TVO Wants Out of Broadcasting

... and why it's a bad move for everyone.

An editorial from your Average Joe

In a recent declaration, TVO (the public broadcaster of Ontario) seems to no longer be interested in, well,  … broadcasting … outside of Toronto. The publicly-funded organization has decided to close down eight transmitters, including the one in our nation’s capital Ottawa, leaving only it's only over-the-air broadcasting station operational in the 6ix.  What does this mean?

Well for starters, Ontarians are getting a raw deal as something that was available for free over-the-air to anyone with a TV and an antenna is now only available through a pay service (either TV or internet). So to get TVO, Ontarians outside Toronto are essentially being asked to pay a third party to provide them with something they already fund with their taxes.

The only good news here is the deal isn’t done: shutdown would be at the end of July and there is still time to intervene. In fact, here are a few reasons below on why you should pressure TVO, the Ontario government, the CRTC, consumer protection boards and anyone else who will listen to take a long hard look at this plan before it goes through and screens start going dark in ON: 

 

First of all, where did they get the numbers?

The aforementioned article states “this decision will impact less than 1% of Ontario households” with no citation or mention on how this number was derived. Does TVO actually know how many viewers watch their programming via an antenna? For example, a 2015 report shows about 8% of Canadians do not subscribe to a TV service (cable or streaming) and Ottawa as the 7^th largest TV market in Canada. I've combed whatever data I could find and could not reach this figure. Soooo TVO...  1%? Are you sure?

 

Also, what defines a “household” and why limit it only to that? How many cable households have secondary TVs attached to antennas on kitchen counters, kids’ playrooms? How about businesses like hair salons and waiting rooms at dentist offices? Daycares? Community centers?

 

Another question is whether any due diligence was done to assess the impact on the so-called “1%”? Did TVO survey or talk to any of the viewers that would be impacted? What about the elderly who aren’t technically savvy enough to use streaming internet options or those on fixed incomes that cannot afford a pay TV subscription?

The numbers just don’t add up. The 1% number is meaningless ... and faceless.

It sets a dangerous precedent for other broadcasting networks

Allowing TVO to close all but one transmitter (Toronto) and still allowing it to retain “must carry” status in cable packages has definitely raised eyebrows. If the CRTC allows this to go through (especially in a major urban area such as the Ottawa region) this could set jurisprudence that many Canadian broadcasters owned by cable / satellite parents may soon look to copy. What would prevent another broadcaster from closing all but one “symbolic” transmitter?

Sure TVO, it's big but I'm not sure the signal will reach the 7th largest TV market in Canada from there.

 

The shutdown hits the people who depend on it the most

With perhaps the exception of Ottawa, most of these transmitters serve areas like small communities and rural areas where there are actually little or few options for broadband internet. So you can understand the confusion when people see that “prevalent access to TVO’s high-quality educational video content either through … access to a broadband internet connection” is a reason for shutting down the transmitters.

Also, TV by antenna is free from recurring monthly charges and is most popular amongst people in socio-financial situations that do not allow them to pay a monthly cable bill full of service fees and equipment rental charges. The cost of cable has skyrocketed, whereas over-the-air TV programming has remained free of charge to the public.

TVO is leaving Canadians at the mercy of pay TV mega conglomerates to get their content

TVO states “TVO’s audiences overwhelmingly receive our content through cable, direct-to-home satellite … platforms”. Oh those guys. Yes, well that makes everything better.

 

So TVO is telling us to get their programming from the likes of corporate entities who just decided to raise prices on TV and broadband packages because ... you know ... that's life? The same companies who were mandated by the CRTC with the task of providing Canadians with a basic service at a reasonable price and instead decided to spit in the eye of the Canadian public? Well, I mean that’s when they weren’t trying to bamboozle potential customers out of picking said basic package ). So thank you TVO for leaving us in the capable, well-meaning hands of companies that garnered a thousand complaints in a six week period.

I can already hear the service rep at the Cable Co. now: “Yes sir, but if you cancel our service you won’t have access to our many channels of quality programming ... like TVO”  Oh, the irony.

So you say we can still get TVO from our friendly, reputable cable and satellite providers? Yeah, about that ...

 

Were any other options explored to maintain service?

Ok, so there is a budget crunch. Fine. Besides a complete shutdown of transmitters, were other options explored by TVO? How about joining forces with the federal government and using infrastructure funding to have TVO/CBC/SRC broadcast from the same transmitter using digital multicasting to serve communities that were already shunned by CBC and now TVO?  Again, very disappointing to see this lack of effort from a public broadcaster.

Why get out of broadcasting now?

The latest trends show that over-the-air TV is making a comeback. First of all, antenna-friendly devices have popped up everywhere in new tech from Xbox to Canada’s very own uber-hip antenna-friendly DVR TabloTV (which BTW is from a Canadian innovation company based in Ottawa employing many Ontarians … and ironically is also where TVO is shutting off its transmitter). In fact, TV antenna products were all the rage at CES last month.

Second, the future is bright with the advent of ATSC 3.0, the new over-the-air broadcasting standard that will allow OTA broadcasters to reach everything from rabbit ears to mobile phones and integrate content with the very same interactive platforms TVO is mentioning in its digital shift. If anything, why not hang on a bit longer and upgrade straight to ATSC3? Opportunity: missed.

Recent Canadian data shows traditional pay TV service is the medium in stagnation / decline. Graphic courtesy @MontrealOTA

Finally, the numbers show that pay TV is past its glory days: ratings for pay-only networks are tanking, cable companies are bleeding subscribers and conversely, over-the-air TV use is rising as antenna sales surge and a new generation of Canadians leaves pay TV to fade away with the era of baby boomers. Oh and those up-and-coming millennials? Well, they love antennas as can be seen from growing social media communities and on popular reddit threads.

