According to Jeff Rohrer, director of communications and marketing at TVO, the transmitters responsible for bringing programming to household television sets have already outlived their lifespans — and parts are no longer available to replace ones that break.
“This means that we need to rebuild the parts ourselves,” Rohrer told Northern Life in an email.
Transmitter problems have been recently occurring in Greater Sudbury. While tech crews have been working to resolve the issues, it's only days until analog over-the-air transmitters are decommissioned. The official cutoff date, according to Rohrer, is July 31.
“The tech problems we’re having with the Sudbury transmitter are really symptomatic of why it was necessary for us to make the decision to decommission our analog transmitters,” he stated.
An estimated one per cent of Ontario households receive TV programming from analog transmitters, according to Rohrer. For those not interested in making the move to cable or satellite, much of TVO's programming is available for free online at their website and YouTube.com.
“We do not have the means to convert our analog transmitters to digital or to spend our limited resources on maintaining our ageing equipment,” Rohrer said. “It is imperative for TVO that we direct our limited resources where we can have the greatest impact.
“We certainly regret that this means some Ontarians will not be able to receive TVO over the air,” he said.
Posted by Arron Pickard
