must carry queston

[juan ellitinez]

Some stations..such as wfmz allentown,pa..split their digital transmission in to several diffrent channels(accu weather channel)..Will dish or direct tv ever carry these additional channels?..Will the fcc ever require them to carry these additional channels?

[Cyclone]

They don't now, but what they will do in the future is not known. If there is a HDTV must carry, then the satellites are sunk. So I doubt that would happen.

[Bill R]

This could also be a problem for the cable companies. They have a lot of bandwidth but in some markets not enough if they have to carry all the HDTV stations in a market. Right now in my area the cable company only carries one local HDTV channel (the CBS affiliate) even though there are 6 broadcasting. They also make you rent a seperate box (at three dollars a month) plus you must subscribe to the digital tier which uses a seperate set-top box.

[Geronimo]

True but the cable company only has to find bandwidth for one set of locals---maybe two. Look at DISH and DTV. Where will that bandwidth come from.

[Mike123abc]

A HDTV channel is 1/2 the bandwidth of an analog channel on cable (256QAM). Cable will not have problems with it, they might have to move some analog channels to digital to free up room for the HDTV. They can put 10 analog channels in the space of one analog channel when they make the 10 digital.