Ici Radio-Canada Tele station in Toronto
CBLFT-DT
(channel 25) is an
Ici Radio-Canada Tele
station in
Toronto, Ontario
, Canada, which broadcasts programming to the province's
Franco-Ontarian
population. It is part of a
twinstick
with
CBC Television
flagship
CBLT-DT
(channel 5). The two stations share studios at the
Canadian Broadcasting Centre
on
Front Street West
in
downtown Toronto
; CBLFT-DT's transmitter is located atop the
CN Tower
.
The station provides
French-language
programming to the
Greater Toronto Area
and most of Ontario, including the
Southwestern
,
Central
and
Northeastern
regions of the province.
History
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]
CBLFT was originally licensed by the
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
(CRTC) in 1972 as a standalone station; the station first signed on the air on March 23, 1973. Until CBLFT signed on, CBC O&O CBLT aired French-language programming from Radio-Canada on Sunday mornings. The station originally transmitted from the CBC's Jarvis Street transmitter site, but as with almost all other radio and television stations in Toronto, approval was given by the CRTC to move the transmitter site to the CN Tower on December 14, 1973. Several transmitters in
Northern Ontario
which were already in operation as
rebroadcasters
of
CBOFT
in
Ottawa
were reassigned to CBLFT's license, and various additional rebroadcasters were added throughout Ontario in the 1970s and 1980s.
In the early 1990s due to budget cutbacks at the CBC, all Radio-Canada transmitters in Ontario (except those in the northwest part of the province, which was served by
CBWFT
in
Winnipeg
) were reassigned to the license of CBOFT as rebroadcasters. All of the transmitters that were formerly part of CBLFT's license continued to broadcast a separate local early evening newscast, which was produced in Ottawa, but was only seen in that city via a late night rebroadcast, similar to the split broadcast used at
CBC Radio One
station
CBLA-FM
(99.1 FM) for its morning programs.
On April 28, 2010, the CRTC granted a license request by the CBC to relaunch CBLFT as a separate station which would once again produce a distinct local newscast from CBOFT.
[2]
Most of the network's transmitters in Ontario, except for those in the Ottawa area, were again reassigned to CBLFT's license, and newscast production later returned to Toronto.
Technical information
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]
Subchannel
[
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Analogue-to-digital conversion
[
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]
CBLFT shut down its analogue signal, over
UHF
channel 25, on August 31, 2011, the official date on which Canadian television stations in CRTC-designated mandatory
markets
transitioned from analogue to digital broadcasts
. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 24 to post-transition (and former analogue) channel 25.
[4]
Transmitters in mandatory markets were required to switch to digital or shut down by the transition deadline of August 31, 2011. Radio-Canada requested to temporarily broadcast in analogue in these markets beyond 2011, as programming for Radio-Canada is not produced in these markets.
[5]
The following CBLFT rebroadcasters are in mandatory markets:
However, on August 16, 2011, the CRTC granted the CBC permission to continue operating 22 repeaters in mandatory markets, including the above, in analogue until August 31, 2012, in which by then they must either convert to digital or close down. This was pending the corporation's licence renewal process, which will include an evaluation of its transition plans.
[6]
At some point before June 20, 2012, CBLFT had begun airing a
Mobile DTV
simulcast of CBLT-DT on
virtual channel
5.2, encoded in the
H.264
and
HE-AAC
formats.
[7]
Transmitters
[
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]
CBLFT operated almost 30 analog television rebroadcasters throughout the province of Ontario and included communities such as
London
,
Kitchener
and
Sudbury
. Additionally, several Radio-Canada transmitters in eastern Ontario, such as
Kingston
and
Belleville
, were part of the CBLFT license even though they served cities that were closer to Ottawa than Toronto.
Due to federal funding reductions to the CBC, in April 2012, the CBC responded with substantial budget cuts, which included shutting down CBC's and Radio-Canada's remaining analog transmitters on July 31, 2012.
[8]
(A transmitter serving
Barrie
, CBLFT-11, closed down the previous year, in August 2011.)
[9]
None of CBC or Radio-Canada's television rebroadcasters were converted to digital, leaving rural Canadians and U.S. border regions with no free over-the-air CBC/Radio-Canada coverage. Some affected viewers could get the signal back for a price by subscribing to cable or satellite.
[10]
CBLFT is not carried on cable or satellite in the United States.
In many communities,
TVOntario
transmitted from Radio-Canada sites and therefore permanently left the air the same day. Former rebroadcast transmitters, all now defunct, included:
Notes
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]
- ^
Formerly CBFST; began operations in 1961.
- ^
Formerly CBFST-1; began operations in 1962.
- ^
Formerly CBFOT.
- ^
Formerly CBFOT-1.
- ^
Formerly CBFOT-2.
- ^
Formerly CBFST-3.
- ^
Formerly CBFST-4.
- ^
Formerly CBLFT-1.
- ^
Formerly CBLFT-2.
- ^
Formerly CBLFT-3.
- ^
Formerly CBLFT-4.
- ^
Formerly CBLFT-5.
- ^
Formerly CBLFT-6.
- ^
Formerly broadcast on channel 11.
- ^
Broadcast on channel 76 prior to 1983.
- ^
Broadcast on channel 40 (later used for
CBLN-TV
) prior to 1988.
- ^
Closed down in August 2011.
[9]
- ^
Formerly on channel 68, had plans to convert to digital on UHF 17 before shutdown was announced.
- ^
Formerly broadcast on channel 23.
- ^
Previously broadcast on channel 78 until October 29, 1982, and on channel 54 until August 31, 2011.
References
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]
- ^
Chouinard, Yvon (2004).
"History of the Societe-Radio-Canada (SRC) Networks"
. Canadian Communications Foundation. Archived from
the original
on October 21, 2007
. Retrieved
December 2,
2007
.
- ^
CRTC Decision 2010-239
- ^
RabbitEars TV Query for CBLFT-DT
- ^
Digital Television ? Office of Consumer Affairs (OCA)
Archived
November 20, 2013, at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
CBC/Radio-Canada: "2011?2012 Digital Transition Plan", August 6, 2010.
Archived
April 29, 2011, at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
CRTC: "CRTC allows CBC to continue broadcasting analog television signals in 22 markets until August 2012", August 16, 2011.
Archived
May 29, 2013, at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
CBC MDTV testing in Toronto | Dude, Where's My TV?
- ^
Speaking notes for Hubert T. Lacroix regarding measures announced in the context of the Deficit Reduction Action Plan
- ^
a
b
"ARCHIVED - Licence amendments"
. August 16, 2011.
- ^
CBC-TV, TVO end analog transmission
External links
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? Indicates specialty channel with a GTA-specific feed on cable
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Toronto
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Outside GTA
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ATSC 3.0
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Cable
(Canadian side only)
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Defunct stations
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