Satellite service continues to provide free APTN signal to northern residents

A free satellite service offered by the federal government, BCE Inc. and the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) is allowing northern residents to continue receiving APTN despite the loss of 32 over-the-air signal transmitters, Jean LaRose, CEO of APTN, said in an interview. In an interview last month, Martin Marcotte, director of transmission for CBC/Radio-Canada, said APTN had co-located transmitters on 32 of the 607 CBC transmitters that were decommissioned across the country on Aug. 1. At the time, Marcotte said the shutdown could cause 32 northern communities to lose access to APTN’s over-the-air signal, in addition to the CBC’s signal. In an interview last week, LaRose confirmed that all 32 of those APTN transmitters were in the process of being decommissioned or given away, but said most northern residents already have access to APTN’s signal over satellite. “We had been surveying our communities for years, and one of the things that had become apparent to us was that most of the households in our communities that we were servicing up there were also adding satellite dishes to their homes,” he said. By 2007-2009, LaRose said, APTN found that “about 90 per cent” of the homes in Canada’s 96 northern communities had satellite dishes installed to receive broadcast signals. He said APTN then partnered with Canadian Heritage and Bell TV to bring a free satellite dish to the remaining homes in advance of last year’s CRTC-mandated digital transition, which required over-the-air broadcasters to convert their analog signals to digital in mandatory markets by Aug. 31, 2011. APTN’s northern service, APTN North, was offered along with the satellite dishes at no cost. “We had gone into every where we had a transmitter and offered free dishes,” he said. “By this time last year, we had completed the installation of close to a thousand dishes across the North, to all the homes that didn’t have one and wanted one. That’s what allowed us to turn off our transmitters.” LaRose said that the program has been “well received” and that APTN has yet to receive any complaints about its analog signal shutdown. “Even in those communities where people declined a dish, where we turned off our transmitter afterwards, there has been no reaction to it,” he said. In an email statement sent to The Wire Report, Bell spokeswoman Jacqueline Michelis said Bell is “pleased to have partnered with APTN over the past five years to offer service to communities in the north.” Michelis said Bell is currently in discussions with APTN to continue providing the APTN North signal, but did not say when the current agreement to provide the free signal to affected households would end. Gary Hoffman, president of the Hay River Community Service Television Society—which provides over-the-air television service to Hay River, N.W.T., at no cost—said in an interview that his organization will also continue to provide a free over-the-air APTN signal in Hay River using APTN’s old transmitter. “They’ve already agreed to give us their equipment, and we’ll basically be continuing APTN service over-the-air,” he said. He added that he expects the APTN North signal to continue without interruptions. Hoffman said APTN was “very forthcoming” about giving up its equipment to the Hay River Community Service Television Society. He said that APTN was appreciative of his group’s efforts to maintain its over-the-air signal. “They were very helpful,” Hoffman said. “We’re going to carry on and carry the signal for them.” The Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS), an advocacy group for campus and community-run television stations, has asked the CBC to offer the analog transmitters it decommissioned this month to affected communities that will lose their over-the-air CBC signals. The CBC, which has said that about 1.7 per cent of Canada’s population still receives its signal through analog over-the-air television, said it is prepared to sell those transmitters and rent the related towers. Public broadcaster the Ontario Educational Communications Authority (OECA), the provincial agency that operates TVO, also shut down its analog transmission system July 31 and said that it is making its decommissioned equipment on 105 low-powered sites available to communities at no cost. LaRose said most of APTN’s 96 northern analog transmitters were decommissioned by the CRTC’s digital transition deadline last August. He said the broadcaster’s 32 transmitters that are co-located with the CBC’s are APTN’s most recent sites. “In many cases, those are the ones that are being shut last,” LaRose said. “By Aug. 31, 2012, none of them will be operational.” dgrenier@thewirereport.ca

Satellite service continues to provide free APTN signal to northern residents

Broadcast | August 14, 2012

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Satellite service continues to provide free APTN signal to northern residents

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