Canadian Heritage committee  We estimated the number of households that will no longer receive service at 31,500. This estimate was established a while ago. Today, we have the figures on hand, and reports from various broadcasters are coming in constantly. As I said earlier, in rural areas, broadcasters can

Canadian Heritage committee  That's correct.

Canadian Heritage committee  Exactly. As the chair has indicated—to confirm his statement—this number includes people who do not have a television receiver. The commission has considered this figure in a general sense in order to pinpoint the source of the problem. Therefore, this figure includes people who

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, we do have them, but not on hand. We can provide them for you.

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, we could.

Canadian Heritage committee  Free of charge.

Canadian Heritage committee  Correct.

Canadian Heritage committee  Our first objective was to ensure that no one would lose service. That's the purpose behind all the measures we have implemented.

Canadian Heritage committee  As far as I know, yes.

Canadian Heritage committee  The 900,000 households are located in areas where conversion will take place. These are households that do not subscribe to cable or satellite services. As you know, if someone subscribes to cable or satellite, they have nothing to worry about; nothing will change for them. The 9

Canadian Heritage committee  We have found a solution to the problem. As we stated in our conversation with Mr. Del Mastro, Shaw has proposed, as part of the transaction in which it acquired Canwest Television, to set aside $15 million for providing satellite service to all 31,500 households and not only to

Canadian Heritage committee  One thing to remember is that for the companies we're dealing with, their main objective is to keep people watching them, so they have a self-interest in making sure that all the people continue to watch them. As for what we will be putting in place in our public service announce

Canadian Heritage committee  Basically, they will be getting information from the channel they watch and the origination point they watch. That will not change with respect to the digital transition.

Canadian Heritage committee  I believe you will see both. You will see both. Right now the Department of Canadian Heritage does run a website. They are working on it to improve it. We will be requiring that each of the broadcasters actually has the specific information related to the specific channel they'

Canadian Heritage committee  What we've seen is in the context of the transactions, both the Shaw acquisition of Canwest and BCE's acquisition of CTV. The latter one is not concluded, so I'll just try to keep talking about Canwest and Shaw. In their case, what they have put forward is an aggressive transitio