Digital terrestrial television in Canada (often shortened to DTT) is transmitted using the ATSC standard. Because Canada and the U.S. use the same standard and frequencies for channels, people near the Canada–United States border can watch digital television programming from television stations in either country where available. The ATSC standards are also used in Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Suriname, and South Korea.
Jurisdiction over terrestrial broadcasting in Canada is primarily regulated by Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). ISED has jurisdiction over the allotment of the terrestrial spectrum, and the CRTC has jurisdiction over the allotment of broadcast licences.
The CRTC imposed in 28 mandatory digital markets, a digital transition deadline for full power transmitters to switch from analogue transmitters to digital transmitters by 31 August 2011 if licensed broadcasters wanted to continue operating in those markets, with the exception of some CBC transmitters. Two weeks before the deadline, the CBC transmitters were given a temporary one-year extension to remain in analogue. No digital transition deadline has been set for low-power analogue transmitters and analogue transmitters outside the 28 mandatory digital markets.
In January 2007, ISED stopped issuing licences within Canada for new television transmitters broadcasting in analogue.[1] All remaining analogue and digital terrestrial television signals across Canada broadcasting within the 600 MHz band were scheduled to either move out of the 600 MHz band or shut down no later than 2022 under an ISED schedule published in 2017;[2] however, a number of analogue stations in smaller markets continue to operate as of December 2022.[3]