[opendtv] News: Paxson Challenges Must-Carry Decision
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: OpenDTV Mail List <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 6 Apr 2005 08:20:33 -0400
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA515610.html?display=Breaking+News&referral=SUPP
Paxson Challenges Must-Carry Decision
By Staff -- Broadcasting & Cable, 4/5/2005 4:50:00 PM
A source familiar with the filing says that Paxson Communications CEO
Bud Paxson has filed an appeal with the D.C. Circuit of the FCC's
decision not to force cable to carry broadcasters' multicast channels.
Paxson had filed a writ of mandamus with that court last December
asking it to put the FCC on the clock for a decision he said should
have been made several years ago.
The court did force the FCC's hand, and the commission announced its
decision Feb. 10, but it was not the answer Paxson wanted.
The FCC denied broadcasters mandatory cable carriage of both their
analog and DTV signals during the DTV transition or of any DTV signal
but their primary replication of the analog signal.
Paxson had wanted the FCC to require cable companies to carry all of
the programming that TV stations can offer via their new digital
spectrum. That would have increased the value of Paxson's mostly-UHF
stations, which are widely believed to have been on the block, or
near it, for some time.
Paxson also argued that the delay was holding up the digital
transition and denying analog spectrum to emergency communications.
Given the fact that the FCC did what the court asked in deciding the
issue, and that the courts generally defers to the expertise of
federal agencies on their own rules and interpretations, Paxson's
challenge faces an uphill fight.
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