Public TV signs cable carriage agreement for multicast channels
October 14th, 2005Public television stations aren’t waiting for digital TV legislation to mandate carriage of their multicast streams. Under a new agreement between public stations and the cable industry, “every major cable system” will carry up to four public TV digital channels, as well as an analog channel, from at least one public station.
Four new DTV networks—Viva!, a Spanish-language channel due to launch mid-2006; World, a place for NOVA, Frontline and other factual programs; do-it-yourself network Create; and PBS Kids Go! for the tween set—are going to launch at different times in 2006. The expansion of a fifth network, PBS HD, is also on the menu. PBS HD offers 415 hours of original programming per year and will increase this based on member stations’ commitment to fund new content exclusively for PBS HD.
If a local station chooses to provide the new channels, they will also be available over the air to viewers who have TVs with digital tuners (including analog TVs equipped with a set-top converter box).
Digital TV makes more efficient use of the broadcast spectrum, allowing a single station to offer multiple programming streams.
What does this mean for HDTV broadcasts on local PBS stations? Will over-the-air viewers miss out?
A station can’t broadcast the “main” public channel in high definition simultaneously with the four new channels—that’s too many bits to cram into the available spectrum. (Cable companies can still add PBS HD, however; they just need to allocate bandwidth on their system.) In some markets, however, viewers have access to more than one public station, which might allow for high-definition broadcasts along with the multicasts. Another option would be for multicast channels to go dark during HDTV broadcasts, especially during prime time.
• Links: TV Technology; press release