De Facto Triple Must Carry for Some?

Part of the good news for cable in the recent FCC dual must carry decision (or maybe that should be "it-coulda-been-worse news") was that operators won’t be forced to "triple-cast" must-carry stations — that is, carry a signal in analog, standard-definition digital and high-definition digital.

This triple-threat was a topic of concern for several speakers at June’s SCTE Cable-Tec Expo. The worry was that an FCC mandate to carry both SD and HD digital would chew up an even bigger chunk of bandwidth than digital simulcasting does.

Now it’s clear that "dual must carry" means just that — one analog and one digital signal. National Cable & Telecommunications Association CEO Kyle McSlarrow said unequivocally that there’s no triple-carriage mandate from the FCC.

But in some cases, operators may end up having to triple-cast those stations anyway, if they’re not already.
 
The question is, by the time February 2009 rolls around, what happens when must-carry broadcasters demand to be carried in HD, which an ever-increasing number of TV viewers will be expecting?

NCTA vice president of communications Brian Dietz suggested that even if must-carry broadcasters have gone to HD, they "probably will still declare SD as their ‘primary’ signal to guarantee carriage of that and reach the widest possible audience."

But if Mr. or Ms. Must-Carry Broadcaster claims their HD feed as the primary signal, an operator will be forced to carry that, "so that the picture quality is at least as good as the quality of any other programming carried on the system," according to the FCC.

Then, if you’re an operator already transmitting a station’s feed in analog, as well as in standard-definition to digital-only boxes like Motorola’s DCT700, presto–the addition of HD is your triple-cast. Technically an operator would be within its rights to cut the signal to the SD-only, digital-only subscribers (and then explain how to view the analog channels without a set-top). But that’s not really a palatable option.

This particular wrinkle will affect only systems that have both analog and digital-only subscribers. And it’s worth noting that such systems probably are already triple-casting certain channels. But now, it seems they’ll have to do that from February 2009 to February 2012 for every HD must-carry broadcast station in their market.