[2/13/07] Representatives from public television stations nationwide will urge Congress this week to mandate satellite carriage of local stations’ digital signals, the Association of Public Television
Stations (APTS) announced Feb 12.
Public TV executives are complaining that high-definition signals of commercial stations are carried by satellite distributors, while their stations’ new digital signals are kept off. APTS will ask policymakers to support legislation compelling satellite service providers — specifically EchoStar and DirecTV — to carry local public TV stations’ HD and other digital programming.
APTS is seeking to amend Section 338 of the Communications Act to make digital signals from public TV stations subject to the carry-one, carry-all provisions related to carriage of local
broadcast signals via satellite. The action would clarify that the entire multicast digital programming transmitted by a public TV station is subject to mandatory carriage.