THERE IS SO MUCH left to do in order to make the transition to digital television happen in Canada that it’s impossible to see how we’re going to make the deadline despite the fact there’s still 28 months to go before the August 31, 2011 date set by the CRTC.
That thought struck me yet again, but harder, during the DTV transition session the National Association of Broadcasters held for international broadcasters here in Las Vegas. The association helpfully hosted the session, complete with panel representation from the FCC, cable, consumer electronics, the telecom industry and a social group representative. Each outlined the staggering amount of work which has gone into preparing for the digital switch across America. Their checklist was long and it’s largely complete.
In Canada, however, we’ve barely begun drafting our list. I felt a little embarrassed, really, sitting in that room knowing how little the Canadian industry has accomplished so far. So at the end, I stood at the rear of room and watched most of the three-dozen or so folks who took in the presentation and saw badges from Japan, Australia, Brazil, India, and Britain, but none from Canada.
American broadcasters have collectively spent $5 billion on upgrading their infrastructure to go digital and another $1.2 billion on a marketing campaign promoting the switch. They see opportunity. They know HDTV is hugely important to their viewers and the added carrot of digital multicasting means the potential for more channels and incremental revenue down the road.
Plus, they simply want to keep as many consumers within the TV system as possible, so they don’t get their TV hits anywhere else but from them.
According to the NAB’s Jonathan Collegio, even though the American deadline was moved at the last minute from February to June 12th by the Obama administration, 421 stations have shut off their analog transmitters anyway. Even rural Americans can get digital television choices off-air.
The NAB grabbed the bull by the horns in 2004 and began formulating plans back then to make the digital switch – from how they would inform consumers and guide them through the process, knowing that a serious public information campaign was absolutely required, to calling for cheap digital decoders from manufacturers – who obliged with nearly 200 models.
They involved the cable industry, telecom companies, consumer electronics retailers and local community groups to try and ensure that no one gets missed when analog television transmitters are shut off for good and the 700 MHz spectrum is returned to the government for transfer to wireless companies (the U.S. government has earned billions from wireless providers in its auction already) and emergency service agencies like police and search and rescue.
After reading through the Canadian industry’s latest DTV working group report which was made public by the CRTC on Monday, I find it to be a litany of excuses why broadcasters should be able abandon a significant portion of the Canadian population and only offer digital OTA TV where they feel like it. Basically, the industry appears to want to do as little as possible.
If I can paraphrase, the document says: “There really aren’t that many people in places like Timmins, Rouyn and Kamloops anyway, and fewer still who only get TV off-air, so shutting off their OTA TV isn’t that big a deal. They’ll just have to buy cable or satellite, so suck it up rural Canada.”
As someone who actually was born and raised in Timmins, one of the towns surveyed by the DTV working group, I’ll remind everyone it’s the home base of the late broadcasting pioneer Conrad Lavigne. Because of my background, the DTV document saddens me more than a little. But why should any different be expected? When CTV decided to pull out of Timmins altogether and sell the land where the studio and transmitter towers rested, it relocated them (not the studio, that’s gone for good) from a perfect spot – high on a hill in the middle of town – to a lakeside spot on the outskirts, leaving many in lower lying areas of the city suddenly without the MCTV OTA signal at all.
So really, they have practised this already. They know a few hundred people yelling from Timmins isn’t likely to make much of an impact in Toronto or Ottawa.
They also know that the cable and satellite companies will welcome tens of thousands (or perhaps hundreds of thousands) of more subscribers who will have no where else to turn when the digital transition happens.
Imagine if we had an Emergency Broadcasting System in Canada, where broadcasters HAD to maintain their OTA signals in event of an emergency? Cynics might say this could be a reason that broadcasters have dragged their heels on creating such a system here, even though they’ve been told to. Not me, of course. Just some cynics.
The EBS was big on the transition agenda of the U.S broadcasters and community groups since Hurricane Katrina is still a very fresh wound. Looking at Canada, if there is no OTA TV in a community where a disaster strikes and the cable is out, then under the Canadian future vision of digital conventional TV where cable and satellite are forced to carry “virtual local broadcasters”, radio will have to pick up the slack. Or perhaps we’ll all be finding out where the nearest shelter is on our cell phones or by Twittering. Whatever happens, people won’t be turning to their televisions, because their local TV won’t be there, over the air.
