Martin Pressuring Cable On Low Power TV Aid
Letter To NCTA Seeks To Mitigate Consequences of Digital Transition
By Ted Hearn -- Multichannel News, 2/13/2008 9:56:00 AM
Washington – Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin is pressuring the cable industry to bail out thousands of low power TV stations that could become casualties of digital TV transition policies enforced by the FCC and the Bush administration.
In a letter Tuesday, Martin wrote National Cable & Telecommunications Association president Kyle McSlarrow to “ask and strongly encourage” cable operators to carry low power TV stations “on a voluntary basis where they have the capacity.” Cable’s consent, he added, “could prove immensely valuable” in helping LPTV stations survive.
Martin is scrambling after low power TV owners complained that FCC and Bush administration policies would put them out of business following the Feb. 17, 2009 conversion to all-digital TV.
Here’s the problem: LPTV stations are not required to make the switch to digital next year. Meanwhile, the Bush administration, in shaping a $1.5 billion digital-to-analog converter box subsidy program, refused to require box makers to include analog tuners. And the FCC has not acted on a low-power station petition asking that converter boxes without analog tuners violate the All-Channel Receiver Act of 1962.
The LPTV stations say they will face financial ruin because they will lose millions of viewers who have connected government-funded converter boxes to their analog TV sets. Just four models – out of more than 30 approved by the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration – include analog tuners voluntarily.
“Every time one of these boxes [is] plugged in, we lose a viewer. We are out of business over this program. We need help,” Ron Bruno, president of the Community Broadcasters Association, told the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet on Wednesday.
McSlarrow, testifying before the same panel, was indignant because Martin’s letter failed to mention that he wants the FCC to award full-power status to more than 500 Class A stations, giving them instant cable carriage rights for the first time. Evidently, Martin’s request that cable carry low-power stations voluntarily would be in addition to carriage of hundreds of Class A station with newly minted must carry rights.
“What is a little dismaying was that in both chairman Martin’s testimony (before the subcommittee) and in this letter there was no mention of an item that had been reported and circulating at the FCC which would go farther and actually inject must carry for low power stations into this process,” McSlarrow said.
McSlarrow complained that Martin – not for the first time – was relying on hide-the-ball tactics.
“Once again here’s an item that no has ever seen and so far as I can tell, no one actually asked for it,” McSlarrow said.
McSlarrow sought help from subcommittee chairman Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) in stopping Martin from barraging cable with regulations and damage the public-private partnership built to make the DTV transition a success.
“We are now a year out and I would suggest, chairman [Markey], and urge you to use your good offices to send a message to the FCC that this is the time for all of us to be working together to solve real problems and not raise red herrings that are probably going to just engender more confusion and greater possibility of litigation,” McSlarrow said.
Martin’s letter called on DirecTV and Dish Network to help out, too, by carrying LPTV signals. He also asked full-power TV stations to carry LPTV signals on available digital capacity.
Martin also asked the consumer electronic association to build more boxes with analog tuners.
But Martin’s letter didn’t explore a fundamental point; namely, how does cable or satellite carriage help broadcast-only homes view low-power TV signals.
And his letter failed to note any steps that LPTV stations might take to help themselves, such as airing public service announcements that urge viewers to pick a converter with an analog tuner, or advising viewers to keep an old analog TV around the house just to watch LPTV programming.
Martin told Markey's committee that he wants the FCC to force LPTV stations to transition to digital no later than 2012.
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National Cable & Telecommunications Association president Kyle
McSlarrow, Has stated that giving must carry status to Class A
stations would harm digital transition. This is absolute bullcrap. The
cable industry has done everything in it's power to deny viewers
access to local television stations on it's cable monopolies through
out the country. It currently is airing ads that state television viewers
will not receive signals after the 2-19-2009 cutoff date. They use a
little old lady to try and scare people to subscribing to cable so they
can get digital television. The current add campaign by the cable
industry is fraudulent and outrageous.
Class A stations have been trying to get must carry rights for a very
long time. In the DMA's over the largest 150 they have must carry
rights, all Chairman Martin is doing is creating a level playing field for
those stations in the markets below the top 150 DMA's. If cable
companies would have played fair with these local broadcasters and
agreed to carry these signals on local cable systems this would not be
required. However cable monopolies do not want competition for local
ad revenue. That is what this is all about. Cable systems in large
DMA'a can find the space to carry hundreds of channels, but have no
room for a couple of local Class A stations. This is absurd.
Cable wants to use scare tactics with fraudulent advertising to scare
subscribers, and it wants to eliminate competitors from the
marketplace, through more scare tactics and bullcrap to
Congressional committees. Class A stations deserve must carry and
will get it when the new order is published. Cable company litigation
and scare tactics will do nothing to stop this. If I was Kyle McSlarrow I
would seek legal council for the cable industry because their current
ad campaign about digital transition is fraudulent and harms Class A
stations, as well as low power stations. The Class A stations may
choose to sue all the cable companies for slander and fraudulent
advertising.
In addition Cable companies are subject to FCC regulation and are
already required to carry Class A stations in some markets, The FCC
has every right to upgrade Class A stations to ensure a smooth
transition to digital Television. By having Class A stations switch to
digital signals quicker it will free up valuable spectrum for first
responders, and create a level playing field between all broadcasters
and cable companies. The actions of the cable industry in this matter
is disgraceful, slanderous and fraudulent.
J Marcus Campbell - 2/16/2008 10:58:00 AM EST -
Ken makes a great point. If you connect one of these digital only converters to your analog TV, the tuner will be set to to modulate on either Channel 3 or 4. Why can't the user change the TV tuner with their TV remote and tune to the analog LPTV channel as normal, at least until 2012? I don't see why Martin is pushing this.
Mike Lucas - 2/14/2008 9:42:00 AM EST -
I guess I'm confused. If I had a TV already capable of tuning low-power analog channels, why wouldn't it still be able to tune analog channels a year from now? If I needed to buy a digital converter to receive full-power digital signals on my analog TV, would it override or somehow preclude my analog TV's ability to tune OTA low-power analog?
Ken - 2/14/2008 9:22:00 AM EST
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