 

So what can you do?

Well, for starters you can help TVO come to its senses by writing them directly via email at asktvo@tvo.org .

If you want to add your voice to the rest of the crowd, sign this online petition to ask for due diligence from the Ontario government (who funds TVO with your tax dollars) before this decision goes through in July 2017.

If you want to put your eggs in other baskets, contact the CRTC and file a complaint under TV accessibility if you will be losing TVO’s broadcast service. Feel free to ask some of the questions mentioned above.

Finally, you can also contact the Ontario Consumer Protection Board and file a complaint … but this one is a long shot.

Make your voice heard, and stay tuned…

How Rogers Is Ruining Hockey for an Entire Generation of Canadians

The only good news is it's not too late to fix it.

As we approach the end of the second year of the historic 12-year, 5.2 billion dollar deal between the NHL and Rogers/Quebecor for TV rights in Canada, one has to look back at how Rogers is stacking up compared to the good old days of hockey before “The Deal”. Long story short: unlike their fancy new set, it ain’t pretty.

First of all, "The Deal" didn’t start off well: many Canadians felt concern that hockey would move away from what has traditionally been successful: Saturday night and playoff games available on CBC (available to all) and move towards Rogers-based pay channels (available to some). Public opinion polls like the one below had about 50% of Canadians not supporting the new NHL-Rogers deal.

To appease the crowd, from the beginning Rogers and CBC embarked in a bizarre partnership: CBC would still showcase Saturday night games as before, but Rogers would choose the lineup, produce and reap any advertising revenue from the games. This arrangement is good for the first four years of the 12-year term of “The Deal”, and it’s not sure if it will be renewed. To be honest, it’s hard to see what was in this deal for the CBC besides not having to bother airing programming that competed against Saturday night hockey. It has yet to be seen whether this will be a long-term arrangement or a simple intermediate step to alleviate the transition to a soon-to-be full Rogers offering (similar to the Saturday night French language hockey simulcasts between RDS and the SRC from 2002 to 2004).

For Rogers, year one of “The Deal” ended with lower ratings than expected. Instead of increasing by 20% as projected, ratings stagnated, and then dwindled. Ad rates were dropped this year after Rogers failed to hit its audience targets last season, but there was hope of a bounceback. Yet as this month closes out and with no Canadian teams in the playoff picture, it’s hard to stay optimistic if you’re expecting a sophomore windfall of good news at the Rogers camp.

So what’s that you say? NHL hockey ratings are down? In Canada?? It almost sounds unheard of…. Impossible! Yet it’s true. So besides the prospect of no Canadian teams in the playoffs for the first time in 40 years, how and what did Rogers do to screw up a Canadian golden goose of TV success so royally? Let’s take a look below at some key mishaps:

Dude, where’s my team?

The most maligned aspect of Rogers’ bungling treatment of Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday is the so-called flex-scheduling. Flex scheduling has caused some bizarre scenarios these past two seasons including hockey games being shown on non-sports channel FX, Citytv and CBC simulcasting the exact same game and prominent Canadian teams being used as bait on the subscription-only SportsNet family instead of CBC or Citytv, where most hockey fans expect to find a Saturday night game. What’s worse of all is fans have no idea on what channel their team is playing until they’ve scoured through the program guide and it usually involves subscribing to multiple Rogers pay channels to ensure you will see all games of your favorite team (hello Winnipeg Jets and Ottawa Senators fans). If getting more Rogers channels into the TV packages of Canadians was the plan, it’s backfiring miserably and at the expense of the NHL.

Ratings are down across the board for most NHL games, and Rogers seems oblivious as they blame everyone else: from (a) the way ratings are calculated to (z) the poor play of the hockey teams themselves. What is more alarming is that with this new flex schedule format the numbers are showing Canadians are watching less NHL hockey. What’s worse than just the numbers? It's what they mean is actually going on in the households of Canadians, namely: a whole new generation is following hockey rather than watching it.

When growing up, everyone would tune into CBC on Saturday night to watch their local team. It was automatic. The day after or on Monday morning at school/work, no matter who you talked to, they had seen the game and would discuss every highlight, lowlight and controversial call with you. That has changed drastically in the past two years. Looking at my own children this season and last, they simply have tuned out the Saturday night holy tradition of having HNIC on CBC tuned in on the TV. We don’t have all the necessary SportsNet channels in our household and have no plan on getting them. Instead, my children are learning to follow hockey live (on social media) rather than watch it on TV. They watch almost-live videos posted via their team’s websites and fanbase social media accounts of key plays. There are dozens of in-game commentaries being uploaded in discussion forums accessible from their smartphones. And for live-play-by-play, they’re happy having the radio on the background while they play Xbox. Rogers isn’t just ruining watching hockey for me and my old fogies, they’re changing it for an entire new generation of Canadians growing up.

How to fix it:

Rogers needs to realize that Canadian don’t simply like watching NHL hockey; they like watching their local NHL teams. So the first thing to do is ensure each local CBC TV affiliate shows their local team via a simulcast of the game's SportsNet feed. Canadians expect to tune into their local CBC station on Saturday night and see their local hockey team hitting the ice. People in Montreal have no interest in seeing the Leafs take on the Blue Jackets. Ottawa and Winnipeg have had hardly any exposure on the national networks this year. Asking fans to scour for their team on B-rate channels like SN360 is ridiculous for a Saturday night game. Simulcast the local teams on their respective CBC affiliate and people will tune in.

