Martin Must-Carry Plan Renewing DBS Multicast Rule Debate
FCC Chmn. Martin’s multicast must-carry plan (CD May 31 p2) may renew a push for DBS rules requiring provision of digital broadcasts to all subscribers where local stations are carried, industry sources said. Satellite providers fear broadcasters may try to use the proposed rulemaking to ask the FCC to require that satellite transmit their digital signals. Such rules apply to DBS only in Alaska and Hawaii (CD Aug 25 p1). It’s not clear if the rulemaking would include DBS must-carry provisions. An FCC spokesman declined to comment.
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NAB hasn’t set its sights on DBS, a spokesman said: “NAB is focusing on the cable multicast carriage issue because the carriage rules on satellite and cable are different. With cable you have a must-carry regime.” A cable official said that industry isn’t focused on satellite, either.
The must-carry order could stoke debate on DBS’s role in offering local content on many digital channels that may be available from each station after the 2009 DTV transition, sources said. That would pit broadcasters, DBS and cable against one another -- with cable perhaps asking the FCC to impose the same must-carry provisions on satellite as on cable if cable must be subject to such obligations, sources said.
DBS almost certainly would oppose more obligations for multicast must-carry, said an industry official. It likely would “question the legal basis” of any new rules, the official said. NCTA, which opposes multicast must-carry, declined to comment.
DBS arguments could center on lack of satellite capacity to carry what could be hundreds of additional DTV channels, cable lawyer Howard Barr said: “I think they're certainly going to hang their hat on lack of capacity. It’s what they've hung their hat on before.” The cable industry “would also then take the position that if it’s subject to multicast must-carry, then its chief competition in the industry ought to be subject to must-carry obligations,” he said.
Broadcasters have had little success getting the FCC to require satellite to carry digital signals -- whether from stations giving up analog channels or always digital. Since seeking comment on the topic in 2000, the FCC hasn’t taken action since seeking comment on the subject, sources said.