The Canadian Press reports that Industry Minister Tony Clement remains committed to meeting the digital transition deadline of August 2011. The change will affect hundreds of thousands of Canadians that access over-the-air television signals.
Clement: Sticking to the Digital Transition Deadline
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Digital is the way to go
ATSC is probably one of the better things that happened to over the air Television; quality wise. The CRTC/IC should simply force the broadcasters to continue serving *ALL* NTSC by stating that it’s a condition of continued licensing.
Good for Tony
Now, let’s see if he continues to stick to it. The networks are smoking something if they think that people in Canada will be able to purchase a TV with an analog tuner before long; we just aren’t that large of a market. Ditto for them purchasing spares for their analog transmitters.
And frankly, it isn’t like the large private networks haven’t had lots of time to get ready for this; they simply chose to ignore the future and start building up the funds necessary, when times were good, to do the conversion. So, of course they are going to ask for help from the feds, to cover their screw-ups.
In the Ottawa area, CBC, SRC, Omni and Sun-TV all broadcast digital OTA. I spent the $80 for a digital tuner for my TV at Best Buy.