Smulyan to Announce Multichannel Pay TV Plan

[Gregg Lengling]

Emmis Communications Chairman and CEO Jeff Smulyan plans to announce tomorrow the details of a new plan that would allow broadcasters to launch multichannel pay TV services Mr. Smulyan will discuss his plan at a briefing Tuesday during the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas. In a hallway interview this morning, Mr. Smulyan said the plan essentially calls for broadcasters to pool their digital TV frequencies to offer up to 50 standard-definition TV channels in each market, along with five or six HDTV signals.

The broadcast partners in the venture, he said, could divvy up the $25 per subscriber he believes could be charged for a package that would include standard cable networks. "We're going to roll this out," said Mr. Smulyan, in a preview during the Association of Maximum Service Television meeting Monday. "There's nothing that cable does that we can't replicate at a lower cost," Mr. Smulyan said. During Tuesday's briefing, Mr. Smulyan said he also plans to announce his partners for the venture. "We'd like to launch it as soon as possible," Mr. Smulyan said.