadcasters to hurry up already?
“We’re looking at all the options at this point,” he said. “We still have until 2011, so there’s a time gap. But we understand the importance of acting on it soon.”
I let the fact I believe we’re long past the luxury of a time gap slide and pressed on.
He added, after noting less than 10% of Canadian households will be affected by the analog shut-off: “We’ll make sure Canadians are aware of this. It’s a lot more complicated than whether you have a receiver or not. In a some cases, you may need a new set.
“The infrastructure costs for people may not just be getting a cable box and signing on to a provider but also dealing with the actual hardware,” continued Moore.
“We understand the issues and are looking at the options to figure out what is the best way to make sure people understand this new digital reality and that they need to make sure they take care if they want to receive their content.”
(It may well be that less than 10% of Canadians rely strictly on OTA TV [the Commission’s estimates say nearly a million people, but no one really knows for sure]. But, as the Americans found out, the surveys didn’t account for people who have one or two TVs tied into their cable or satellite subscription and only realized as the deadline approached and the consumer awareness campaigns did their job that their old TV at the cottage, in the garage, the kitchen or bedroom that uses rabbit ears won’t work after the transition. Then there was a run on coupons for decoders.
According to reports I’ve read during and after the American transition, initial estimates were that about 20 million DTV conversion coupons would be requested. Instead, 34 million coupons were redeemed, with 64 million having been requested.
The FCC, too, said that just 10% of Americans relied solely on OTA TV. But it found that 35% to 50% of homes had at least one OTA set somewhere to supplement their cable or satellite hook-ups.)
Anyway, during our conversation, Minister Moore passed the topic off to the Industry Minister, saying: “I know Tony Clement is looking at all the different options… he will be leading on this and will have something to say on this soon.”
So, I wanted to ask Minister Clement, approaching both Industry Canada and his office with a short list of questions via e-mail after talking to a couple of press people on the phone. The ministry told me to contact the CRTC, but we already know what its position is, of course. The minister’s office, after I pestered Minister Clement on Twitter a little, told me late Wednesday that Heritage Minister Moore is the lead minister on this file.
Sigh.
Ministers Moore and Clement pride themselves on their digital prowess so they’ll know what I mean when I type: WTF!
In the States, the National Association of Broadcasters began working on the digital transition in 2004, a full five years ahead of that country’s 2009 deadline (which, finally, had to be extended by four months). It involved cable companies, satellite carriers, telco TV companies and consumer electronics manufacturers. We sounded alarm bells on the work needed to be done here last year.
The local broadcasters worked closely with the cable companies in each city and town to make sure their local viewers and customers knew that analog OTA TV was going to be shut off and that they needed an OTA decoder or to hook up with cable or satellite. The cable and broadcast industries had web portals and so did the FCC.
In Canada, we have squat. We had an organization called Canadian Digital Television, which was to help guide the transition, but it was disbanded by its members, the broadcasters, in 2006. The CAB is being shuttered this spring. There is no cable television association and the CRTC can only do so much with the budget it has.
No matter how we in the industry and those in government try to play it down by saying so few Canadians rely solely on OTA TV it’s not a big deal, this is a critical job facing the broadcast industry. We’ve just gone through a particularly harmful battle between the carriers and broadcasters over money and come 2011, when the two sides might actually be talking about a fee for carriage, we’re also going to tell Canadians “Oh, by the way, you better upgrade your kitchen TV or buy a box, or forget about using that set you like to watch while making dinner or changing your oil.
Nice. They’ll love that.
The Commission’s VFS report goes on to ask for $80 million to help fund decoders and a consumer education campaign because there is literally nowhere for a Canadian to turn to for information. When I Googled “Digital transition Canada”, the first link to pop up was this one from Industry Canada. It’s a dead link, of course.
I couldn’t find any mention of the impending digital transition in Canada on any web site from Canadian broadcasters or carriers.
This should not be a money issue. The last auction of wireless spectrum earned the federal government $4.3 billion and the auction of the OTA spectrum now occupied by TV broadcasters here will earn at least that much in the next auction. With that kind of dough coming in, the feds could and should fund a coupon program and, it says here, pay for the complete refit of CBC’s OTA transmission network to digital. Ministers Clement and Moore pride themselves on their digital savvy and they must be aware that building this new national digital road is of utmost importance if our public broadcaster is to be available as far and wide as possible, just as the Broadcasting Act says it’s supposed to be and that Canadians need it to be.
Whatever it is we decide to do, it’s long past the time for action. The Commission set the deadline date years ago and watched broadcasters move at the pace of turtles stuck in cold molasses (who were then cracked on the head with a recessionary hammer). The carriers don’t really have to do anything since it’ll be a non-issue for most of their customers, so they’ve been sitting on their hands, too.
Nevertheless, as we learned from the transition in the States, the mountains that have to be moved just from a consumer education point of view are big. If those mountains aren’t moved, Canadians just might decide that a laptop or an iPad can replace the TVs in their garages and bedrooms, further eroding TV viewing.
Finally, around the Canada-U.S. border, the analog spectrum must be abandoned. Stateside, it’s been auctioned off to wireless operators and set aside for emergency services. They expect that come August 31, 2011, there will no longer be interference from Canadian television signals. At least we are making progress in those areas. But as I noted, the consumers in places like, oh, Toronto, Vancouver and a few other small places, are not being informed that their analog OTA signals won’t be there when they wake up in the morning 17 months from now.
We can’t delay any longer.
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