BROADCASTERS PRESS FCC FOR DIGITAL CABLE MUST-CARRY RULES

Making fresh push for digital must-carry requirements during DTV transition, NAB, MSTV and ALTV jointly challenged FCC’s Jan. DTV order tentatively rejecting dual-carriage rules. In joint petition for reconsideration and clarification filed late Wed., broadcast groups called on Commission to impose dual-carriage requirements to spur DTV transition. They also urged agency to force cable operators to carry multiple streams of DTV video programming, not just single stream, and pressed FCC to provide greater safeguards against material degradation of DTV signals and require cable operators to use broadcasters’ program guide information in their set-top boxes and electronic programming guides.

“If left unchanged, the Commission’s decisions will undermine the statutory directives and intent of the 1992 Cable Act impair the DTV transition and permanently hobble broadcast DTV service,” NAB, MSTV and ALTV said. Arguing that FCC’s Jan. order “constituted a potential death blow to an effective DTV transition,” they said agency “provided no rationale for its decision to deny dual carriage” on First Amendment grounds. They also contended that Commission “does not have discretion to refuse to apply digital carriage requirements during the transition” in face of Congress’s clear intent.

APTS, PBS and CPB, in separate joint petition for reconsideration, also pressed for dual-carriage rules, greater protection against signal degradation and cable carriage of all broadcast guide information. But they spent most of their petition pushing for digital multicasting requirements, stressing harm that “primary video” ruling would cause to their ambitious DTV plans: “These plans simply will not come to fruition, and much of the promise of DTV will go unrealized, if the Commission lets stand its overly narrow interpretation of the term ‘primary video’ as encompassing only a single stream of video programming. Without cable carriage of their multicast streams, noncommercial stations will be unable to deliver this programming to the 70% of American households served by cable.”

Surprisingly, NCTA, which strongly backed most of FCC’s Jan. DTV order, also filed petition for partial reconsideration. Cable group objected to Commission’s finding that new DTV-only stations were entitled to immediate carriage of their primary video signal in either digital or analog format. “This preferential treatment for new digital-only stations is wholly unjustifiable, both as a matter of law or policy,” NCTA said. It said mandating carriage of DTV-only stations went beyond FCC’s authority and “serves no rational policy purpose.”

In meantime, FCC Cable Bureau extended deadline for filing reply comments on its DTV further notice of proposed rulemaking. Replies now are due July 26.