TORONTO – While it’s not yet reflected in any policy announcement, Canadian broadcasters know there’s no way all of their broadcast transmitters can be upgraded to digital and the CRTC must now be feeling pressure to respond.
Fred Mattocks, the CBC’s executive director, English television production and resources, added his voice to CanWest Global CEO Leonard Asper’s, warning that it will just cost too much to convert all 600 CBC transmitters to digital. He was speaking on a panel at today’s CSUA Digital Broadcasting Summit in Toronto.
CBC transmits 18 unique SD streams daily and three unique HD streams (Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, with Ottawa coming in September) right now, covering most of the Canadian population. But, making all 600-plus analog repeaters digital “is just a bad investment,” said Mattocks.
“We can’t afford to duplicate them,” he added, because the cost would be “in the billions. It would be lunacy to do so.”
Mattocks said the CBC could cover 80% of the Canadian population with a digital signal – in order to provide high definition, mainly – with 40 transmitters. “But even that, we can’t afford,” he said.
Echoing what Asper said on www.cartt.ca in November, Mattocks added that with 97% of Canadians able to get satellite or cable, Canadian broadcasters shouldn’t have to offer HD over the air to all Canadians. “We need policy and regulatory decisions” on how and when DTV conversion will happen, added Mattocks.
Besides, we’re only on the cusp of major changes in television right now, as his presentation outlined. Mattocks broke the future of TV into two streams – commodity and immersive.
Commodity TV is “utility and background” he said, which is viewed on smaller screens like PCs, on cell phones, maybe on a fridge screen.
Immersive TV is “TV you make a date with” and is a major drama program or sporting event consumed in HD with full quality surround sound. “It’s an investment in content and time,” he said.
He also cautioned broadcasters and those delivering HD streams to make sure the audio component of the programming is also top-of-mind. “Without immersive audio, you don’t have an immersive experience,” he added.
