NAB, NCTA Fight over FCC Channel Location Requirements
NAB and NCTA debated whether the FCC should require cable operators to give broadcast multicast digital signals channel slots linked to the stations’ main channels. Filings by the groups responded to a commission notice on channel placement and cable operators’ down-conversion of digital broadcast signals that they're required to carry (CD March 6 p8). Congress required channel locations of so-called must- carry stations to be the same as the over-the-air channel number, as assigned when must-carry rules expired in 1985 or in 1992 -- the year they were re-imposed by the FCC -- or in a slot agreeable to station and operator, said NAB and the Association for Maximum Service TV. “The Commission should reject NCTA and Verizon’s claims that operators should be able to unilaterally decide where to position must-carry broadcasters’ digital signals,” the broadcast groups said.
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If cable operators get their way, systems could put must-carry digital signals anywhere they want, MSTV and NAB said. A system not fully digital could put a digital station on a premium tier and the corresponding analog signal in a more favorable location even if only “of interest to a minority of the cable system’s viewers,” they said. “Placing broadcasters’ digital signals in disparate channel locations is likely to confuse viewers and it would ignore the statutory requirement that, if one of the enumerated channel positions is unavailable, broadcasters are entitled to work with operators to reach” a deal.
To the contrary, cable subscribers would be confused if channel lineups changed because the FCC revised its rules as sought by MSTV and NAB, Comcast said. “There is no reason for the Commission to disrupt these arrangements with which consumers are already familiar,” the company said. The digital shift could be hurt by such “unnecessary confusion,” it said. With the analog cutoff 11 months away, “there is no room for further dithering on the things that can be done, and no time for additional detours or missteps,” Comcast said. “At this juncture, imposing any additional burdens on cable operators is entirely unwarranted, and to do so would materially increase the likelihood that significant elements of the Commission’s regime will be undone on judicial review.”
MSTV and NAB erred in earlier comments on the FCC notice when they claimed that cable set-top boxes can put standard definition and high definition signals on the same channel by using a two-part numbering scheme, such as 4-1 and 4-2 for signals of broadcast channel 4, said NCTA. The boxes only display one-part channel numbers, such as 401 and 402 for multicasts, it said. Far from the “overnight software download” that MSTV and NAB said will allow two-part numbering, NCTA said, cable operators would need to spend millions of dollars swapping out set-tops and changing program-guide data. Broadcasters’ “grasp of cable technology on this score is similarly mistaken,” NCTA said. “Set-top boxes already in the field typically do not operate this way.”
Dish Network agrees with NCTA that the FCC shouldn’t tell pay-TV providers where to place channels, it said. “Each provider has its own unique programing guide, channel placement and channel organizational structure,” said the satellite-TV company. Pay TV providers, especially all- digital outfits, “should have the flexibility to deliver digital broadcast signals in a manner that minimizes subscriber confusion or disruption on their system,” Dish said. DirecTV didn’t weigh in on that point. NAB and MSTV said DirecTV uses two-part numbering. The groups said DirecTV labels WNBC New York Channel 4 as channel 4.1 and WNBC-DT2 as 4.2. “DirecTV does exactly what NCTA says cannot be done,” they said. “In the digital world, the assignment of virtual channels will resolve most issues.”