While the Canadian Digital Television Association says its broadcaster members are about to jump on board the North American high-definition rollout, the Canadian Cable Television Association reports that its members are looking south to fulfill growing demand for HD programming.

The recent launch of Citytv HDTV, the channel’s new HD over-the-air initiative, combined with a reported 809 stations now broadcasting digital signals in the U.S., ‘have put HDTV on the front-burner agenda of every broadcaster in this country,’ says Michael McEwen, president of CDTV. The association is the industry consortium charged with guiding the Canadian HDTV transition.

‘Over the next year you’re going to see broadcasters in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver applying for licences to go to air,’ McEwen adds.

In fact, CBC Toronto has already purchased Sony HDTV production equipment, while CTV and CanWest Global were shopping for it at the recent National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas.

In the meantime, cable and satellite distributors are finding content in the U.S., says Michael Hennessy, senior VP of policy and regulatory affairs for the CCTA, which speaks on behalf of numerous federally licensed cable systems across the country.

‘Our members’ HDTV lineup essentially consists of the four plus one major U.S. networks [ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and PBS],’ he says. ‘As well, The Movie Network does show some movies in HD.’

However, he adds that the number of U.S. HDTV-capable stations can mislead regarding the amount of HD shows. ‘I subscribe to Rogers HD service,’ Hennessy begins. ‘I’ve noticed that the U.S. networks aren’t even carrying a lot of wide-screen HDTV programming in primetime.’ The NAB, meanwhile, claimed at its recent conference that more than half of the three biggest U.S. nets’ primetime shows are currently available in HD.

So where can cable/DTH operators find HDTV programming? One possibility is Discovery HD Theater, the U.S. service offering HDTV programming ’24/7,’ according to Hennessy. Not surprisingly, the CCTA has asked the CRTC to approve Discovery HD Theater for distribution in Canada, along with HDNet, a U.S. all-HD net with a broad spectrum of programming.

‘We don’t expect any serious opposition from broadcasters to these applications,’ Hennessy says. ‘There’s so few HDTV receivers and set-tops in Canada that the audience impact on Canadian broadcasters would be minimal.’

That said, audience impact remains a big concern to Canadian broadcasters, especially when it comes to the industry’s ‘simultaneous substitution’ cash cow. There is currently no way for CTV and CanWest Global to overlay U.S. HDTV feeds with their own HD programming/commercials, simply because they don’t offer any. But as soon as more Canuck viewers become HDTV-enabled, the revenue loss could cut into Canadian broadcasters’ bottom line.

Fortunately, the CRTC recognized this when it devised its HDTV regulations. Specifically, ‘under the proposed CRTC rules, as soon as they’ve applied for an over-the-air HDTV licence, existing broadcasters can begin distributing HD signals immediately to cable and satellite head ends,’ McEwen says. ‘As a result, you’ll probably see some Canadian HD programming turning up on cable and DTH before HD actually gets on air.’

But is this defensive play by Canadian broadcasters really necessary? Given the relative lack of HDTV receivers in Canada, Hennessy doesn’t think so. ‘In fact, it really doesn’t make economic sense for Canadian broadcasters to invest in HD yet,’ he says.

Canada’s broadcasters remain primed to start offering HDTV, however, according to McEwen. ‘Remember the oft-stated CDTV position that we’ll be about a year-and-a-half to two years behind the Americans?’ he notes. ‘Well, the clock started ticking last summer when the U.S. got the bulk of their HDTV stations on air.’

-www.cdtv.ca

-www.ccta.ca