Religious TV and Cable Battle Over Multicast Must Carry Bill

The federal government’s mandate for all television stations to convert from analog to digital technology is a sign of our times. It is, after all, the 21st century and technology has raced ahead to bigger, better, faster, etc... However, in deciding how this "better" form of technology will be used, not everyone can agree on the basic rules. Battle lines have been drawn over the new Digital TV "Must Carry" law.

Religious networks and associations, by and large, are for it. Their claim is that the bill will keep cable and satellite companies from excluding channels because they are religious and it will help Christian broadcasters create more networks to meet the needs of the faith-based community and guarantee that the cable and satellite companies will carry these new faith and family channels.

Consumer groups and the cable industry are, for the most part, against it. Their claim is that forcing cable companies to carry all of the digital channels that broadcasters can send would deny others space on increasingly crowded cable systems.

The legislation has been passed by House and Senate committees. Since the legislation is slightly different in each government body, it will have to go to conference committee next. A full vote by the House and the Senate is expected within a matter of weeks.

Must-carry, the requirement that cable systems carry all local broadcast signals in their market up to one-third of the cable system's capacity, was implemented in the 1992 Cable Act and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1997. This law is what made local news and weather programs available on cable systems.

In 2005 the "Must Carry" law is up for revision in the new Digital TV bill as analog TV is being phased out and digital signals are the standard. The local networks generally use analog signals, which take up more space than digital signals. (One analog signal takes up the same amount of space that six digital signals take up.) If the proposed bill is passed, local broadcasters will be able to produce up to six channels per old channel and cable companies in their area will be forced to carry all of them.