OTTAWA – Shaw Communications won’t be carrying a third broadcast feed introduced by the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) in October 2006 to better serve western Canada, and this is causing some discrepancies in what’s on the air and the channel’s posted scheduling information.
“APTN has made every reasonable effort to inform cable and satellite providers serving the western provinces of these enhancements [the new feed] and has made numerous requests that they discontinue use of the APTN East signal and instead provide the more appropriate APTN West signal to viewers situated west of the Manitoba/Saskatchewan border,” the broadcaster tells TV viewers in a note. “Although some cable providers have accommodated this request, unfortunately, Shaw Communications, the company that is accountable to APTN’s principal western viewers stated that as of April 2008 it would switch all of its systems to the APTN East Feed, effectively discontinuing the West Feed service that it had started to carry in some of its markets.”
APTN launched the time-delayed West feed (based on Pacific Time rather than Eastern Time) to better accommodate its viewers in the western provinces. The broadcaster also notes that “the enhancement also facilitated the planned addition of unique programming, more relevant to viewers in the western region.”
APTN said its scheduling information in western Canada is based on the West Feed since that is the one most appropriate to that viewing area.
“This has resulted in a three-hour discrepancy in scheduling information for viewers in the west who are currently receiving the incorrect East broadcast signal,” the channel explains in a note to its viewers.
