NAB Buoyed By Movement on Multicast

NAB BUOYED BY MOVEMENT ON MULTICAST
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Not surprisingly, the National Association of Broadcasters was buoyed by the news that FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is circulating a proposed rulemaking granting broadcasters multicast must-carry. "We're encouraged by reports that Chairman Martin supports revisiting an issue that, if adopted, will bring more program choice to cable customers," said NAB spokesman Dennis Wharton. "It is NAB's longstanding position that DTV multicasting rules will result in an explosion in programming choices, including public-interest programming that has long been the hallmark of local broadcasting." Broadcasters argue that they need mandatory cable carriage of all the free channels they can fit into their digital spectrum allotment if they want to be competitive in a multichannel world. Getting multicast must-carry has been a primary goal of the NAB.
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