Cable Shuns NAB's 'Quiet Period' Plan

The cable industry thinks broadcasters' so-called quiet period is a lot of noise, mainly because it wouldn't give cable systems the right to restore carriage of TV stations that were withholding their signals as February arrived. All full-power TV stations are to convert to digital transmission on Feb 17, 2009. Meanwhile, thousands of carriage contracts between cable operators and TV stations are due to expire on Dec. 31, 2008, raising concerns that carriage disputes that ran past Feb 3 would not come to a halt under NAB's quiet period Feb. 4, 2009 to March 4, 2009. For that reason alone, both the National Cable & Telecommunications Association and the American Cable Association want the quiet period to start on or before Jan. 1. "Any voluntary quiet period that does not begin before the agreements actually expire — or which is too brief to preclude potentially confusing messages about broadcast carriage during the time of the actual DTV transition — represents the illusion of a commitment and does not serve the consumer," said National Cable & Telecommunications Association president Kyle McSlarrow.