In Canada, our broadcasters see nothing but cost to the digital transition and have done their level best to avoid deep investments in digital so far.
Now after that little rant, I feel better.
So, to be fair to the broadcasters, I actually think the government should step in here to help. A digital OTA transition isn’t cheap. The feds should imagine they are going to get at least a few billion from the auction of the 700 MHz spectrum and either loan or grant a few hundred million to the likes of CTV, CBC and Global to build out digital facilities and also to subsidize a decoder box program such as in the States. Washington has committed over $2 billion just to subsidize decoder boxes for those Americans who can’t afford a cable subscription or a new TV. The boxes make the old TVs work with the digital signal.
It simply isn’t right to ask everyone to pay for cable and satellite TV if they do not want it or can’t afford it.
And despite the research submitted with this DTV working group report suggesting an easy transition here, the American experience suggests whatever sort of model we end up choosing in Canada, it won’t be as smooth as this report suggests, or that the analog shut-off it will affect just a tiny portion of the population.
The Canadian report mentions that “Canada has the highest level of cable/DTH penetration in the western world with roughly 91% of Canadians receiving their television signals through licensed broadcasting distribution undertakings (BDUs).”
Maybe so. But the Americans found that some 17% of households reported they received their TV over the air. That’s 19.6 million Americans, says the NAB’s Collegio. And what they also had to take into account – and did not at first – was that over a third of Americans had at least one TV not tied into their cable or satellite subscription, meaning 34.5 million Americans relied on off-air TV in their kitchens, bedrooms or elsewhere in their homes.
Should Canadians with TVs there simply disconnect and replace them with laptops? Or would we rather they keep watching TV in their kitchens?
The other aspect to consider is that those who still stick to OTA aren’t the tech luddites who ride their bikes to work and look down their noses at mass TV consumption. They are often the poor, elderly and disabled, minorities and immigrants who don’t often speak to pollsters. That’s what they have found in the States and they took serious, time-consuming steps to address that.
Has the industry in Canada involved immigrant or other social groups in the DTV transition discussions like the American industry has? Nope.
And what about getting these digital boxes out to consumers. That will have to be done via retail (at least we don’t have to go out and have them built). Have Canadian retailers been approached about planning to stock new boxes? Nope.
“To ensure a smooth transition to digital by August 2011 will demand information, planning and co-operation from a number of parties, namely: the OTA broadcasters, the BDUs, the CRTC and from the Departments of Canadian Heritage and Industry Canada. The DTV Working Group recommends that all parties continue with the collaborative effort undertaken to date.”
Gee. That’s great. But it’s an incomplete list. Do the agencies who watch out for the poor know this is coming? What about minority groups in Canada? Have they been informed and involved? What’s being done to engage them? Shouldn’t retailers be in on this, since they are going to be distributing much of the new decoders and/or antennas?
The industry absolutely needs their help to get the word out. One of the most effective tools for American broadcasters has been at the grass roots level where DTV booths were set up at local fairs and even church groups took part to inform their constituents. Retail employees as Best Buy and Wal-Mart were also trained to help out.
The Canadian DTV report is almost wilfully ignorant of the American experience and the effort and money and time required to do this. It doesn’t cry out for immediate action like it should.
The Canadian report also says: “It is difficult to obtain specific data on how many Canadians use and therefore would be deprived of over-the-air television service (in regions where broadcasters don’t want to upgrade).”
Well, isn’t it about time to really find that out? Isn’t it about time to launch our own dtvanswers.gov web site? Americans, thankfully, have solved some of the problems for us, but if the Canadian industry doesn’t get off its collective duff, and soon, we will be will be left in the digital dust as the world around us moves on.
The working group report itself asks: “Who is responsible for informing and educating these Canadian viewers about the impending digital shut down and steps to be taken to ensure the receipt of digital services? Who is responsible for ensuring the availability of the set top boxes in the retail market?”
OK. Who is going to take the bull by the horns? The CCTA is long gone and the CAB is now a 14-person operation. My guess is the CRTC, which is short on resources and people already. And with no industry direction, how on earth are they supposed to even begin?
The questions are big. The questions are many.
We’re not going to make that deadline if we don’t start digging up answers.
Now.
