NRTC asks for all 210 DMA's to be re-transmitted

[Chris Blount]

The National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative, in a filing sent to the Federal Communications Commission tied to the agency's effort seeking comments on the state of multichannel competition, asked the entity to require DBS services to retransmit local signals to all 210 DMAs by Jan. 1, 2006.

"As those familiar with the needs of rural Americans know, the delivery of local broadcast signals into rural communities is not just about the delivery of entertainment programming," the NRTC said. "To the contrary, local news and public affairs programming is an issue of critical importance to the safety, health and economic viability of each and every local community in the country, including those in rural America."

The cooperative pointed out that the commission, as part of the nation's homeland security efforts, created the Media Security and Reliability Council to address concerns on pay-TV and broadcast capabilities during terrorist attacks, natural disasters and other threats. Access to local TV signals should be a key component of that effort, especially in rural areas, the NRTC said.

At the FCC, the NRTC also promoted Ka-Band satellite technology as a new platform for multichannel and broadband deployment throughout the country, including underserved rural areas. The cooperative is working with WildBlue to offer Ka-Band broadband services - and possibly bundled video - to rural utilities and affiliates.

In its comments, the Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association said it remains concerned that Multichannel Video Distribution and Data Service (MVDDS) operations in DBS spectrum will harm competition in the pay-TV market. If terrestrial spectrum-sharing is upheld, "DBS customers will experience a significant threat of interference to their reliable DBS service," the association said.

SBCA, DirecTV and EchoStar have filed a petition for review at the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., on MVDDS. If the court upholds terrestrial spectrum sharing, SBCA said it believes that a FCC auction should be conducted for MVDDS licenses.

In a separate development, NRTC filed an application for review of a FCC decision concerning Ka-Band licensing. NRTC wants a review of an International Bureau order that it alleged gives preference for existing Ka-Band licensees to receive first crack at any Ka-Band orbital positions that may become available in the future.

From http://www.skyreport.com (Used with permission)

[Karl Foster]

Aren't these the same guys that opposed the merger for various reasons? They must be tired from that flip-flop on this issue.

[Richard King]

They opposed the merger for strictly business reasons, just as they are promoting the transmission of locals to all DMA's for business reasons. On the merger they knew that Charlie would have found a way to cut them out of the picture. On the DMA's they know that D* has no reason to provide locals in strong NRTC areas if they can provide them to non NRTC areas instead and thereby not have to split the revenues with the NRTC. So, they are protecting their own interests by taking both sides.

[Mark Holtz]

That's what sucks about the locals. The smaller the market, the more it costs to carry the market. One of the reasons I was in favor of the merger was the consolidation of POPs and allows the spectrum to be used efficiently. Part of SHIVA says that the station must deliver a good-quality signal to the POP, but doesn't specify a method.

In addition, if the stations insist on the carriage of HD channels, we're in a frequency crunch since only two HD channels can be carried on a transponder, verses 10-12 SD channels. It just isn't technolically feasible.

[Brett]

It doesnt seem likely they'll insist on HD channels.

[catman]

I know , NRTC you can get plenty of money from the networks commerials . FCC your stupid and think you can do as pleased . well guess what ? the networks know this . That why there is 10 minutes of comcerials .

[Jacob S]

I knew that the NRTC would try to make this mandatory to have all 210 markets up seeing how they have must carry right now for the markets available, this would be similar to must carry in that they must carry all of the markets in the U.S. and all the channels in each of those markets that asks to be put up.

When this does happen the locals will more than likely be included in the basic packages in which will go up in price. Seeing how the price goes up to have the smaller markets everyone will probably be forced to have the locals in their basic packages and have to pay about an extra $5 on their basic packages as a result, maybe a little less seeing that everyone would be paying for the locals.