Must Carry Laws vs. Bandwidth

[man_rob]

I realize this article is about E*, but will these laws cause D* the same problem? With the new satellites, will D* have the bandwidth required for this change?


Ergen: No Bandwidth For Dual Must Carry
EchoStar CEO Says Company Can’t Carry TV Signals in Both High Definition and Standard Definition

By Ted Hearn -- Multichannel News, 9/4/2007 12:46:00 PM

Washington – EchoStar CEO Charlie Ergen said his company is several years away from having satellite capacity to comply with a possible regulatory mandate to carry local TV signals in both high definition and standard definition digital formats, according to a Federal Communications Commission filing last week.

EchoStar is hoping that it won’t have to comply with new digital TV carriage mandates that the FCC under Republican chairman Kevin Martin is intending to adopt for cable operators, perhaps as early as the agency’s Sept. 11 open meeting.

“Today, we carry all the must carry stations in standard definition in 175 launched local markets, and will continue to do so after February 2009,” EchoStar explained in Aug. 31 filing at the FCC. “Dish Network will not, however, have the spectrum, satellites, or resources in February 2009 to provide all must carry digital signals in high definition. Designing and constructing new satellites – upon the availability of new spectrum – is a four or five year proposition,” EchoStar said.

The filing said Ergen last week met face-to-face with FCC members Michael Copps, Jonathan Adelstein, and Robert McDowell to express his concerns.

EchoStar’s reference to February 2009 is the congressionally required turn-off of all over-the-air analog signals by full-power TV stations licensed by the FCC. Stations will then go all digital, beaming SD and HD signals at the same time or separately, probably depending on the time of day.

Under federal law, Dish Network has to carry all local TV stations in a market if it elects to carry even one – also called the “carry one, carry all” requirement.

In its filing, EchoStar didn’t explain how its carry one, carry all obligations permit it to identify which stations in a market are “must carry” and which are not.

EchoStar also protested a proposed FCC rule that might require it to pass through all bits transmitted by a TV station, a policy which might ban the use of bandwidth-saving signal compression technologies.

“It would freeze innovation and cut off the use of future technologies critical to maximizing the efficient use of finite bandwidth,” EchoStar said.

http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6475069.html

[Blitz68]

DirecTV is adding the HD locals. That is what some of the new satellite bandwidth is for.

Remember, DirecTV complies with the FCC, Charlie fights with everything.

[Earl Bonovich]

Here is a question....

How dose must carry apply to Digital transmisions?
And affiliates that are refusing to sign carriage aggrements...

[schlar01]

Why not just allow people to get national HDs for those channels? It doesn't make sense to me. This is really about HD for FOX, ABC, CBS, and NBC. Is it really that important to get your 30 minute local news in HD? I guess it could be important to some people but I just want it for Lost, Heroes, etc.

I wish I could get a waiver from D* to do that right now because I can't get NBC and FOX locals in HD right now via OTA and D* doesn't carry my HD locals yet. Hell, the local FOX affiliate is terrible and they STILL don't broadcast in HD. My local news type of shows don't broadcast in HD, either.

[Earl Bonovich]

Why not just allow people to get national HDs for those channels?


The independent affiliates (aka, those not owned by the broadcast networks) will never allow it. (even the O&O's would probably not like it, as it will cut down on their local advertising rates)

[bonscott87]

Here is a question....

How dose must carry apply to Digital transmisions?
And affiliates that are refusing to sign carriage aggrements...

When a local market is up on Dish or DirecTV each station can choose one of two things:
1) Negotiate
2) Must Carry

Must carry means that they are telling Dish or DirecTV they must carry their station and that also means they just get the "going rate" or nothing at all. I think most stations choose this option, in particular the smaller ones. A version of must carry also applies to cable. It's the only way the small religious/independents stations can stay on the air otherwise cable/sat would never carry them.

However others like those owned by the big corps like Tribune and LIN said no to must carry and want big money. As we saw late last year Tribune and DirecTV finally came to an agreement. LIN is still being stupid.

I don't think there are any must carry rules for digital yet which is why this is coming up now, congress needs to make those rules up.

[bonscott87]

I realize this article is about E*, but will these laws cause D* the same problem? With the new satellites, will D* have the bandwidth required for this change?

That's what Spaceway 1 and 2, D10 and 11 do for DirecTV. They have been planning to carry HD and SD stations for all 210 markets since the beginning. I'm sure they will fight must carry in terms of the subchannels but I don't think they'd have any bandwidth issues if they had to carry them. They can be compressed to heck.

[cb7214]

Here is a question....

How dose must carry apply to Digital transmisions?
And affiliates that are refusing to sign carriage aggrements...

Here is my understanding in what i read in another article about this, i think it was on tvpredictions.com.

Obviously not every TV station in the Country has changed over to the Digital format, some are in the process some haven't started. What DISH is saying is while these stations are dragging their feet E* and D* are waiting on them to get their act together so they can then start the process of getting their D* and E* and the stations signals to each other so they can broadcast the digital version of the channels. And many stations may wait till the last minute and that won't give E* or D* enough time.

http://www.tvpredictions.com/echo090407.htm

[cb7214]

That's what Spaceway 1 and 2, D10 and 11 do for DirecTV. They have been planning to carry HD and SD stations for all 210 markets since the beginning. I'm sure they will fight must carry in terms of the subchannels but I don't think they'd have any bandwidth issues if they had to carry them. They can be compressed to heck.

