Subchannel Analog-to-digital conversion On January 30, 2004, the
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) granted CBLT permission to broadcast a digital signal on UHF channel 20; CBLT's began broadcasting programming in
high definition on March 5, 2005. CBLT shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 5, on August 31, 2011, the official date on which Canadian television stations in CRTC-designated mandatory
markets transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 20, using
virtual channel 5.
Coverage The station's signal from its CN Tower transmitter adequately covers the immediate
Greater Toronto Area, from
Oshawa in the east, out to
Halton Hills and
Georgetown in the west, and from Hamilton and
Niagara Falls in the south, to roughly
Bradford. In addition, CBLT serves as the default CBC Television station for cable and satellite subscribers in markets previously served over-the-air by CBLT's rebroadcast transmitters (see
below), as well as the
Thunder Bay and
Peterborough television markets, after
CKPR-DT in Thunder Bay disaffiliated from the network September 1, 2014, and
CHEX-DT in Peterborough and its sister station
CHEX-TV-2 in Oshawa both followed August 31, 2015, in both cases to become affiliates of the CTV Television Network. The station is also carried on cable in several American communities, similar to sister stations
CBUT in
Vancouver,
CBET in
Windsor and CBMT in Montreal.
Former transmitters CBLT served much of Ontario through a network of over 35 rebroadcast transmitters, including all of
Northeastern Ontario and most of
Southwestern Ontario, with the exception of Windsor since CBET-DT serves the Windsor area. The station only served
Southern Ontario and a few rural
Northern Ontario communities until 2002, when it took over the CBC affiliates of the
MCTV twinstick. CBLGT in
Geraldton and the CBLAT transmitters had operated since the early 1970s, while others were added as other CBC affiliates disaffiliated from the network or were bought by the CBC. On August 16, 2011, the CRTC granted the CBC permission to continue operating 22 analog repeaters within mandatory markets, including those in
London and
Kitchener. These analog transmitters were given an extension until August 31, 2012, to continue in operation, by which time the transmitters had to be converted to digital or shut down. The CBC did not seek an extension for its Barrie transmitter, which it shut down on August 31, 2011; however, the remaining satellite rebroadcast stations remained in operation. Reportedly due to federal funding reductions to the CBC in April 2012, the CBC made substantial cuts to their transmitting budget, including shutting down the CBC's and Radio-Canada's remaining analog transmitters on July 31, 2012. This included shutting down all the remaining CBC and Radio-Canada's rebroadcasters that had been "held over" using analog transmitters during 2011–12. All of them have been decommissioned by the CBC, leaving rural Canadians and U.S. border regions with no free over-the-air CBC coverage, and those viewers have been instructed to subscribe to a cable or satellite provider or have been directed to the website available through pay internet providers.
Rebroadcasters of CBLT Rebroadcasters of CBLN-TV The following is a list of transmitters that originally rebroadcast London, Ontario-based CBC outlet CBLN-TV. CBLN-TV first signed on in 1988 as a CBC outlet for southwestern Ontario outside of Windsor, broadcasting on UHF channel 40, replacing
CFPL-TV as an affiliate. CBLN-TV carried local advertising and very few programming variations, but otherwise produced no programming of its own and was a
de facto rebroadcaster of CBLT. ==See also==