NCTA Wants Small Op Dual Carriage Exemption

NCTA WANTS SMALL OP DUAL CARRIAGE EXEMPTION
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
Small cable operators deserve an automatic exemption from new Federal Communications Commission mandates on the carriage of digital signals of local TV stations in early 2009, National Cable & Telecommunications Association President Kyle McSlarrow is expected to say in Senate testimony Wednesday. Under the rules, all cable systems will need to carry local TV stations that elect mandatory carriage in both analog and digital formats if the systems continue to provide analog programming services to subscribers after Feb. 17, 2009. On that date, all full-power TV station in the U.S. are required by law to shut off their analog signals. In his testimony, McSlarrow said the FCC’s rules, which were adopted on Sept. 11 but have not been released, should have exempted small operators and low-capacity systems from the dual carriage requirement, to remove economic and technological burdens on companies that lack regional scale like Comcast and Time Warner.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6491499.html?rssid=196