Satellite Puts Canada’s Native Communities on Television

by James Careless

It was not so long ago that Canada’s native peoples weren’t often seen on domestic television. At best, Hollywood stereotypes such as the Lone Ranger’s "Tonto" might turn up on air. But as for Canada’s real breadth of native peoples: the Dene, Inuit and Metis, among others? They were faceless and invisible as far as TV was concerned; even in their own communities in Canada’s North.

Things began to change in 1978, when the Canadian government started to broadcast experimental TV, tele-health and tele-education transmissions to the North over Telesat’s Anik B satellite. Five years later, the Canadian government authorized Cancom (then Canada’s satellite services monopoly carrier) to provide southern TV signals into the North, as long as Cancom helped northern native broadcasters distribute their locally-produced content over satellite.

In 1988, the government paid U.S.$ 7.5 million for a dedicated northern C-band transponder on one of Telesat’s Anik satellites. To use this transponder, a new native-run network called Television Northern Canada (TVNC) was founded, to bring native-produced programs to natives across Canada’s North. It hit the airwaves in 1992.

Today, TVNC is called the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN). Since 1999, APTN has been available not only in the North by satellite, but also to nine million southern households on analog cable/wireless cable, and nationwide via the Bell ExpressVu and Star Choice Direct-to-Home (DTH) satellites.

Despite this heady expansion, APTN remains a creature of satellite transmission. In fact, without satellites, APTN wouldn’t be possible.

Production

The heart of APTN’s programming is native-oriented television. As a result, the network spends a lot of time producing original shows: both at its main studios in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and in native communities nationwide. This is why "we have a main uplink in Winnipeg, Manitoba, where our production studios are located," says Wayne McKenzie, APTN’s director of operations. "We also have three uplinks in our three Northern production centers in Whitehorse (Yukon Territory), Yellowknife, (Northwest Territories) and Iqualuit (Nunavut)."

"Our three northern uplinks feed use news and programming created by our field producers and correspondents," McKenzie adds. "Meanwhile, our Winnipeg uplink is responsible for sending our main signal up to Anik F1 for C-band distribution." APTN also feeds a digital signal up to F1 for redistribution via Star Choice, and to Telesat’s Nimiq satellite for digital distribution by Bell ExpressVu. (Although these satellites are owned by Telesat, APTN’s satellite services are actually handled by Cancom, Canada’s dominant space segment provider.)

Distribution

Beyond its feeds to Canadian cable TV and DTH, APTN has its own network of C-band earth stations. "We have 97 of these stations in communities across the North," says McKenzie. "These pick up our satellite signals, and feed them into low- and medium-powered transmitters that cover these communities. Size dictates how much power we use. For instance, at Destruction Bay, Yukon–which has 51 residents–our transmitter requires no more than 10 watts to do its job."

Challenges And Benefits

When it comes to terrestrial communications, Canada’s North is a nightmare. It is not just the long, cold winters: the land up here is vast, rough and largely unsettled. As a result, you won’t find telephone landlines crisscrossing the landscape, as you do in Canada’s south. In fact, before satellite came to Canada’s North in the early 1970s, Northerners relied on two-way HF radios for communications, and shortwave radio for entertainment. (The shortwave selection in those days was limited to Canadian military radio service, Greenland native programming, the Voice of America, and Radio Moscow.) As for television? Telecine-filmed copies of southern newscasts were flown in for rebroadcast over some low-power transmitters. The trouble was these films were usually two to three days old by the time they arrived.

Satellites changed all that in Northern Canada. Today, it is as easy to phone Whitehorse as it is to call New York, and the line quality is just as good. Meanwhile, satellites bring radio, TV and now Internet traffic in and out of the North, providing a level of connectivity undreamed of a few decades ago.

Most importantly, satellites have made APTN possible: both for getting broadcasts into the North and native-produced programming out.

The situation is not perfect? For instance, "our 97 earth stations are based on C-band analog technology," McKenzie says. "Given that they are located in remote communities ranging from the high Arctic to Labrador, it is often hard for us to keep them serviced. As well, the growth of DTH makes us wonder how many people are still watching us off-air, given that DTH offers hundreds of channels besides ours."

Meanwhile, serving the North by satellite can pose problems not found anywhere else. For instance, the three uplink centers in Iqaluit, Whitehorse and Yellowknife suffered a number of unexplained failures when they were first built. The reason? Local ravens (birds that resemble crows, but which are much larger) were pecking holes in the LNBs. To protect the LNBs, APTN’s and Telesat’s engineers started covering them with empty restaurant margarine containers. "Not only did this solve the problem, but we were even commended by Telesat management for devising such a practical solution," McKenzie says. "We still use this solution today."

Still, when compared to the situation Canadian natives faced just a few decades ago, these are mere details. Thanks to APTN, the real experiences of Canadian natives are on-air nationwide, for all to see. Without satellite, this would not have happened.

James Careless is senior contributing editor to Via Satellite magazine.