What will happen to independent locals on E* next February?

[denisincalif]

The must carry regulations still apply and will next year. the problem is taht ifa stationc annot get their main digital signal to the E* or Dd* head end in that market yhrn the satellite carrier will not be required to carry them.

Will there be ANY disruptions? probably. but it is hard for any of us to say what specific channels might be dropped. We do not know which channels The carriers ae picking up digitally now and we cannot even be uste if the carriers are getting a fiber feed or an OTA one.


But be aware that in Feb of 2008 these stations will be broadcasting digitally but not necessarily in HD. Many of the independents in particualr will have a lot of SD programming so the tax on bandwidth may not be as great as you think.

I know. HD is expensive and stations will be slow to adopt it until viewers demand it (still years away). But, unfortunately for me, there are two LA independents which have lots of HD programming already. KTLA is a WB station (I forget the new network's name). And KCAL-9 is owned by CBS. As a former independent it does not broadcast CBS shows (we have channel 2 for that). But they broadcast all their news in HD and their reporters are all gorgeous! Also, many PBS stations have lots of HD but Dish considers PBS stations to be locals. In fact, the Orange County PBS station (KOCE channel 50) broadcasts HD almost exclusively.

 

[yaz96]

But they broadcast all their news in HD and their reporters are all gorgeous!

Aha! Now we get to the root of the question.....