As for Citytv and their 7PM Saturday night game, there’s no clear answer on this one. Citytv could drop the game altogether and bring back the Sunday night game (see Hometown Hockey below), or they could show a national interest game that does not involve Canadian teams but would still be worthy to watch (think Stamkos, Crosby, Toews). At least this way if there is a blowout on CBC or if the local game isn’t interesting, the causal hockey fan has a channel to flip to.   

The Sunday Night Hockey Game

Hometown Hockey debuted on Citytv in the first season of the Rogers deal. A nationally televised Sunday night hockey game came as a pleasant surprise to many Canadians, especially given the community feel given to the night as the Rogers mobile broadcast studio visited communities from coast to coast, marked with festivities and much fanfare. Rogers finally got something right and many felt a new family and community-oriented Canadian hockey tradition was starting. Don't get me wrong; I liked it and watched it with my family - when it was on Citytv.

So for season two, what did Rogers do? Sunday night's Hometown Hockey was moved from Citytv to Sportsnet in hopes of boosting ratings and subscribers to the pay channel. Instead, the opposite occurred with a 30 percent drop in viewers from its inaugural year. Rumour is now the very concept of a Hometown Hockey game on Sunday nights is in jeopardy.

How to fix it:

Easy solution is to move the game back to Citytv where the formula worked before, or even CBC for that matter. If Rogers is serious about building a new hockey tradition, you don’t put something like that on a pay-only channel. The viewers have spoken, will Rogers listen?

Marquee Games like The Winter Classic

The Bridgestone Winter Classic this year was a marquee event for the NHL in Canada and for NHL Canadian sports coverage: it had a coveted timeslot at 1PM on New Year’s Day, when everybody is either together with family or nursing a hangover in front of the TV after lunch. On top of that, a perfect original six matchup for hockey fans north of the border: the Boston Bruins took on their dreaded rivals the Montreal Canadiens, teams with enormous history and a rabid fan base to match. The last time a Winter Classic US/Canada original six confrontation happened in 2014 with Toronto taking on Detroit, CBC set records with almost 4 million viewers, the highest ever for a non-playoff game. An easy ratings homerun for Rogers, right? Wrong.

So what exactly did Rogers do to bungle what should have been an easy Canadian ratings slam-dunk? Well, instead of broadcasting the outdoor game on CBC as done in the past (and as per Hockey Night in Canada tradition dating back to the first Heritage Classic outdoor game in Edmonton), for the first time ever it parked the game on Sportsnet. Problem is, not everybody has Sportsnet in their TV package and no one in their right mind would subscribe to watch for just one marquee game, meaning casual holiday-season TV sports viewers in Canada couldn’t just flip channels and tune in. On top of that, someone at Rogers head office failed to realize (or chose to ignore) that NBC in the US was broadcasting the game, meaning people with even the most basic of cable package (or people with an over-the-air antenna within range of the US border like Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal) could watch the game anyways. The results were disastrous.

Sportsnet did not yet disclose its ratings for the 2016 Winter Classic but the silence and lack of this type of disclosure says a lot (had it been a large number it would have been plastered over every Rogers press release). Pundits are saying it was nowhere close to the record set in 2014 aired on CBC, perhaps as much as 40% lower than the 2014 figures, indicative by the numbers south of border for NBC which weren’t very encouraging to say the least. (Remember, ratings for Canadian viewers do not count in NBC totals).

Worse than failing to live up to the pre-hockey-deal 2014 ratings bonanza, Rogers missed a golden chance to showcase the Sportnet brand and its NHL broadcast team to a holiday-time national audience on CBC, full of casual viewers (and potential new customers). Instead, they drew harsh criticism on how an American network aired “Canada’s game” while Rogers failed to do the same using CBC or Citytv. *Facepalm*

How to fix it:

Rogers, what were you thinking??? This one was so easy we're even surprised you blew it. Marquee games belong on CBC where all of Canada can watch. The good news is by doing this, you get an invaluable chance to show off to casual and potential new hockey fans what makes you great for watching NHL hockey. Also, while people are tuned in on CBC, you get to plug any other Rogers programming or products, get in-game viewers to check out your website and social media accounts and then drive post-game viewers to your other networks. Duh!!!

French Language Coverage

While Rogers’ SportsNet covers English-language NHL programming, partner Quebecor’s TVA network took the reigns over from Bellmedia rival RDS … sort of. While Quebecor put all its eggs in the basket of making TVASports the official NHL francophone broadcaster, it made its first mistake by losing regional broadcast rights back to RDS in its primary market of Quebec for the only two teams with a considerable francophone backing, being the Montreal Canadiens and the Ottawa Senators. This meant the network would only air maximum one game per week of these teams, and would have to wait until the playoffs (if any) to gain a ratings monopoly. Oops.

At the launch of "The Deal", Francophone audience expectations were set sky high when it was shown that there would be hockey games on Francophone network TVA as well (see graphic below). However, with regional rights lost, the big-ticket Saturday game was forced to pay-only TVASports to drive subscribers to the sagging sports network, and two years later not a single NHL game has been shown on the TVA network. What was worse for fans was that although the Saturday night Francophone games were available nationally,  fans outside of the region trying to watch the weekday games lost out as the games were blacked out on the rival network (rights were only regional).

As the final part of this bungling hat-trick of TVASports’ new reign as an NHL broadcaster, it assembled a team of B-list TV personalities from the incumbent RDS network and brought in less-known former hockey players as colour commentators. It then tried to pass this lacklustre and inexperienced team off as a high end sports commentary crew, and then brought rival TV service providers such as Bell to arbitration (such as below in May 2015) to raise retransmission fees or face having the network pulled from their subscribers. 

