Martin: Multicasting Is Key Benefit For Hispanics

MARTIN: MULTICASTING IS KEY BENEFIT FOR HISPANICS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin took the opportunity of a speech to a Hispanic technology summit in Washington Tuesday to pitch his multicast must-carry proposal, which would require cable operators to carry a broadcasters digital multicast channels. Chairman Martin pointed out that Spanish-speaking viewers make up a third of the 15 million homes that rely on analog TV, the ones that will be most affected when the analog signal is shut off to most over-the-air viewers in February 2009. Chairman Martin also talked of the "burden"--he repeated the word three times--of having to buy a converter box or digital TV that the government is imposing through the switch, saying that requiring cable to carry new free Spanish-language channels could turn that burden into a benefit. In fact, Chairman Martin suggested multicast must-carry might be the only way for Spanish-language viewers to reap the new-channel benefits of DTV, channels he said broadcasters like Univision and Telemundo are ready to produce if they can be guaranteed carriage.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6486338.html

* Chairman Martin's remarks
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-277055A1.pdf