Digital TV Facts: The Latest

We know what’s prevented the FCC from mandating cable TV slots for the new local digital multicast channels (an issue chairman Kevin Martin now wants to reopen). Not what, but who: The two Democrats on the FCC who, until last week’s Senate confirmation of Bush nominee Robert McDowell, had equal say with Martin and the commission’s other Republican member.

Public interest requirements for local broadcasters should take precedence over cable carriage of the new broadcast television channels, according to Democratic commissioners Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps. I agree. Station owners’ demands for cable carriage of their primary television signals already have a privileged legal status, predicated upon the notion that local TV serves a public purpose. (A countervailing notion is predicated upon the actual viewing of local television programming.)

Without strong, enforceable local-content requirements, why should the FCC carve out more cable real estate for broadcasters? What stands in the way of more local programming is the cost of producing it. Weather and local news (much of it repurposed) fill air time on some multicast services, but the primary source of content will probably be—as with most broadcast programming— networks and syndicators.

What if broadcasters drew on the talents of their viewers? Content produced or selected by users is fueling the internet video boom—and threatening further erosion of local-TV viewership. As networks and producers gain new ways to reach into viewers’ homes, bypassing the affiliate gatekeepers, local stations will feel increasing pressure to justify their existence. The barrier to wider acceptance for YouTube and its kin, and internet video in general, is the perceived inconvenience in terms of platform and usability, not to mention bandwidth. But what’s easier to use than broadcast TV, which happens to have abundant bandwidth? Independent-minded creators of net video might cringe at the very thought of being coopted by TV. But many would relish the opportunity to put their work before more eyeballs.

If viewer-produced mashups found a mainstream audience, perhaps a few of the powers-that-be in television—or Congress—would even think twice about decimating citizens’ fair-use rights by enacting the broadcast flag.

Would down-and-dirty user production values ever make it on a broadcast channel? I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know. But user-created content needn’t cost stations anything, and where better to experiment with innovative forms of local programming than on these new channels that most people have yet to even discover?

Earlier:
• Digital TV multicasting: More local channels for free