However according to the articles D* is concerned with it as well. Its not a matter of "not enough space" its a matter of the stations not providing the Digital signal to D* & E* in enough time to get everything together to broadcast them.

[bkwest918]

Start making all receivers HD and Mpeg4 capable. ONLY carry the HD and not the SD and let the receiver downres it like the HR20/H20 can do now. Then you save the bandwidth of having to carry the SD counter part as well as the HD one.

/b

[Earl Bonovich]

Start making all receivers HD and Mpeg4 capable. ONLY carry the HD and not the SD and let the receiver downres it like the HR20/H20 can do now. Then you save the bandwidth of having to carry the SD counter part as well as the HD one.

/b

While that is a possibility....you have an estimated 40,000,000 receivers out there that are not MPEG-4 compatible (and that is just on the DirecTV side of it).

The sad reality, for both of those carriers... if the Must Carry law is implemented exactly... aka, you must carry ALL SD and ALL HD versions...

It ultimately will probably result in the loss of the SD feed, the loss of the HD feed, or the loss of both depending on how it is enforced.... in the smaller markets...

If you thought the HD swap out for MPEG-4 compatible receivers was a big deal... Imagine what it would be for the other 40mil receivers, so you can broadcast just 1 signal.

[islesfan]

While that is a possibility....you have an estimated 40,000,000 receivers out there that are not MPEG-4 compatible (and that is just on the DirecTV side of it).

The sad reality, for both of those carriers... if the Must Carry law is implemented exactly... aka, you must carry ALL SD and ALL HD versions...

It ultimately will probably result in the loss of the SD feed, the loss of the HD feed, or the loss of both depending on how it is enforced.... in the smaller markets...

If you thought the HD swap out for MPEG-4 compatible receivers was a big deal... Imagine what it would be for the other 40mil receivers, so you can broadcast just 1 signal.

Just a thought. The HR20 and H20, for example, can output to 480i as well as to the other formats. Perhaps a cheaper way to go about doing this would be to only carry the HD feeds, but require/help people into upgrades in receivers. All you'd have to do is turn off the resolutions above 480 on the new equipment, and then only 1 feed is needed.

Am I missing something here? I realize that new receivers is an expensive idea, but isn't more bandwidth even more expensive?

[SoCool]

Looks like D* is gonna get very busy!

[Earl Bonovich]

Am I missing something here? I realize that new receivers is an expensive idea, but isn't more bandwidth even more expensive?

They are both EXTREMELY expensive options....

40,000,000 receivers.... even if the cost was $50 a box...that is $2 billion... and that is before any logistics cost.

[Thaedron]

D* has been advertising capacity for up to 1500 HD locals once both D10 and D11 are up and live... Since they already cover the SD locals within existing capacity, they should be fine depending on when this might take effect relative to D11 being lit up.

[islesfan]

They are both EXTREMELY expensive options....

40,000,000 receivers.... even if the cost was $50 a box...that is $2 billion... and that is before any logistics cost.

Fair point. Any idea how much it costs to build and launch a bird? I have no idea.

[Thaedron]

Fair point. Any idea how much it costs to build and launch a bird? I have no idea.

Measured with at least 9 trailing zeroes...

[Earl Bonovich]

Fair point. Any idea how much it costs to build and launch a bird? I have no idea.


No idea... the only number I have
I think the last one was mentioned at the 5 billion mark, but don't really quote me on that (stuck in the back of my head, not sure how accurate it is)

[Stuart Sweet]

It's something that will have to be figured out, no question. However, it's clear to me that DIRECTV is on the right track launching three new satellites.

I do think that DIRECTV might move to all MPEG-4 in certain markets, perhaps in 3 or 4 years, but it's going to be a long transition to all MPEG-4 if it ever happens.

[jacksonm30354]

Right now the SD locals are from the analog broadcast signal, correct? After the digital transition, the SD locals would need to remain to support the legacy non-HD capable receivers. However, the feed would be the digital signal. Would there be any bandwidth savings possible because of that? I am thinking no. But if they could, they might be able to add the few smaller markets they don't carry in SD.

Also, I believe I read that there are 1,400 TV stations in the US, so when D10 and D11 are up and operating, I believe we'll get ALL the HD stations in the market, not just ABC, NBC, CBS, & FOX since there will be capacity for 1500.

I think when they have these compensation disputes, such as with LIN and others, viewers should be able to get the network from an adjoining market until a settlement is reached. I think the compensation amount should be disclosed as well since as a subscriber, you are indirectly paying that amount.

[Greg Bimson]

One has to remember that Dish Network (and DirecTV) aren't keen on adding what is known as the multicast channels. I think this is what is being discussed by the article.

I have channel 2 out of Baltimore. This station has an HD feed, an SD feed and a weather channel. Does anyone really think that DirecTV and Dish Network want to carry all of the sub-channels?

Before you answer that, realize that there must be some way for Dish Network and DirecTV to leverage the existing spot-beam satellites to continue to transmit SD locals in MPEG2. The question here is about the rules for delivery.