When (if) the current analog signals are gone, will must carry apply to local TV station's HDTV signals? I know currently TV stations can choose to try to charge cable and hope cable will pay or give the signal to cable and then cable must carry it.
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Question on must carry and HDTV
- Thread starter NE Miss Radio
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After analog signals are shut off (or, in fact, if a station chooses to shut off their analog early) then stations can still negotiate with cable, or they can force cable systems to carry only one (1) of their digital channels.
Ion Media, TBN, and others would vastly prefer "digital multi-cast must-carry" - a policy that would require cable systems to eventually carry as many channels as a station can transmit over their digital carrier. In most cases this will initially be four to six channels, but could eventually be as many as eight. However, only 3 Mhz of cable capacity is required to transmit an entire digital broadcast station, whether that station sends one HD channel or six SD channels. In comparision, analog must-carry of one channel uses 6 Mhz of capacity.
Ion Media, TBN, and others would vastly prefer "digital multi-cast must-carry" - a policy that would require cable systems to eventually carry as many channels as a station can transmit over their digital carrier. In most cases this will initially be four to six channels, but could eventually be as many as eight. However, only 3 Mhz of cable capacity is required to transmit an entire digital broadcast station, whether that station sends one HD channel or six SD channels. In comparision, analog must-carry of one channel uses 6 Mhz of capacity.
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