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  • Canadians survey finds most HDTV owners don't receive HD content

    by 
    Darren Murph
    Darren Murph
    12.12.2008

    We're chalking this one up to coincidental timing, but just hours after hearing about the HDTV / HD programming gap in the US comes a similar report from the Great North. According to research compiled by the Canadian chapter of the Cable Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM), just 13% of Canadians have a set-top-box capable of receiving HD signals, yet some three in ten citizens confess to owning an HDTV. In other words, quite a few HDTV-owning Canucks are doing without high-def programming for one reason or another. CTAM asserts that confusion about the niceties of HD is high in Canada, and that most individuals "are generally unaware of the features and benefits associated with high-definition TV." Hmm, maybe if the CRTC would stop rejecting HD expansion, more locals would be able to see and hear the difference.[Image courtesy of Lodging4Vacations]

  • Lawmakers worried over digital TV transition

    by 
    Darren Murph
    Darren Murph
    07.27.2007

    It's one thing to fret over the estimated $1.5 billion Congress has to set aside to pay for the "coupon program" to aid Americans in the analog-to-digital transition of 2009, but now lawmakers are "worried that too few of us know that the analog TVs we have been using for years could become big cathode-ray paperweights after February 18, 2009." Essentially, those in power feel that "too little is being done to get the message across," and that quite a few disgruntled individuals could be smacked with a reality check of gigantic proportions if no one tells them beforehand. According to a poll released by the Association for Public Television Stations earlier this year, some 61-percent of those surveyed had "no idea" the shutoff would even take place, so we'd expect a commercial blitz to give your fast-forward finger a workout in the coming months.