Three More Years! FCC Wants to Extend Cable's Viewability Mandates

In a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) the Federal Communications Commission proposed extending a cable analog carriage mandate for another three years, and more definitively proposed extending its waiver of the high definition carriage mandate for smaller cable operators for three more years as well.

The FCC is asking whether it should extend the mandate that cable operators deliver all TV stations' digital signals in analog format to analog customers or, alternatively, make sure all its customers have the equipment to view a digital signal. It may be in the form of a question, but the FCC signaled in its rulemaking proposal that it was pretty sure of the answer. "The available market evidence seems to indicate that the viewability requirements remain important to consumers." To help make its case, the FCC cited National Cable & Telecommunications Association data showing that as of the third quarter of 2011, there were still more than 12 million analog cable-only households, and that the switch from analog to digital cable had slowed since the DTV transition.