DTV Transition Order Will Cost Cable Operators

DTV TRANSITION ORDER WILL COST OPERATORS
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Todd Spangler]
The Federal Communications Commission last week gave cable operators two choices: either convert all their analog-video subscribers to digital by February 2009 or be forced to carry one analog and one digital signal for all stations that opt for mandatory cable carriage, or must-carry, until 2012. Which is the lesser evil? For much of the industry, the latter will be the preferred route, even though the National Cable & Telecommunications Association at one point called this tantamount to an unlawful seizure of private property. The alternative — converting to all-digital set-tops in the next 18 months — would cost upward of $6 billion.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6478705.html

* FCC: Dual Carriage Will Last Three Years
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6478706.html

* Unclear Picture
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
before the analog transmissions -- the lifeblood of broadcasting for 80 years -- are turned off, TV stations must resolve an assortment of problems — ranging from what channel their signals will be on to whether their digital antennas can be tilted downward to the core of a TV market — to be sure that they don’t all of a sudden lose viewers who can’t receive a digital signal.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6478737.html

* Long Live the Analog TV Set
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Tom Steinert-Threlkeld]
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6478730.html

* McDowell: DTV Worries Valid
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6478733.html

* McSlarrow: Time To Cut DTV Cat Fighting
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
In the wake of a compromise FCC decision on cable carriage of broadcaster's DTV signals after the transition to digital, National Cable & Telecommunications Association Chairman Kyle McSlarrow says it's time for broadcasting and cable to cut the cat fighting and focus on educating consumers. "While there may be these back-and-forth public statements," said McSlarrow in an interview with C-SPAN for its Communicators series. "The truth is we, and the broadcasters, satellite industry, the consumer electronics industry, and the FCC and other government agencies, have to work together to get out of this sort of cat fighting and focus on making sure that consumers know about the digital transition in 2009 and know what tools are available to them."
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6478691.html?rssid=193

* The Deciders
[Editorial] Oddly though, this seemed like a time that all of [the trade groups] have had the rare ability to declare an act of deliberate cooperation, not that that stopped all the name calling. In the nation's capital, more divided than ever, maybe no one remembers that arriving at a common sense agreement is really the way government is supposed to work.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6478759.html