ACA, PBS Eye Carriage Guidelines
By Linda Moss
MultiChannel News
8/1/2005 5:40:00 PM
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA631489.html
San Diego -- The American Cable Association is talking with PBS TV stations
about forging an agreement setting guidelines for smaller operators to
carry public stations and their digital-multicast signals, officials for
the lobbying group said Monday.
The agreement being discussed -- which individual ACA members could decide
whether or not to participate in -- would be similar to the pact the
National Cable & Telecommunications Association reached earlier this year
with the Association of Public Television Stations, ACA president Matt
Polka said at the group's annual meeting here.
"It would not be binding on you or on the membership," Polka said, "but we
are doing this on your behalf. This would clearly set forth terms of
carriage of PBS signals, if you choose to do that in the marketplace."
The ACA has been in talks with the PBS stations since May, and it hopes to
have a draft of the proposed agreement done by October, in time for the
group's fourth-quarter board meeting, according to Polka.
If the agreement gets an OK there, it would then be considered for
ratification by the ACA's membership, he added.
"The reason for considering such an agreement is political in nature,"
Polka said. "It's a way to show that as we have said, where broadcasters
and communities are providing compelling local programming -- either on
their primary digital signal or multicasting programming -- cable operators
are interested and would want to carry that, would want to provide that
valuable local programming to their customers. PBS has shown, unlike the
commercial broadcasters, that they do have compelling programming."
In its negotiations with the public stations, the ACA is trying to set
forth "triggers" for carriage of PBS programming that would take into
account the size and capacity of the smaller independent systems that make
up the lobbying group, Polka said.
"There would be very specific triggers concerning carriage of PBS
programming, if that's what your company decides to do," he added. "Our
membership is vastly different [than the NCTA's], and that has been a key
point of discussion with APTS in setting what we consider to be reasonable
triggers before any obligation might follow concerning PBS carriage."
================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu
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