The push to switch
to Digital TV in Canada has actually been underway for about 4 years; ever since the US began switching to Digital TV. In the US, the decision to switch to Digital was made for several reasons.
- To enable broadcasters to broadcast in HDTV
- To allow broadcasters to broadcast more than one channel at a time
- To reverse the decline in TV sales
- To free up broadcast spectrum for other telecommunication services, which could be auctioned off by the US government. Many stations were forced to switch from VHF channels to UHF channels.
- The switch would also eliminate snowy TV pictures; like satellite TV, you either get a good signal or you don’t.
Because of previous US – Canada agreements, Canada was forced to follow the Americans to prevent chaos along the border for TV viewers. Failure to do so, would likely have resulted in severe interference problems for Canadian stations located in the VHF band and near the US – Canada border.
