Public Power - May 2008 - (Page 41)

coordinating its customer education effort with the Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Cable. That state agency is looking to the federal government for direction on how to educate customers. “I don’t want to duplicate the state’s customer education plans because it is such a confusing issue,” Stak Bregnard said. “We don’t want to send out information too early because a lot can happen between now and the actual transition date. We don’t want to incite a panic in our customers.” Cedar Falls is encouraging its customers to get digital reception equipment, but at their own pace. “We’ll do this by making the most popular cable channels available in the digital format through our simulcast,” Zeman said. “We’re also launching video on demand, which will give people another reason to want a digital box. “We want customers to get the set-top box to have access to VOD programming and the better quality digital signal,” Zeman said. “We will also be providing a number of high-definition channels as part of our expanded basic cable service, but the customer will need an HD set-top box or cable card to receive them. So we are trying to provide both choice and convenience to our customers.” When broadcasters convert to all digital signals, cable operators are concerned about the impact on the must-carry rule. The FCC requires cable operators to carry the signals of all local broadcast stations in their market on their systems, Zeman said. The operators must carry them in their lowest, most widely available tier of programming. So, a broadcast www.APPAnet.org station is guaranteed access to the cable subscribers in its designated market because of this rule. If the broadcast station chooses to do so, it can waive its must-carry right and instead choose another form of carriage on cable, called retransmission consent. Then the cable operator and station renegotiate the terms under which the cable operator will be allowed to carry the signal. This is what the main networks – CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox – do because they have a desirable product. In return for this retransmission consent, the networks sometimes require payment from the cable operators. “Going forward, the FCC is requiring cable operators who retain analog service to offer must-carry broadcast channels not only in digital, but also in analog format, which eats up bandwidth,” Zeman said. “This is particularly difficult for operators with low system capacity. However, a cable operator can get out of the dual-carriage requirement if it discontinues analog service and goes all digital. Conversion to all digital is costly for the operator, though.” The American Cable Association, the trade group for small cable operators, is trying to get an FCC waiver on the mustcarry rule for low-bandwidth systems (552 MHz or less) and systems with a low subscriber count (5,000 subscribers or fewer). Tacoma’s Click! Network is grappling with how the alldigital conversion will affect the number of channels it may be required to carry in the near future. “We anticipate some new rules by the FCC that will require us to carry not just the current broadcast stations but also new stations of the future that will be in the digital format,” Lachel said. “For instance, our ABC affiliate in Seattle is a mustcarry channel for us. When they transition to all digital, they may carry eight different digital channels and we could be required or wish to carry them all. And three of them may be in high-definition and we could be required to carry those as well. We anticipate this based on the market power the broadcast industry has had since its inception. Our local broadcast channels may quadruple from our current 15.” ❚ MAY 2008 41 http://www.dcbnet.com http://www.APPAnet.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Public Power - May 2008

Public Power - May 2008 Contents Perspective LEEDing the Way Ontario Moves to Mandatory Time-of-Use Pricing Journey to the Smart Grid Right-Sizing Transformers Energy Audits for Large Industries Economic Development Community Broadband Reliability Hometown Connections Parting Shot

Public Power - May 2008

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