FCC PLANS VOTES ON DTV MUST-CARRY RULES FOR CABLE AND DBS
Month after postponing consideration of thorny DTV transition issues, FCC intends to tackle at least some DTV matters at its Jan. 11 open meeting. Well-placed sources said Commission was likely to approve bid by new DTV-only station to gain cable must- carry status and require consumer electronics manufacturers to put digital tuners in all new TV sets by date certain, among other less controversial items. But what’s not clear was whether agency would tackle core issue of whether cable operators and DBS providers should carry broadcasters’ analog and digital signals during current DTV transition. Action on dual-carriage issue, which has been hanging over federal regulators for more than 2 years, has been postponed repeatedly by Commission.
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FCC Cable Bureau spokeswoman, citing sunshine notice rules, declined comment on what agency might do at meeting. But she noted that Commission would consider proposed report and order and proposed further notice of rulemaking on DTV must-carry issue. That indicates that agency may adopt various guidelines for carriage of DTV signals, including extent to which cable operators and DBS providers must carry more than station’s primary digital video channel, but avoid core must-carry controversy. Evidently fearing that result, NAB Pres. Edward Fritts warned Commission against adopting such approach in recent letter to FCC Chmn. Kennard and other 4 commissioners.
“Nothing would be gained by further delaying a decision” on core DTV must-carry issues, Fritts wrote in 3-page letter Thurs. (CD Jan 5 p6). Although he said Commission could defer decision on must-carry itself while adopting some “rules of the road” for carriage of DTV stations, he said there would be no benefit in delay, “certainly nothing that would be worth the harm to the progress of the [DTV] transition.” He argued that “the constitutional arguments in favor of digital must-carry are, if anything, stronger than the arguments that led to the Supreme Court’s 1997 decision upholding [analog] must-carry.” He also said that even though 167 stations now are broadcasting digital signals, “no more than a handful of these stations” are carried on any cable system.
But, with this week’s FCC meeting possibly last to be chaired by Kennard as new Bush Administration prepares to take over govt. reins, sources cautioned that anything was possible. They said Kennard could be looking to clear away all pending DTV issues before his successor takes over. They declined, however, to forecast outcome. “You'd be a fool to make a prediction on this,” said one source. “I don’t think anybody at the commissioner level has made a decision on this.”
Spokesmen for both NCTA and NAB also declined comment on what FCC might do at meeting. But sources believe agency will, at very least, approve petition by Guenter Marksteiner, who has permit for yet-to-launch WHDT-DT (Ch. 59) in Stuart, Fla., for mandatory cable carriage of his new DTV-only station. “I suspect they'll find a way to get the Florida station carried,” source said. Case is first considered by Commission involving carriage rights of DTV station with no corresponding analog signal. Cable industry has strongly opposed bid while broadcasting industry has favored it just as strongly.
Sources said FCC also might impose digital tuner requirements on consumer electronics makers, despite industry’s strong objections. Broadcasting industry has pushed for that requirement to speed nation’s lengthy conversion to DTV from analog. In his latest letter to Kennard, Fritts renewed NAB’s call for mandatory digital tuners in all new TV sets, arguing that that “will accelerate the [DTV] transition and the ultimate return of the analog spectrum.”