The results so far have not been encouraging. TVASports’ growing pains continued well into its second season of “The Deal” and an unimpressed and impatient paying public poked cruel fun at the network’s hockey coverage, making it an inside joke in many Quebec homes. The culmination of this perception happened during the most-watched New Year’s Eve francophone comedy show “Bye-Bye 2015” which referred to the network as a “type of RDS that had its oxygen supply cut off during birth” and seared the network’s credibility with the following imitation skit:

To this day, TVASports continues to fall short of its rating targets. What’s more troublesome is it is unable to convert its captive Saturday night hockey audience into a solid viewer base for its pre and post-game shows. As for the quality of the broadcast, the network has yet to land a bona fide renown broadcasting personality and remains plagued with everything from amateurish spelling mistakes to embarrassing graphical errors...

How to fix it:

A TVA simulcast on Saturday nights (as originally proposed) may have been the missed opportunity here for TVASports. By putting Saturday night hockey games back on network TV, Quebecor would have probably been hailed as heroes by the general francophone public, returning Saturday night hockey to the people after years of a cable-only RDS monopoly. True, due to the bad negotiating for regional nights of weekday games, the Saturday night TVA showcase would have severely dented any ratings TVAsports would have had, but those ratings were up for debate anyways as many Francophones have shown that rather than sign up for TVAsports they have resorted to watch the game in English while muted with Francophone radio commentary.

The missed opportunity lies in what could have been: the exposure the network would have had. A captive audience for DVR-proof programing on a nationally broadcast TV network for three hours is a priceless self-promotion prospect that could have driven traffic to Quebecor websites, social media, discussion forums, and showcased other TVAsports programming to an audience of potential customers. Also, by being available freely, people would have been more forgiving to any growing pains as they would not be directly paying for the product. With Quebecor eventually looking to bring another NHL team to francophone Quebec City, one Saturday night regular season game on TVA would have been laying the foundation for a whole new generation of Francophones nationwide to become accustomed to the TVAsports product.

Will NHL hockey ever be shown on TVA? Je ne retiendrais pas mon souffle.

Conclusion

Rogers (and to a certain extent Quebecor) has assumed and taken for granted that the NHL is a cash cow in Canada. They overpaid for hockey in a badly-advised long-term deal, and now will hold hockey ransom and expect Canadians to pay for it through their cable bill. But will they really learn through these first two years that people aren’t fools; and can they make the changes to return NHL hockey to all Canadians?

Besides fixing “The Deal”, there is one final area of concern and that is the future popularity of hockey in this country. As a new generation grows up learning to “follow” hockey rather than watch it due to the bungling of Rogers, the questions must be asked: how long will the NHL let this go on? Ratings are down in Canada for two years straight. Will the decline and drought last another year? Two years? Five years? How much longer before a growing number of Canadians switch from being rabid fans that watch every game from pre-season onwards to casual viewers that only watch the playoffs and a handful of regular season games? How long can TV ratings slump until this starts affecting NHL merchandising and ticket sales?

Now remember this final point: whoever tells you the business case for hockey on CBC (or any other national network) doesn’t work anymore in today’s economy is a pure fool. The NHL is to Canada what the NFL is to the United States. It’s interesting to see the success and profitability of the NFL isn’t related to cable-only TV access. 

-An editorial from Your Average Joe

2013: The Year in Review

2013 was a big year for Canadian consumers in the area of cordcutting and over-the-air TV. Let’s take moment to look back on some of the highlights:

New antenna hardware options:

Whoever thought the market for over-the-air broadcast TV in Canada was coming to a sudden demise was definitely proven wrong in 2013.

With Canadian Pay TV prices skyrocketing faster than food,shelter and phone costs in 2013 a greater number of Canadians joined their neighbours to the south and looked at online streaming + over-the-air digital broadcasting as options, and it showed. Cordcutting came to Canada in record numbers, Netflix overtook HBO in subscribers and antenna sales soared in North America.

Thanks to a growing trend towards the freedom of cordcutting and disputes between pay TV providers and networks, North American consumers fed up of the high prices and shenanigans went out and bought antennas in droves this past year.

Never has there been such a flurry of activity on the antenna market, with antennas becoming more compact, powerful and also stylish. Antennas Direct brought its powerful “DBe” line onto the market, Mohu launched the Curve, Winegard packed a knockout punch in its tiny FlatWave series and Channel Master joined the mini-antenna movement with its newly redesigned SMARTenna. To add to that, newcomer HD Frequency came into the Canadian market with a bang late in the year with its duo of Cable Cutter premium antennas .

Didn't they know broadcast TV is supposed to be dying out? New affordable, powerful and compact antennas like the FlatWave AIR from Winegard popped up all over the market in 2013.

Front and Back-End DVRs

How could the OTA market be dead when PVR juggernaut Tivo included an OTA tuner in its new Roamio box? Also Channel Master finally unveiled its long-rumoured DVR+ powered by PVR-hardware development pro Echostar, which hit the market at a surprisingly competitive price point and has a guide that can work off an antenna input only if required (no need for an internet connection).

Channel Master's new DVR+ may be the OTA PVR everyone has been waiting for all along.

On the backend, several companies are targeting the growing numberof Canadian TV streamers to add programming from OTA signals to their AppleTV and Roku boxes. Canadian newcomer Nuvyyo had a fairly successful IndieGoGo campaign for its new Tablo DVR which can add up to four OTA tuners and whole home PVR capabilities to devices on a home network. US-based SiliconDust teamed up with Simple.TV to offer a similar product and also had the InstaTV Pro app finally released on iOS after a long patent dispute giving new life to its HD HomeRun OTA tuner boxes.

Nuvyyo's Tablo is Canada's take at a high-powered backend OTA DVR.

