FCC can rule on multicasts, Stevens now says
June 8th, 2006Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), in an odd reversal, has blessed the FCC’s move toward required cable carriage of additional local digital TV channels.
Stevens yesterday:
“I hope that if it’s going to be done, it’ll be done by Congress and not the FCC,” Stevens told reporters after giving an address to hundreds of cable-industry officials.
Stevens today:
“It’s their duty, and I’m happy to see them do it,” Stevens told reporters on Capitol Hill.
Whatever the FCC does with regard to multicast must-carry, Congress will probably deal with it, too, says Stevens, who chairs the Commerce Committee.
“People should realize that’s going to be regulation. It will be subject to consideration by us while we get to the full consideration of the whole digital transition, and that’s got to be one of the things that is put to rest,” he added. “And it can only be put to rest by having a law that cannot be changed by administrative decisions.”
Stevens included digital TV provisions, including downconversion, in the telecom bill he introduced last month. But it seems he’s still not finished tinkering with the digital transition.
• Link: Multichannel News