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Dawson City TV will live on

Thanks to a town council resolution, the cable service's demise is averted... for now
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Dawson City's cable TV service will continue to operate, according to a resolution passed by its town council. (Pixabay)

“The City of Dawson is now not planning on shutting down the DCTV Cable TV System.”

The town has sent an email message to everyone on its distribution list with this statement at the end. 

Town council member Cud Eastbound has reposted the entire message to Facebook and  has appended a small comment on top of the text, using a quotation usually attributed to Mark Twain: "Rumors of my demise are greatly exaggerated ....." 

“Dawson City Council has considered feedback from residents and the impact of shutting down the cable TV service that the City provides and has stepped back from a pending decision to set a date to shut down the service — The city will continue to provide cable TV service to residents and a number of hotels and facilities in the community," the email message sent out by the town reads.

"At the budget meeting of Jan.14, 2025, council decided that the service will continue to operate and that a number of further or connected steps will be undertaken including a more detailed costing of line changes required, additional community feedback and a discussion with CFYT on the impact of a potential cable shutdown.”

In full, the resolution reads as follows:
“Be it resolved that the municipality of Dawson commits to maintaining Dawson city cable TV services and directs administration to:

“1. Gather community feedback on the future of cable TV services. 

“2. Collaborate with stakeholders like CFYT to understand the impact of any changes.

“3.  Review and separate capital/infrastructure and operational costs for cable TV to ensure transparency.

“4.  Explore cost saving measures to make the service self-sustaining. 

“5.  Provide a clear cost analysis comparing the expense of transferring cable TV lines to new power poles versus the cost of removing the lines entirely, to fully evaluate the financial implications of each option.”

On that last point, either move will be expensive, but which will cost more is not made clear in the resolution. Yukon Energy replaced 112 power poles in Dawson as part of its voltage conversion project. As the old poles are removed, lines attached to them will have to be removed or transferred.

This is a reversal of a decision which was almost made by the previous council last fall, when it was announced, based on a strong recommendation by the town’s administration that the service should be terminated at the end of the calendar year. Later, it was determined that this wasn’t giving people enough time to investigate alternatives, and so the date was changed to May 31, but that deadline is now gone.

The rationale for the original decision included the decline of the customer base, the increasing cost of providing the service, the rise of the use of streaming and satellite services, the lack of technical expertise to manage the service, and the longstanding debate, over several councils, as to whether this was a service the city should be providing.

Steaming became a popular alternative to cable after Northwestel removed the limits on its broadband internet service, removing the possibility of overage charges. 

The town had attempted to sell the service, or find a nonprofit organization to run it, but wasn't successful in either case.

Among the concerns related to the possible discontinuation of the service were the probable loss of the community channel that is used to televise town council meetings, and other public events such as election forums and the main tent shows of the annual Dawson City Music Festival  as well as the rolling ads channel which provides a good deal of revenue to support CFYT-FM, the town's volunteer radio station.

These issues will be investigated as part of the new resolution regarding the service.

The Jan. 14 resolution does not necessarily mean that DCTV will continue operating indefinitely, but it does mean there will be prolonged discussions and investigations before any decision to end it is made in the future.

Dan Davidson taught in Beaver Creek, Faro, and Dawson from 1976-2008. Since 1977 he has been writing reviews, news and commentary for the Whitehorse Star and What’s Up Yukon, and recently for the late Yukon Star. In 1989 he helped to found the Klondike Sun, which he edited for 31 years, and remains on its board of directors.