The eight largest incumbent cable operators have committed to make...
The eight largest incumbent cable operators have committed to make low-cost set-top boxes available to certain customers if the so-called “viewability” DTV carriage rules are allowed to expire next month, NCTA said in a letter filed with the FCC (http://xrl.us/bm8i25).…
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On hybrid systems, operators that would stop carrying a must-carry station’s signal in analog will “make available to analog-only households, upon request, low-cost set-top devices capable of displaying basic service tier signals on analog television sets,” the letter said. The operators also committed to give subscribers at least 30 days notice before making any such change, the letter said. “As a practical matter, the cable industry has a strong interest in ensuring that any changes in its carriage line-ups cause the least disruption to consumers,” it said. Some cable operators have already begun delivering some non-broadcast basic-tier programming in digital only and have taken similar steps to make sure analog-only customers can still view that programming, it said. Meanwhile, the Fox Affiliates urged the commission to extend the viewability rules. “Expiration of the viewability rules would be a disaster” for the 22 percent of cable households that continue to obtain analog or hybrid cable service, it said last week (http://xrl.us/bm8i3u). “More than 12 million households would risk losing access to local television signals unless they were willing to pay their cable operator higher rates for additional equipment,” it said. The affiliates are also concerned about stations that rely on retransmission consent for carriage, they said. “If the rule were to go away, cable operators likely would insist that they have no obligation to ensure retransmission consent signals are available to all subscribers,” they said. Bright House Networks lawyers met with an aide to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski last week to discuss what would happen if the rule, which it and other cable operators often refer to as “Dual Carriage,” expires, an ex parte notice shows (http://xrl.us/bm8i25). “BHN is committed to minimizing any adverse consumer consequences,” it said. “We also emphasized that BHN already makes digital converters available to customers subscribing to the basic service tier for just $1 per month."