Channel Selection

There was a lot of movement on the channel front in 2013: CHCH went digital in Hamilton, CityTV came to Montreal and Canal ICI went on-air for the first time. Subchannels also came and went with certain US border stations struggling with poor ratings on their digital subs. Newcomers to the north TuffTV and Antenna TV look to inch closer and get in more Canadian cities by actively looking for dance partners in the northern US.

Uncertainty for Sports

The biggest bombshell of the year in sports media was the signing of a record 12-year $5.2 Billion deal between the NHL and SportsNet, giving the cable TV channel owned by Rogers exclusive hockey broadcast rights in Canada until the 2025-26 season. This served a huge shock to most Canadians who were used to watching regional games on CBC via the traditional “Hockey Night in Canada” on Saturday nights. There was solace but still a lot of uncertainty as the CBC was granted two “national games” under the authority of Rogers to be aired on Saturday nights for the next four seasons. The situation will be even more complicated in Quebec where French-language and SportsNet partner TVA Sports holds the rights.

The Rogers deal changes the landscape of NHL hockey on Canadian TV for the next 12 years. Photo courtesy financialpost.com

As a silver lining for non-cable-subscribing hockey fans, a preliminary broadcast plan showed that additional OTA Saturday night hockey may be added on CityTV affiliates (and perhaps even TVA stations in Quebec, although highly unlikely)  but nothing has been confirmed. However with major viewership numbers and big bucks at stake, many are trying to see what motivation Rogers and TVA would have in airing games for free on Saturday night via OTA. So for many Canadians once this current 2013-2014 NHL season is over, they will be wondering if they will be able to watch a Stanley Cup final via their rabbit ears ever again.

Could there actually be more Saturday OTA hockey in Canada next year? Although early speculations are unlikley to materialize one could always dream... 

What’s to look forward to in 2014

The good news for Canadians is that as the demand for antennas increases in the great white north, the message is being heard loud and clear. Once devoid of quality antennas, Canadian big box stores have caught the winds of cordcutting change as in 2014 Antennas Direct is to be carried by Best Buy Canada and Winegard is expanding its product line with The Source. HD Frequency is actively looking at placing its products with major Canadian OTA speciality suppliers and is offering free shipping to Canada as a promotion in the meantime.

And with new antenna-ready PVRs hitting the market in the form of Tablo, Simple.TV and Channel Master’s DVR+ the options and ease of an OTA setup will only grow for Canadians.

Conclusion

With that being said, all of us here at the Average Joe Team would like to thank you for a great 2013 and wish you and your families a safe and happy 2014. See you all in the new year!

OTA TV: It's Not Just About Cordcutting

Over-The-Air TV Can be a Great Add-on to Other Services Too

For some bizarre reason, people assume that if you use an antenna to watch TV you’re automatically a “cordcutter”. Truth be told there is actually a growing number of “cord-pinchers” or “cable squeezers” that have kept a foothold on their pay TV service yet added OTA as a secondary source to fit their TV needs.

In fact, this issue has been brought up many times in recent months as there is reason to believe this “unseen population” of Canadian consumers using OTA as a source for television is large enough to bump up the number of people using broadcast TV in urban areas in Canada from 1 in 10 to as much as 1 in 5 households.

The issue at hand is that in surveys done by the CRTC there is no clear identification of secondary sources of TV and usage rates. As soon as you are a pay TV or ITV customer at your address, the assumption by the Canadian government’s telecommunications giant is that your household is “on the grid” and has no use for the over-the-air signal being sent to you for free. As a result, this has led to a perceived small number of people that use broadcast TV services, affecting advertising demand and the way the regulator makes decisions that affect the broadcast industry and Canadian consumers as a whole.

With a bit of research and listening to some testimonials, your Average Joe has come across a whole number of savvy, cost-effective Canadians that have kept some aspect of a pay TV service and still use broadcast OTA TV. Here are some of these stories with the hopes of inspiring some of you out there to hop on the free TV bandwagon before the CRTC decides there is no bandwagon at all:

Secondary TVs

“The cost of adding another receiver for our TV in the kitchen was ridiculous. There was a flat fee to do the install and apparently a new switch or something was required as well and we would have had to drill holes in our walls to pass cable. It just wasn’t worth it for the hour of news I’d watch in the morning during breakfast and the background programming we like to have on when tidying up the dinner dishes.” This TV watcher got around the issue by simply hanging a flat indoor antenna to the wall, just above his wall mounted flatscreen TV. “It’s the perfect fit for our kitchen. We get all our major local stations, the image is crisp and the installation took up no room … no shelf for the receiver, no passing cables in the wall … I did it myself in an afternoon”.

Adding a flat antenna like the Mohu Leaf under a cabinet (above) or on the wall makes having a kitchen TV showing your local channels a space-saving breeze; regardless of the TV service you have in your living room.  Photo courtesy of www.gadgetreview.com

We’ve heard the same thing for countless other applications. “Did the cable company think I would pay over $150 for a HD receiver just to watch Jimmy Kimmel in my bedroom?” said another fellow using his indoor antenna as a secondary source of late night TV.

“I’m not watching Game of Thrones on my dinky TV when I’m on the treadmill … that’s what my home theatre basement setup is for. I just need something to distract me for an hour or so” said another TV viewer who opted for an antenna setup in their home gym. “Even from the basement, it was easy to get a coax going out to a wall-mounted compact antenna about 12 feet off the ground. Why would I pay a monthly rental fee for another receiver just for a few hours of TV a week?”

