Canadian Towns and Cities that Will Continue to Enjoy Free CBC and Radio-Canada After July 31, 2012

On July 31, 2012, the CBC/Radio-Canada plan to shut off free over-the-air service everywhere in Canada EXCEPT in the following urban centres:

CBC

St. Johns, NL
Halifax
Charlottetown
Fredericton
Montreal
Ottawa
Toronto
Windsor
Winnipeg
Regina
Edmonton
Calgary
Vancouver
Yellowknife

Radio-Canada

Moncton
Rimouski
Sherbrooke
Trois-Rivieres
Jonquieres
Quebec
Montreal
Ottawa
Toronto
Winnipeg
Regina
Edmonton
Vancouver

If you watch the CBC or Radio-Canada using a cable or satellite service, you are not affected.

If you watch with ‘bunny ears’ or a rooftop antenna and you live outside these 27 urban centres, you have two options if you want to continue to watch the CBC or Radio-Canada:

  1. Subscribe to a cable or satellite service.

  2. Ask the CBC/Radio-Canada for its analog transmitter in your community, in order to keep distributing the CBC/Radio-Canada free to air. If communities do not request these transmitters (and in many cases the towers they are mounted on as well, the CBC/Radio-Canada will “decommission” them (throw them out).