The Canadian Association of Community TV Users and Stations (CACTUS) has launched a website to help Canadian communities deal with the upcoming transition to digital TV transmission.
The organization is encouraging communities to take their TV signals - and their local communications infrastructures - into their own hands.
"More than 100 communities in Canada already maintain their own broadcasting towers and retransmit TV signals to residents for a fraction of the cost of cable or satellite," Cathy Edwards of CACTUS said. "The communities slated to lose CBC, Radio-Canada and private network signals have options that we can help them explore."
The Canadian digital TV transition is slated for September 1, 2011, taking effect first in large cities, provincial capitals, cities with a population of more than 300,000 and/or cities with more than one local station.
The site provides information on digital TV transmission technology, estimates of local rebroadcasting system costs and more. The site also describes how communities can use such systems to generate local TV and radio content.
The Department of Canadian Heritage launched its own official information site about the TV transition earlier this year at http://digitaltv.gc.ca, which links to the CACTUS page.
CACTUS is a non-profit association, representing independent non-profit community TV broadcasters and audiences.