[mythtv-users] Damn you Time Warner

[Brian Wood]

On Apr 8, 2008, at 2:41 PM, Brad Fuller wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 8, 2008 at 12:51 PM, R. G. Newbury  
> <newbury at mandamus.org> wrote:
>> Read 47 CFR 76  It's your usual dense hard to read regulatory bumf.  
>> but
>> TW is required by law to carry locally receiveable OTA channels
>> (must-carry channels) in the clear, without encryption.
>
> Do you know if that includes stations that the cable company hasn't
> carried in the past, but have started to? e.g. independent stations.
>
> Or put another way, are they *required* to carry ALL OTA stations?

Assuming it is a "significantly viewed" local station, the station has  
two options:

They can insist that the cable company carry their signal, and the  
cable company must comply (there are exceptions for systems with  
limited channel capacity, which is very few today).

They can require the cable company to pay a fee to the station in  
order to carry their signal, which the cable system is then free to  
not do.

Generally smaller independent stations choose the first option, and  
major network affiliates go for the second.

beww