Cable Interests, NAB Tangle Over HD Carriage-Exemption Extension
A three-year extension of an exemption for small cable systems from requirements to carry HD broadcast signals would protect those cable systems and consumers, said the American Cable Association, NCTA, WTA and small cable operator TDS in reply comments posted…
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online in docket 98-120 Tuesday. The extension would “ensure that small systems utilizing the exemption today are able to time their investments in the transition of their systems to carry digital signals on a schedule that makes economic sense,” ACA said. If the exemption is not extended from its current end date this year -- June 12 -- until “at least June 2018,” consumers could experience “service disruptions and discontinuations resulting in reduced competition,” WTA said. NAB disagrees, and argued in its own reply comments that extending the exemption is not consistent with the goal of transitioning consumers to digital. The FCC doesn’t have the authority to extend the exemption, NAB said. “Notwithstanding NAB’s objections, the fact that this authority is broad and flexible enough to encompass the Commission’s adoption, and extension, of the HD Carriage Exemption is not open to serious debate,” TDS said. If the extension is granted, the FCC should limit the systems eligible to benefit from it, NAB said. “Under no circumstances” should it be granted to cable systems affiliated with larger companies, NAB said. Though 2,000- or 2,500-subscriber cable systems “might be larger than the ‘average’ small system, such systems still lack the economies of scale and subscriber base necessary to reasonably support the additional investment that would be required to comply absent the exemption,” WTA said.