Basic cable TV - channels
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From: Richard Fangnail on 13 Mar 2010 14:03 Under the federal laws, what channels are the cable companies required in include in basic cable? I think it's all four major networks, at least one PBS channel, CSPAN, and the channel(s) that show city council meetings. I'd like to know what the other rules are. I have basic cable in LA which means about 30 channels. There are seven Spanish channels and two Asian language channels. I also have home shopping and a religious channel. I get two PBS channels and one for LA School District. Basic cable in LA and SF both have WGN and Ion, why would that be?
From: Adam H. Kerman on 13 Mar 2010 14:26 Richard Fangnail <richardfangnail(a)excite.com> wrote: >Under the federal laws, what channels are the cable companies required >in include in basic cable? I have no idea. You are suggesting that federal law established a RIGHT to basic cable? Get outta here. As we've discussed many, many, many, many times, the Telecom Act of 1996 changed everything. This is like, what, the 50th time you've asked? 1) Old FCC "must carry" regulation was eliminated in the new law. 2) A broadcaster has a choice: If he doesn't want compensation, then he has the right to force cable to carry the channel contractually. No, I don't know if the broadcaster has the right to carriage of secondary subchannels, assuming that he must designate the main subchannel to carry. An independent television station around here probably has even more clout by broadcasting various secondary programming as subchannels associated with the main channel, and on additional low power stations they've been broadcasting on for years, which they did convert to digital. 3) If the broadcaster chooses compensation, called retransmission consent, then he gives up the right to force cable to carry his station. In the past, the compensation was often in the form of getting cable to put sister satellite stations on basic cable, which is how tiny FX got added to basic cable in the first place. It's entirely possible that the very high fees cable pays for ESPN is somehow related to retransmission consent negotiation. 4) Broadcasters really got the upper hand as the Telecom Act encouraged further consolidation among station licenses. When I was a kid, O&Os were limited to, what, 5? That meant New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles; the two remaining markets varied. Newspapers couldn't own television stations! The exception was Tribune and a few others that founded television stations in experimental days. With the Telecom Act, if it has any limits, they are a joke. Furthermore, a conglomerate is allowed to own multiple broadcast licenses in the same market. This is typical of Fox. NBC owns most of the affiliates of one of the Spanish language networks, although I'm confused as to whether they own the network itself. 5) Now, contractually, no matter which method has been chosen, the broadcaster undoubtably PROHIBITS cable from scrambling an analog signal, if still provided, or encrypting a digital signal. I doubt very much whether this is in federal law, as there is no reason why it would have to be. 6) There is an FCC regulation that if cable offers ANY analog channels, typically PEG and one of the national shopping channels, then it must offer ALL broadcast channels in analogue. This does not mean "basic cable" as in "subscriber owns a cable-ready television and can use it to tune in all such channels without equipment from the cable company". Cable can get around this by supplying equipment to subscribers. 7) Your theory that cable subscribers have a right to receive basic cable on a cable-ready television with analog tuner is all wet.
From: Gerry on 13 Mar 2010 14:38 In article <509f2405-72b5-402d-87cc-ef159c0200bf(a)x1g2000prb.googlegroups.com>, Richard Fangnail <richardfangnail(a)excite.com> wrote: > Under the federal laws, what channels are the cable companies required > in include in basic cable? > > I think it's all four major networks, at least one PBS channel, CSPAN, > and the channel(s) that show city council meetings. I'd like to know > what the other rules are. > > I have basic cable in LA which means about 30 channels. There are > seven Spanish channels and two Asian language channels. I also have > home shopping and a religious channel. I get two PBS channels and one > for LA School District. > > Basic cable in LA and SF both have WGN and Ion, why would that be? ION (formerly PAX) likely on for the religious requirement.
From: Patty Winter on 13 Mar 2010 15:35 In article <everyday-BD9C8A.11380013032010(a)mail.eternal-september.org>, Gerry <everyday(a)sunrise.net> wrote: [extraneous text removed] >In article ><509f2405-72b5-402d-87cc-ef159c0200bf(a)x1g2000prb.googlegroups.com>, > Richard Fangnail <richardfangnail(a)excite.com> wrote: > >> Basic cable in LA and SF both have WGN and Ion, why would that be? > >ION (formerly PAX) likely on for the religious requirement. There is no "religious requirement" in cable carriage regulations. The ION stations would fall under the normal must-carry rules for local stations. Here in the Bay Area, the ION O&O is KKPX. WGN wouldn't be in a locals-only cable package anywhere except Chicago. It could well be in a very low cable tier above locals-only. Patty
From: Adam H. Kerman on 13 Mar 2010 15:48
Gerry <everyday(a)sunrise.net> wrote: >Richard Fangnail <richardfangnail(a)excite.com> wrote: >>Under the federal laws, what channels are the cable companies required >>in include in basic cable? >>I think it's all four major networks, at least one PBS channel, CSPAN, >>and the channel(s) that show city council meetings. I'd like to know >>what the other rules are. >>I have basic cable in LA which means about 30 channels. There are >>seven Spanish channels and two Asian language channels. I also have >>home shopping and a religious channel. I get two PBS channels and one >>for LA School District. >>Basic cable in LA and SF both have WGN and Ion, why would that be? >ION (formerly PAX) likely on for the religious requirement. Wrong, wrong, wrong. To maintain a license, a broadcaster had to demonstrate some sort of public or community use, I cannot remember the term. They did this with news shows and public affairs shows. For some reason, making free time available to a religious broadcaster was considered to be public use. This regulation went away decades ago. It never, ever, ever applied to cable. Note that religious programming on cable is all brokered, that is, the minister buys time. And that's mostly true of religious programs on broadcast stations, except for the handful of shows remaining years after the old regulation was lifted. The religious ministry that owns ION/Pax licenses is the ultimate example of brokered time. They bought the licenses! |