CBS Won't Pull HDTV Programming
By Ted Hearn -- Multichannel News, 5/22/2003 12:48:00 PM MT
Under pressure from Congress, CBS agreed Thursday to continue broadcasting in HDTV even though the high-resolution digital programming would remain susceptible to illegal copying and Internet retransmission.
In a prepared statement, CBS said it would not pull the plug on HDTV this fall, as it threatened to do in a recent Federal Communications Commission filing related to the agency's ongoing effort to protect HDTV programming from rampant piracy.
The FCC has yet to decide whether it will impose "broadcast-flag" protections that would allow broadcast-content owners to block retransmission of their content over the Internet.
"For the good of the digital transition, and with the hope that the FCC will indeed act favorably in the broadcast-flag proceedings, CBS will reconsider its deadline and continue to provide a full schedule of high-definition entertainment and sports programming to our viewers this upcoming television season," CBS said in a prepared statement.
The network reacted the same day House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Billy Tauzin (R-La.) and Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) sent CBS and its corporate parent, Viacom Inc., a letter urging them to reconsider the threatened HDTV cutoff.
The two lawmakers said they would do "everything" they could to assist the FCC in adopting broadcast-flag policies.
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