Will the U.S. switching to DTV affect the brodcasting of american channels in Canada?

Question

Here where I live in Canada we get quite a few american channels. Because there will be no more analog brodcasting in America, does that mean that all the american channels will not be able to be seen in Canada in analog. If this is the case, would canadians need to buy a DTV in order to receive those specific channels which have switched to DTV?

Answer 1

All U.S. tv channels except very low-power ones are required to switch to DTV by Feb. 17, 2009.  That means their over-the-air broadcast will have to be digital instead of analog.  If you pick up the U.S. channels with an antenna then you will no longer be able to get them without a DTV converter or DTV tv.  If you get them through cable or satellite then nothing should change.  DTV converters are readily available in the U.S.  such as here: http://www.solidsignal.com/dtv2009/.  Most all stations are actually already broadcasting in digital on a different channel number (in addition to analog for now.)

Answer 2

You would only need a converter box (or TV with a digital tuner) if you get over the air broadcasts directly from stations located in the US.

Obviously if consumers in the US can buy a $50 box ($10 with government coupon) to convert signals, Canadian stations & cable companies can easily convert digital signals to analog for local use.

However Canada is changing to (almost) all digital over the air broadcasting on 8/31/2011. Canada is using the same digital (ATSC) broadcasting system that the US is, so you could use the same converter for digital broadcasts from stations in Canada.

I've not heard anything about the Canadian government subsidizing converters, but by the time the US market is saturated in early 2009,  the price will drop considerably. Plus used converters will be even cheaper on ebay.