Your local broadcasters may be able to help, either by sharing space on their transmission towers or transmitters (if they continue to transmit over the air in your community), or by leasing or selling their equipment to your community if they decide to cease analog broadcasting.

In particular, as a condition of Shaw Media's purchase of Global Television in September of 2010, Shaw committed to upgrade to digital all of Global's transmitters across Canada, even outside major cities. Shaw was also asked to consider sharing these digital transmitters and towers with community and other local broadcasters.

This means that if you live in a community that has a Global transmission tower (i.e. you can get Global over the air with an antenna), but your community loses CTV, CBC, or other over-the-air signals over the coming months or years, you may be able to use Global's existing facilities to rebroadcast these signals, including a community channel.

CACTUS can assist communities to explore such opportunities on a case-by-case basis.

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Many rural communities lack access to highspeed Internet. Not only can a cable network or a transmission tower bring residents TV (and radio) services, they can also enable highspeed Internet. Because broadcasting can blanket a large area, it's generally viewed as the best option for rural broadband Internet. A single digital multiplex can carry both television and Internet services.

Various programs are available from federal, provincial, and territorial governments to help rural communities obtain highspeed Internet. By investing in a community distribution scheme, your community may be able to 'kill two birds with one stone' (maintain free TV and obtain highspeed Internet at the same time).

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If you're considering rebroadcasting as a solution, it's less expensive now than ever.

Communities that rebroadcast remote TV services to their communities in the past had to pay for a separate analog transmitter and antenna for each remote channel they wanted to rebroadcast.

Now, a single digital transmitter can multiplex up to a dozen standard definition television channels, so you may only have to buy one for your community.

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A Cost-Benefit Analysis:

An average of 10% of Canadians rely on free over-the-air television. This percentage tends to be higher in rural communities, especially in economically repressed areas. According to the CRTC, the average cable and satellite bill in 2009 was $49, or just under $600 for the year.

This means that if a given community finds that it is about to lose one or more over-the-air TV services, it may be cheaper for the community as a whole to explore a rebroadcasting or cablecasting solution than for 10% of that community to be forced onto cable or satellite.

For example, London, Ontario, Saskatoon, and Saint John are slated to lose access to the CBC over the air on August 31st of this year, the date of the digital transition. Most other communities with populations under 300,000 are slated to lose free CBC over the air by 2014.

According to Statistics Canada, there are an average of 2.5 persons per Canadian household. Therefore London has roughly 200,000 households, or about 20,000 households that rely on free over-the-air TV, who will lose access to the CBC. Those 20,000 households would have to pay 20,000 x $600 per year on average for a satellite or cable service to access the CBC, or $12,000,000. With twelve million dollars, Londoners could pay not only for their own transmission tower, a high-definition transmitter for the CBC, but also several community-access TV studios around the city and a staff of dozens! This amount of money could pay for free Wifi city-wide (like the City of Fredericton) and other services too.