TVO eyes cost savings, will shut down analog system this summer

TVO will start decommissioning its analog, over-the-air broadcasting system this summer, leaving at least 14 markets in Ontario without the station's over-the-air television service, the broadcaster said in a notice on its website. The TVO (TV Ontario) notice, posted in April, said that effective July 31, 2012, it will cease over-the-air, analog broadcasting at 14 medium or high power transmitter sites and “will begin to decommission those sites.” That will cause the loss of over-the-air viewing of TVO in several small Ontario cities that the broadcaster has not upgraded to digital, over-the-air service, the notice said. Those Ontario cities are Bancroft, Hawkesbury, Huntsville, Kenora, Kingston, North Bay, Owen Sound, Parry Sound, Pembroke, Penetanguishene, Peterborough, Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury, and Timmins. People in those markets “can receive TVO by subscribing to a local television service provider,” the notice said. Over a two-year period, TVO will also decommission about 100 low-powered analog transmitters serving smaller communities such as Goulais River, Kaboni, Larder Lake, and Brethour. The low-power transmitters will be shut down by October 2013, the notice said. TVO said its analog transmitters “serve an estimated 1% of Ontario households” and that more than 90 per cent of Canadian households subscribe to cable or satellite TV. “Given the very small number of analog OTA viewers, the current fiscal reality and TVO’s need to reduce its reliance on Government grants, we do not have the means to convert our analog transmitters to digital or to spend our limited resources on maintaining our ageing equipment,” the TVO notice said. As part of Canada's switch to digital, over-the-air broadcasting last year, TVO converted transmitters to digital in the Ontario markets of Belleville, Chatham, Cloyne, Kitchener, London, Ottawa, Thunder Bay, Toronto, and Windsor. Viewers in those markets can continue to receive TVO over-the-air on digital tuners. Shutting down its analog transmitters will reduce the Ontario public broadcaster's costs as it prepares to deal with less funding from the provincial Liberal government. The Ontario provincial budget, released in April, laid out a five-year plan to balance the books by the 2017-2018 fiscal year. The budget said the provincial government will work with TVO to pursue and generate new sources of revenue. “TVO will generate new revenue to reduce its dependence on government grants, while remaining publicly owned. This will allow it to continue as a publicly owned broadcaster providing innovative educational media while focusing taxpayer dollars on providing greater access to education,” the government's budget plan said. Jill Javet, a spokeswoman for TVO, said in a phone interview that shutting down the analog transmitters will save the broadcaster about $1.5 million annually. She said TVO is receiving about $41 million in provincial government grants for the 2012-2013 fiscal year and generates about $5 million annually in public donations. She said Ontarians value TVO but most do not realize it is a registered charity. The broadcaster will work to get the word out about making donations, she said. She said another possible revenue source is the licensing of content. In February, TVO reached a deal to licence educational content to a company called ClevrU, which will supply TVO programming to customers of Chinese mobile company China Unicom, she said. Other possible revenue streams may include monetizing its online content for viewers outside of Ontario and advertising on its YouTube channel, Javet said. TVO also plans to put more free content online, a platform that has become more relevant to Ontario viewers, she said. “We're putting more stuff online all the time,” Javet said. “Our strategy is clearly to direct our resources where we believe we can have the greatest impact.” TVO said in its notice that it has “reached out to every community” with an active low-powered transmitter to inform them of its plans. “We have extended the option to each community to transfer ownership of the local transmitter tower and satellite dish. Many communities that formerly had TVO transmitters now use the tower for local wireless services,” the notice said. CBC/Radio-Canada, facing an annual budget reduction of $115 million starting in 2014-2015, said in April it will shut down its analog broadcasting system, which counts about 620 transmitters, effective July 31, 2012. Decommissioning the towers will save the public broadcaster just under $10 million annually, CBC said. CBC converted 27 over-the-air transmitters to digital last year as part of Canada's switch from analog. Regulatory consequences for shutting down the analog broadcasting system could arise at CBC's licence renewal hearing scheduled for June. TVO's broadcasting licence is good until Aug. 31, 2015. Gregory Taylor, a broadcasting expert and post-doctoral fellow at Ryerson University, said in an interview that the cancellation of analog service means some communities will be left with no TVO available using an antenna. He said TVO's analog penetration may be one per cent of Ontario households overall but the number of people affected will vary market to market. In markets like Kingston, Ont., he said, many viewers' access to TVO will be cut off. “TV watching numbers have not dropped,” Taylor said. “We're not at the point yet where the Internet has replaced television, especially in rural areas.” He said over-the-air digital broadcasting should be expanded and promoted. “We're missing the potential of digital television in Canada right now,” he said. sdoyle@thewirereport.ca --- CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misspelled ClevrU.

TVO eyes cost savings, will shut down analog system this summer

Broadcast | May 1, 2012

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TVO eyes cost savings, will shut down analog system this summer

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