If the transition to digital television is going to work in Canada, consumers are going to need digital set top boxes " 'and help paying for them' " says prospective satellite company FreeHD Canada.
In its early submission to the CRTC on Broadcasting Notices of Consultation 2009-411 and 411-3, the company (which just asked the CRTC for BDU and SRDU licenses last month) notes the substantial issues facing the Canadian broadcast industry with less than two years until analog TV is set to be switched off forever.
The company also noted the substantial challenges " 'technical, financial, regulatory, the potential for sticky business negotiations when it comes to fee for carriage' " which stand in the way of meeting the August 31, 2011 deadline to transition Canadian TV from analog to digital delivery.
FreeHD recognizes that millions of Canadians will need digital decoders (and not necessarily its set tops) come September 1, 2011, and will need help paying for them.
The company estimates that there are five to six million HDTVs without off-air ATSC decoders, meaning those plasmas or LCDs can't pick up off-air HD signals when the transition happens. Add this to the millions more who have a TV in the bedroom or kitchen needing a decoder, or those who will simply remain fervently analog until the bitter end, and it's easy to see trouble brewing.
So, FreeHD Canada is proposing " '(t)o assist Canadian consumers in the digital transition FreeHD Canada proposes the creation a new Digital Decoder Coupon Program (DDCP) that would be utilized to equip consumers with HD/digital set-tops or decoders from the BDU of their choice. In order to be both supplier and technology neutral this could appropriately take the form of a $75 coupon - two per household - towards the purchase of new digital HD decoders (off-air ATSC, cable, telco or satellite). This program would be federally funded and would be similar to the coupon program administered by the NTIA in the U.S.,' " reads the FreeHD submission.
And who would pay for this billion-plus-dollar program? Canada's wireless companies when they bid for the valuable 700 MHz spectrum to be vacated by Canadian TV broadcasters.
" 'FreeHD Canada proposes that the funds for the DDCP should primarily come from Heritage Canada; arising from their mandate to protect Canada's cultural identity. Funding for the decoders could come from any spectrum auction funds realized by Industry Canada from the vacated UHF spectrum after the digital transition is complete,' " the submission says.
What will others say? We'll have to wait and see, but Heritage Minister James Moore is already on record saying a coupon program is a no-go in Canada.
One thing the FreeHD submission does, however, is point out how unprepared the industry, and the Canadian public, is for the digital transition.
Source: Cartt, 09/03/2009
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