The pursists

“I couldn’t stand the simsubbing which meant missed plays and cut-off of the announcers” said one purist NFL fan that prides himself on his “dual feed setup” in his man cave on game days. “I catch CBS and NBC out of Buffalo and I’m not watching the hacked and slashed feed via my cable provider. I get the real commentary, the real commercial breaks and I don’t get interrupted when the post-game commentary comes on. Needless to say, our Super Bowl party is always at my house year after year and my friends are envious of my dual cable / antenna setup. I do need my cable feed to watch the weeknight games though so I wouldn’t be able to live without it.”  


Just in case …

Antennas seem to be the “Plan B” of choice for some satellite TV subscribers in case their signal goes down – sometimes due to bad local weather, rain fade, an issue at the uplink or snow accumulation on their dish during the winter. “Service calls take a while and are expensive, and it’s too dangerous to go up there on my own in the winter to clear off the snow and ice build-up. I use my antenna input to get by and usually after the sun gets at it for a few hours the dish is clear again” said one such user.

Don't be left out in the cold with no TV. A backup OTA TV setup can get you through those snowy patches as local OTA broadcasts are not affected in the same way as satellite signals by bad weather.

There are also more and more people also investing in handheld and battery TVs to get through blackouts and other types of emergencies / disasters. “We were without power for almost 3 days after a windstorm last summer. A portable TV antenna combo and a car adapter was our lifeline” said one such family.

New portable digital TVs use antennas to bring you crisp, HD pictures courtesy of your local broadcasters, even when the power or cable is out. Photo courtesy RCA.

 

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“I laughed when I heard Bell Fibe was bragging about offering wireless TV receivers that can go anywhere; even outside” said one antenna aficionado “We’ve been doing that for years. My wife and I found it was such a shame to be stuck inside on a nice summer evening, and PVRing our shows to watch later at night was a no go as we’d fall asleep by then. We would routinely set up a small flatscreen outside and clamp an antenna to our railing for an evening of outdoor TV. I guess you can say we took the concept of having an outdoor living room to another level!” laughed one adventurous outdoor TV watcher. The highlight of his summer in fact was watching the Boston-Chicago Stanley Cup finals on CBC under the stars with some neighbourhood friends and some brewsies on his deck. When asked if the setup was difficult or cumbersome he said, “No, but we just have to find a way to keep the bugs off the darn TV screen!”

Watching TV a few feet from your house is one thing but what do you do when you’re a few miles out? TV antennas are still the TV provider of choice for the RV community, who once again because they have no address (and chances are their owners have cable at home) do not pop up anywhere on the CRTC surveys as OTA users.

Second addresses

There are many people that use antennas at secondary residences such as cottages. One ingenious person I talked to found a way to maximize the use of his pay TV satellite service by using his antenna.

“We have a 3-season cottage, and OTA reception up there is difficult. What we do is we had a satellite service installed at both our primary and secondary residences on the same account, and once we open the cottage we call our provider to swap our service form our city address to the cottage address.” This practice is a very well-kept secret amongst some providers who would rather get you to sign up twice at both addresses, and switching between either the primary or secondary address for satellite service is perfectly legal by the way.

“So this means we use our OTA setup in the city throughout the late spring, summer and early fall when we’re rarely there, but still nets us almost 30 channels. We PVR anything that we don’t have via OTA at the cottage and catch up on our viewing on the weekends when we head up. Then in the summer we’re up there for weeks at a time so we have our full service with us, and we swap back when we close up for winter. Our city OTA setup allows us to maximizes the flexibility in our satellite plan without having to pay a dime more”


Businesses

“I was pouring money down the drain” said one garage shop owner who was paying a monthly cable bill for essentially one SD channel he had running on one TV in his waiting room. Through a referral from a friend, he paid a one-time setup that gave him almost 20 free digital channels via a roof-mount antenna, and a splitter to a newly purchased 2^nd TV in his lunchroom as a bonus for his employees, funded with the money he saved by cancelling cable. “Once I got the facts it was a no-brainer to switch to an antenna. And to top it off, I’m now showing my clients an HD image.”

David vs Goliath

“I couldn’t stand the way (my pay TV provider) treated me.” Said one frustrated pay TV subscriber who also has an antenna in his attic.  “They would do anything to get me to sign on, and once they had me I was chopped liver. So I learnt my lesson, now I constantly shop around and drop my service once I’m not happy”. It seems to be a general consensus that pay TV subscribers everywhere are fed up with rising prices, outrageous add-on fees (why are you charging more for “digital service”?? Do you even support analog signals anyways?) and a Rubik’s cube of programming “packages” that satisfy only the interests of the people collecting the bills, not the customer. “Without an OTA setup I would never be able to pay hardball with these guys. They gave me grief about a credit they had promised me when I signed on, so after almost an hour of arguing I cancelled my service. What did I care, I still had almost 30 channels of free TV to fall back upon. Lo and behold a senior rep called back a week later and I was able to negotiate a better deal than I had before to re-sign. Since then they’re already raised the price on me twice so I’m keeping an eye on them … and because of my OTA setup running in parallel, I’m not afraid to pull the plug again if I see one more unreasonable hike. That’s the only way to send a message to the guys.”

Conclusion

Hopefully the above examples have (as a minimum) inspired some of you out there that it’s worth giving “cord-pinching” a shot by using a secondary TV setup by antenna– if not for convenience, for the health of your wallet and sanity of your finances.

Do you have any cord-pinching or cable-squeezing stories? Are you enjoying a free TV setup? Contact Average Joe today to share your story with us!

