WNSH to 50kw, WPEP goes away

[Scott Fybush]

At 09:19 PM 11/23/2003 -0800, Kevin Vahey wrote:
>BTW noticed CBC started HDTV Saturday night but from website it looked 
>like you needed a third party provider. Do they not have over the air DT yet?

The CBC doesn't, yet. The CRTC and Industry Canada are taking a hands-off 
approach to Canada's DTV transition - they've adopted the US ATSC standards 
and allocated channels for DTV use in each market, but there's no 
requirement that stations build out their DTV facilities nor any sunset 
deadline for turning off analog service. Thus far, only Toronto's 
independent CITY-TV has built a DTV facility (low power on channel 53), and 
a few applications are pending in Toronto (CBC, CTV) and one or two other 
large markets.

The betting line in Canada is that most viewers will get their digital/HD 
service via either satellite or digital cable. Both of the satellite 
providers (Bell ExpressVu and Star Choice) offer the Boston and Seattle DTV 
channels (yes, that's right - people in Whitehorse can get WBZ-DT by 
satellite, but not people in Walpole) as well as some Canadian HD content. 
I'm pretty sure the US DTV channels are available on digital cable as well 
in many parts of Canada.

Would that our video providers and regulators were this enlightened...

s