Telecommunications providers and television broadcasters have an opportunity
to ensure television viewers a multiplicity of choices, said David J. Barrett,
president and chief executive officer of Hearst-Argyle Television, Inc., owner of one of the nation's largest television station groups.
In a keynote speech today to the annual convention of the U.S. Telecom
Association (USTA) in Las Vegas, Barrett proposed a "partnership" between
television broadcasters and telecommunications providers wherein broadcasters'
new digital program content and telephone companies' new distribution
technologies, such as Internet protocol television (IPTV) can be combined "to
provide America's television viewers with the most advanced local television
service in our nation's history.
"The timing of your entry into the video distribution business could not
be more opportune," Barrett told attendees. "Just as you are revolutionizing
the way local television signals are distributed to viewers, broadcasters are
revolutionizing the content of local television programming. Our new high-
definition technology promises to take local television service to a new
level. And new compression and 'multicasting' technologies could allow each
local television station to broadcast multiple different digital programming
streams within a single digital signal."
Barrett noted that multicasting need not come at the expense of
broadcasters' high-definition programming. "A local television station can
now offer high-definition programming and multiple standard definition program
streams within a single digital signal," he said. "The programming
possibilities are limitless."
"The future may include gavel-to-gavel coverage of special legislative
proceedings, high school sporting events, political debates, and real-time
election returns," Barrett noted. "It is this array of choices and niche
programming that viewers may demand. Technology is no longer an impediment,
and can bring to life many of these programming possibilities."
Similarly, Barrett noted, technology can better enable TV broadcasters in
their roles as "first informers" during crises such as Hurricane Katrina,
throughout which the journalists and staff of Hearst-Argyle's New Orleans
station WDSU-TV, which went on the air as Louisiana's first TV station in
1948, "allocated every minute of the broadcast day to provide weather,
evacuation and relief information to viewers.
"Imagine a local station multicasting during a hurricane," Barrett said.
"It could offer one primary news channel, one channel devoted solely to
weather coverage, one channel devoted to rescue and relief information, one
channel devoted to evacuation routes and traffic information, and one channel
devoted to school and business closings."
Citing Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg's April 2005 speech at the National
Association of Broadcasters convention, in which he explained to broadcasters
how the bandwidth on Verizon's fiber network changes the "conversation about
scarcity to one about abundance," Barrett said, "The broadcast industry is
excited about joining with you to exploit this abundance of capacity to
benefit television viewers throughout America."
The Legislative Challenge: Battling Antiquated Policies and Arguments
At the same time, Barrett urged, the two industries can work together to
overcome barriers being erected in the path of these new programming services.
"You have your own important battles in Washington," Barrett acknowledged
to his audience. "One of them is to break down antiquated or inefficient
barriers to competition in the video distribution marketplace-particularly in
the local franchising context. Your goals in reforming the franchising
process are in many ways similar to our goals in promoting multicast carriage-
more choices for consumers.
"Given our shared commitment to expanding choice and enhancing content,
the sooner we embark on this partnership the better," Barrett said. "We are
in the throes of a political battle in Washington with your cable and
satellite competitors who want to restrict consumer access to multicast
programming. If telephone companies can help us secure multicast carriage for
all television viewers, you will find broadcasters across America welcoming
your arrival to the program distribution market."
The Senate and House Commerce Committees each recently circulated bills
setting a deadline for return of broadcasters' analog spectrum, neither of
which includes a provision seeking carriage by cable and satellite providers
of broadcasters' digital multicast signals. The same committees reportedly
expect soon to release draft bills streamlining fees and processes for local
IPTV franchising.
"Where you cheer the 'abundance' of distribution capacity," Barrett told
the telecommunications representatives, "cable complains of a capacity
shortage. Of course, there is no 'shortage.' An analog television signal
occupies 6 MegaHertz (MHz) on a cable system and a digital television signal-
including multicast or high definition (HD) programming within that signal-
occupies just 3 MHz."
Not "Must-Carry" But "Must Not Strip Out Content"
Barrett urged a change in the debate in Washington over broadcasters'
efforts to seek cable and satellite carriage of broadcasters' full digital
signals. "The term 'must carry' is the relic of an analog age," he asserted.
"We should discard it. Digital multicast streams are carried within-not in
addition to-a single 19.4 megabit digital television signal.
"We are not asking distributors to carry additional channels," Barrett
made clear. "We are simply asking cable to carry our digital signal in its
entirety-and to prohibit cable operators from blocking or stripping out
streams they feel may be too competitive with cable programming. So what
broadcasters really want might better be termed an 'anti-content-stripping'
rule."
A multiplicity of local television services is both good public policy and
good business, Barrett concluded. "Multicasting is a vitally important
service," he noted. "It will offer a new world of program choices for viewers
on both a national and a local level. It will provide a voice for underserved
issues and communities. And it will expand broadcasters' abilities to provide
critical public safety information."
Full text of the speech can be found at Hearst-Argyle's website,
http://www.hearstargyle.com, in the "In the News" section.