Saint John, New Brunswick and Fredericton, and decided to maintain analogue service to Saint John. According to CBC's application for this transmitter to the CRTC, the population served by the digital transmitter would be 113,930 people versus 303,465 served by the existing analogue transmitter. In Victoria, the replacement of the Vancouver analogue transmitters with digital ones only allowed only some northeastern parts of the metropolitan area (total population 330,000) to receive either CBC or Radio-Canada. CBC announced on April 4, 2012, that it will shut down all of its approximately 620 analogue television transmitters on July 31, 2012 with no plans to install digital transmitters in their place, thus reducing the total number of the corporation's television transmitters across the country down to 27. According to the CBC, this would reduce the corporation's yearly costs by $10 million. No plans have been announced to use subchannels to maintain over-the-air signals for both CBC and Radio-Canada in markets where the corporation has one digital transmitter. In fact, in its CRTC application to shut down all of its analogue television transmitters, the CBC communicated its opposition to use of subchannels, citing costs, amongst other reasons. The CBC had stated that the "useful life of CBC/Radio-Canada's satellite distribution backbone for analogue transmission ends in 2013" and that it "will not reinvest in that infrastructure given the inevitability of analogue obsolescence." Despite the shutdown of the rebroadcasters, few viewers actually lost access to CBC programming due to the very high penetration of cable and satellite, which is all but essential for acceptable television in much of Canada (particularly rural areas). CBC and affiliate transmitters in mandatory markets In addition to the above noted digital transmitters, the non-mandatory market Radio-Canada transmitter in Rimouski, Quebec, CJBR-DT, was transitioned to digital on August 31, 2012. The non-mandatory market CBC Yellowknife transmitter, CFYK-DT, was transitioned to digital on July 31, 2012. Of the non-mandatory affiliates, CKWS-DT Kingston and CHEX-DT Peterborough, Ontario converted in 2013, while CFTK-TV Terrace and CJDC-TV Dawson Creek, British Columbia has yet to convert; these stations has since changed its affiliations to other networks. 1 Lloydminster's CBC affiliate, CKSA-DT, disaffiliated with the network in September 2016, changing to an affiliate of Global. CBXT Edmonton and/or CBKT Regina now serves the region via cable and satellite. Radio-Canada never had a transmitter serving the Lloydminster area. 2 Thunder Bay's CBC affiliate, CKPR-DT, disaffiliated with the network in