Shame on you CBC

CBC drops the ball on over-the-air DTV

I will always remember June 2011 as being one filled with potential for Canada. The Vancouver Canucks were on the verge of bringing the Stanley Cup back to Canadian soil and in many markets Canadians were watching the games for free in HD on the CBC’s test DTV broadcast setups. The promise of OTA DTV was getting me impatiently optimistic for September when the digital transition would finally hit across the board in Canada. Unfortunately, just like the Canucks fell short in their quest for hockey’s holy grail, we are months into the Canadian DTV revolution and there are still plenty of key players in the TV industry coming up short as well.

Let’s ignore about the lack of clear communication of the transition, the remapped spectrum, misplaced broadcast towers and the fact that certain analog stations got extensions (not only leaving certain towns in the TV stone age but in some cases causing interference for the reception of other DTV signals). In my book, the biggest disappointment by far has been the CBC.

In its proud history, the CBC has always been at the forefront of television technology for Canadians including creation of the first TV stations in Canada, the first colour broadcasts and use of satellites for a nationwide TV feed. So why is it dragging its feet for OTA DTV?

The CBC (and SRC for French Canadians) is the flagship television network for Canada. It is our face and foothold in the television world, it belongs to us as it is subsidized by our tax dollars and has been ensuring Canadian programming earns its rightful place on the airwaves to showcase our homegrown talent. As unfortunate it is to admit, it has dropped the ball on a national level when it came to the DTV transition.

What went wrong?

The CBC’s first bad move was the reduction in picture quality. While the network blew us away with 1080i HDTV during its test run all summer long, it dropped to 720p only a few weeks after the digital transition. While some may argue that the progressive scan isn’t that much of drop in quality from the interlaced format, fact of the matter is that picture just doesn’t look as crisp as it once did on the bigger screen televisions. The reason for the downgrade? At the request of the cable and satellite companies picking up the feeds, the network agreed to downgrade to spare bandwidth, completely to the detriment of the over-the-air audience. So yes ladies and gentlemen, Canada’s flagship network isn’t even broadcasting at full HD potential.

While people with smaller screens may not care as much about the small reduction in picture quality, there are other issues that can’t be ignored. Various users across the country were plagued with signal dropouts or poor reception from transmitters that even to this date are not yet operating at full power. Also forget about program info and on-screen guide functionality – most CBC stations are still not sending any of that useful PSIP data yet, so good luck trying to figure out what’s on when ... let alone trying to find / record your favorite show automatically with a OTA DVR or PC setup.

What really gets your Average Joe frustrated was the potential that was within reach with the CBC. Long criticized as having insufficient, uninteresting programming options and being a burden on the taxpayers, the CBC should have been at the forefront of the push to allow the CRTC to permit multicasting in Canada (multicasting = using unused DTV bandwidth for broadcasting subchannels like 4.2, 4.3, etc from the main channel 4.1).

PBS in the United States makes optimal use of multicasting (i.e. multiple broadcasting using DTV). Most stations have 2 or more subchannels, an excellent example that the CBC should push for from the CRTC here north of the border.

Multicasting for the CBC could have mirrored the success of PBS south of the border. Most PBS stations added 2 or more subchannels to increase programming options for its viewers and of course generate additional revenue from advertising fees from the extra feeds. Remember, multicasting uses the same transmitter and antenna so only minimal equipment upgrades in the studio are required meaning minimal cost... in restaurant terms: same kitchen, more menu items.

So what could be put on a CBC subchannel?

If they did not want to expend too much effort, CBC could easily make a “CBC Two” subchannel by simply mish-mashing and recycling versions of its popular shows (ex: Dragon’s Den, Little Mosque, Love Hate and Propaganda), then add in hourly CBC News updates as well as select programming from the pay-TV only Bold and Documentary channels. Double-dipping by time-shifting other popular shows (Coronation Street) to later in primetime from the main channel could also be advantageous in attracting more viewers as well. As an alternate to non-sports fanatics, while Hockey Night in Canada would be playing on the primary channel, CBC2 could showcase comedy specials or some of those Canadian films that seem to always win at the Golden Globes or Oscars but never make it to the screen where I can actually watch them. Weekend or daytime timeslots could promote children’s programming for a longer period of time, or even air retro CBC children’s shows (c’mon, who doesn’t remember Cyril Sneer on “The Raccoons”?).

In areas served by only English CBC programming where there is enough of a potential francophone audience, the SRC could also be run as a subchannel. If the CBC wanted to go further, they could also add in a “CBC Three” which could have specialized local programming in certain areas (such as aboriginal or other cultural programming) and they could fill off-hours with revenue-generating TV shopping programs promoting Canadian artisans and other homegrown products. Audio-only subchannels could be added as well to expand the coverage of CBC Radio One and CBC Radio Two.

What could be: Average Joe’s ideal DTV setup for CBC national broadcasters.

Conclusion

CBC should be taking a leadership role in the DTV revolution in the interest of all Canadians. They should be getting the most they can out of their shiny new tax-dollar funded transmitters and provide program guide info and stable HD images. Multicasting technology is now a reality and if it means challenging the CRTC and Industry Canada to allow for it, well, so be it. A multicasting format as suggested above will not only guarantee the survival of the CBC for many years to come and reduce the tax burden on the public, but it will provide better programming selection and variety for all Canadians. The CBC belongs to us and the heads at the CRTC and CBC cannot be allowed to ignored this fact.

Don’t forget this is the very same CRTC and Industry Canada that suggested to consumers switching to cable or satellite service as one of the options to mitigating the digital transition. There were no “converter coupons” handed out either like in the US. There are heavy restrictions imposed on Netflix, TiVo and other TV over IP. The problem here is not everyone has this luxury in Canada to pay through the nose for television, which seems somewhat unclear to the CRTC and IC.

