GATINEAU – Despite the majority’s decision today to stick to the August 31, 2011 deadline where all over-the-air TV transmitters in Canada have to switch from analog to digital, commissioner Suzanne Lamarre echoed what many in the industry have been thinking for a long while:
We’re not going to make that date, despite close to six years of notice the industry was given by the CRTC and that the U.S., which made its switch in 2009, has given Canada a road map to follow.
“No one can be expected to achieve the impossible. Based on the evidence on the public record, my intimate conviction is that it is unrealistic to think that all transmitters in all mandatory markets can be converted by 31 August 2011,” reads her dissent to decision 2010-167, the hearing into value for signal and group-based licensing.
“The evidence to that effect put on the record by broadcasters is clear, credible and uncontradicted.”
The Commission also set out a number of mandatory markets where the switch to digital had to be made that included all metropolitan centres of 300,000 or more and each provincial or territorial capital.
“In order for the conversion to be completed in mandatory markets by 31August 2011, broadcasters are being asked to submit their applications by 31 August 2010 for the Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa-Gatineau, Montréal, Québec and Halifax markets, and by 31 December 2010 for other markets,” Lamarre noted.
“For the purpose of this exercise, let us accept the following extraordinarily optimistic hypotheses:
* all applications filed by 31 August 2010 are approved by both the Commission and the Department of Industry by 1 September 2010;
* all applications filed by 31 December 2010 are approved by both the Commission and the Department of Industry by 1 January 2011;
* all digital transition transmitters currently on air in mandatory markets (a total of 25 according to Commission data) will require only minor modifications by 31 August 2011. They will therefore be considered as already completely converted.
“Consider that when we approve a single new broadcasting station for a broadcaster, we normally set an implementation deadline of two years; never mind the fact that it is not uncommon for us to have to approve extensions to that deadline.
“Consider that a single broadcast site usually hosts several television and radio systems, none of which tolerate service interruptions, except between 2:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. generally – only four hours a day.
“Even in the artificially optimistic conditions described above, how can we hope to simultaneously install 55 transmitters within one year in mandatory markets, and 94 others within eight months, with one deadline overlapping the other?” asks Lamarre.
Added Canwest’s regulatory head Charlotte Bell, who told Cartt.ca: “There is a concern it just may not be possible because there are not enough engineers and resources out there to get this done buy August 2011.
“(G)iven that the evidence on the Commission’s record combined with plain logic shows that not all broadcasters in mandatory markets can meet the deadline, on the morning of 1 September 2011, several television services that are part of the daily lives of many Canadians will disappear from the air. The Commission must therefore:
1. inform the Department of Industry (which issues broadcast licenses) and the Department of Canadian Heritage of this critical situation;
2. demand that the broadcasters concerned remedy the situation without further delay; and
3. given its power, protect Canadian citizens from the expected loss of services.”
So, Lamarre wants the CRTC to adopt August 31 2011 as a softer deadline, with more leeway for broadcasters who need more time to adapt.
– Greg O’Brien
