Page 90 - Battleground The Media Volume 1 and 2

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CaBle Carriage disPutes

The transition from analog to digital television has rekindled an ongoing battle
over the obligation of cable and satellite operators to carry local broadcast
channels and cable companies to provide public access channels. Cable, sat-
ellite, and emergent video distributors, including telephone companies, have
challenged these requirements, claiming government interference in their free
speech rights. Does the proliferation of digital cable, satellite, and broadband
Internet technologies mean that government intervention is no longer justified
to support local television, despite ongoing support for local broadcast carriage
rules by local communities? Does digital broadcasting change local commer-
cial broadcasters’ public interest responsibilities as they begin to offer more
than one broadcast signal?
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) established the “must-carry”
rules in the early 1960s and Congress upheld them in 1992, applied them to direct
broadcast satellite in 2002, and extended them to broadcasters’ main digital signal
in 2006 to take effect in February 2009. Cable and satellite operators have pro-
tested these requirements as unconstitutional breeches of their free speech rights.
The courts found these rules unconstitutional in the 1980s but the Supreme Court
upheld them by narrow 5 to 4 decisions in the 1990s. While these carriage require-
ments expose regulatory battles among competing industries, they also represent
symptomatic solutions to broader structural issues regarding the emergence of
new communications technologies and the role of governments, industries, and
citizens in regulating them. Also exposed are broader conflicting cultural priorities
from commitments to locally produced television, diverging tastes over national

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