Cable, Public TV Detail Voluntary Multicast Deal, NAB Reacts

[Gregg Lengling]

On Monday, the Association for Public Television Stations and the National Cable and Telecommunications Association reached an agreement on cable multicasting of digital TV content.

When describing the specifics of the multicast deal, NCTA said that during the period when public TV stations are broadcasting both analog and digital signals, upgraded cable systems offering high def TV will carry up to four streams of free non-commercial digital broadcast programming and associated material from one public TV station, in addition to the station's analog signal.

After all TV stations in a market are transmitting in digital, upgraded cable systems with HDTV will carry free non-commercial digital programming of each local must-carry public TV station. The carriage may include four streams of free non-commercial digital TV and associated material, subject to reasonable programming duplication parameters, the association said.

Any public TV station that shuts off analog transmission and broadcasts only in digital before the DTV market transition may choose to have its digital signal carried on the upgraded local cable system at that time, NCTA added.

Regulators and industry observers praised the voluntary agreement. NCTA and the public TV station association said the deal "represents the resolution of complex digital TV issues through private contractual negotiations rather than government mandate."

Commercial broadcasters have been fighting cable interests over multicast issues, and have recently taken the issue to Capitol Hill. It's believed that when the Federal Communications Commission meets next week for its open meeting, it will formally reject broadcaster multicast challenges.

In a statement, Edward Fritts, president and CEO of the National Association of Broadcasters, said, "Because of government underwriting of PBS, it's easy to see why the cable industry was motivated to reach this tentative agreement."

He added, "By NCTA's own admission, cable gatekeepers are blocking consumer access to the digital and high-definition signals of more than two-thirds of all local television stations. We would hope that NCTA and its members would reconsider their hardline position and use the PBS agreement as a template for negotiating carriage of commercial DTV programming."