While there are many consumers using OTA out of choice, there are also many Canadians that use it as their only option for television programming. Average Joe knows of families on tight budgets, elderly people who are not technologically inclined and single parents whose kids look forward to their Saturday night “treat” of watching hockey. These people have limited resources at their disposal, no fancy antenna setups, no high speed internet – most have just a generic name brand TV and an indoor antenna and rely only on local Canadian programming. Having a CBC that fulfills everything that is technologically possible thanks to DTV would benefit these people, and as being a taxpayer-funded organization representing all Canadians, I see no excuse to not demand that it does.

Shame on you CBC.

Revenge of the Rabbit Ears – OTA Setups

It’s not Just About Going With an Antenna Only

Your Average Joe has been giving the details of what the new digital transition can mean for the Canadian coach potato. But how can an OTA setup fit into the plans of the averahe TV viewer? Well, OTA setups can be your sole source of TV entertainment or just a free “bonus” part of your TV system setup. Here are some of the most popular scenarios your Average Joe has seen out there and would like to share with you:

Existing OTA setups: Time to take a closer look

Did you know that as of today as much as 16% of Canadian television watchers don’t subscribe to pay TV? That is almost 1 out of every 5 TV viewers across the country. Right now, these people are most likley laughing. Day by day up until the August 31st cutover, the analog stations they receive via the airwaves are transitioning to digital. Their television sets and existing antenna setups are pulling in 1080i signals without any (or minimal) upgrade costs.

Perhaps you moved into a house that has an old antenna installed in the attic, or maybe you have a tower in the backyard that you disconnected a long time ago. It may be time to connect it up again and see what rolls in from the airwaves - you may be surprised!


The Cord Cutters: People that cancel their pay TV and go 100% OTA

Some people just can’t justify the cost of monthly fees for television service. Sure, certain TV watchers do it out of principle – they are fed up with handing over their hard-earned money to the big cable and satellite companies, tired of the barely justified “HD fees”, the rate hikes, the blackouts, the local TV taxes and cost of receiver rentals. Others would just rather save money that they can spend elsewhere. However for many it’s not just a finance thing - they just don’t watch enough TV to justify paying for it. More and more people now spend time in front of their computers instead of the TV. There are also people that are active and never at home. Families with young children who have a million other things to do in their spare time also fall into this category.

For these types of people the best TV is the free kind. An OTA setup with the major digital channels is perfect for them.


Analog Cable Subscribers: The best of both worlds

For analog cable subscribers they can have the best of both worlds. Analog cable has as a main benefit that it is still relatively cost-effective. The channel selection is extensive and no special receivers are required. Also, cable subscribers are not affected by the digital transition. The only drawback – analog cable is low definition.

What I’ve seen is a growing number of people adding an OTA setup to complement their analog cable. These people enjoy the wide selection of channels while having the option to watch certain shows off the HD feed coming in over their antenna.



Who said you can't have both? Analog cable subscribers can keep enjoying the channel selection and low price of their current service and switch when desired to an antenna setup to, for example, watch the HD feeds of hockey games on OTA networks such as CBC or NBC.

Stuck in the Past: Does it make sense to upgrade all that equipment?

Some cable or satellite subscribers are experiencing HD envy. They got on board the subscription TV train years ago, but now those standard definition boxes just don’t cut it anymore. But how much will it cost to upgrade? Existing customers rarely have bargaining power, and by the time they’ve bought all new receivers for their TVs, upgraded those cable boxes / satellite dishes / switches and then signed their lives away for HD packages, they may find themselves with a lot less clinking in the ol’piggy bank.

For those people, a cost-effective solution is to add an OTA setup to complement their existing system and bring in those crisp pictures without upgrading their equipment and downgrading their bank accounts.


Satellite Subscribers: Add on for free and scale back on the pay stuff

Satellite subscribers are usually stuck selecting package deals, often having to pay more to have HD channels. What most don’t know is that their satellite receivers are most likely already OTA ready, but no one told them!

Yes that’s right – it may be time to flip back through that never-opened user guide and see if your box will accept an OTA coax feed as well as the satellite feed. You probably don’t even know about it but could be watching or PVRing HD shows from your antenna right there with your satellite programs, all with the same guide and remote. And if these channels duplicate the channels you’re paying extra for, why not cut back and save some money at the same time?

Still not sure if your receiver can support DTV? Simply call your satellite subscriber’s technical support, provide your receiver model number and see how you can activate the OTA feature.


It was there all along?? This PVR satellite box from the “Blue” satellite company has an extra coax connector and an option in the menu to access local channels from an OTA antenna setup, it was just never activated. Once setup, the OTA channels appear in the program guide and can be treated in the same way as the programming coming from the satellite feed.

Welcome to the 21st Century – Internet and free OTA

A growing number of people are longer watching their TV through the… um… TV. More and more Canadians watch their movies via a PS3 and Netflix, others stream TV shows directly from a laptop to their screen. DVD collections have been transferred to terabyte sized hard drives. More and more viewers are downloading their shows from online retailers so they can watch without interruption and pesky commercials. In the end, pay TV is starting to look less attractive, especially since an increasing number of people are finding it more cost-effective to cancel pay TV and spend the money on internet packages with faster speeds and larger bandwidth quotas.

An OTA setup is the perfect system to compliment these types of internet TV setups. A reasonable antenna can easily add the major networks in stunning HD quality, giving easy access to live TV, local news and extra content – all without the monthly fees.


Ready for a Piece of the Action?

OK, so you’re sold. Average Joe has opened your eyes, you’ve read these posts the past few months and you’re ready to jump on board. But before you do – you have one nagging question – if OTA is so great, why haven’t you heard about it?

And that is one heck of a good question.


Next episode: Why is all the publicity concerning DTV OTA mysteriously MIA?