FCC Gives Satcasters a Break on Carriage

By Ira Teinowitz

The Federal Communications Commission is offering a reprieve to satellite providers and a blow to broadcasters in the digital rollout.

An order issued today by the FCC gives satellite providers up to four years to air all local broadcasters’ signals in full HD, rejecting broadcasters’ arguments that the signals should be carried immediately after the country’s digital switchover on Feb. 17.

Satellite broadcasters DirecTV and Dish Network are becoming an increasing part of the TV lineup, with estimates that 17% of households now get their TV from satellite. Satellite broadcasters provide local channels in some markets, but not all, and in some markets don’t yet carry all major local channels.

Cable providers have to start carrying local stations in HD on Feb. 17, but satellite providers had argued that it wasn’t as easy for them to upgrade, because they already transmit digitally and will need four times the bandwidth for each HD channel.

The FCC is requiring the satellite providers to carry all local channels in HD if they carry one. But, acknowledging the capacity issue, the agency will allow them to roll out the upgrades market by market over four years, meeting rollout targets each year.

FCC Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate called the decision a “common-sense” approach. “The aggressive schedule will ensure that by 2013 every citizen who resides in a market where broadcasters are providing high-definition signals will have access to those signals,” she said.

DirecTV, in a statement, said the FCC policy “strikes an appropriate balance to reach its public policy goals, while recognizing satellite’s unique infrastructure and capacity challenges.”

Dish Network said the FCC action “has ensured that a new regulatory obligation does not harm DBS efforts to provide a smooth digital transition to over 30 million satellite TV households in 2009.”