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Corporation for Public Broadcasting Oversight and a Look Into Public Broadcasting in the Digital Era
Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet
Mr. Michael Willner
Mr.
Chairman, thank you for giving me this opportunity to testify about how cable TV
operators are working with public broadcasters to facilitate the digital
television transition
Mr.
Chairman, PBS and local public broadcast stations make an important contribution
in our society.
And even though tens of millions of cable consumers today watch
Discovery, A&E, The History Channel, C-SPAN and a host of other cable
created arts, entertainment, science and public affairs programming, millions of
Americans, particularly those who do not subscribe to cable, may still rely on
public broadcasters as their only source of non-commercial educational,
informational and public service programming.
So the cable industry recognizes the valuable role that public television
continues to perform and commends public broadcasters for their pioneering
public service efforts. Today,
the vast majority of cable operators carry all local non-duplicative public TV
stations. This
is in addition to all full-power commercial broadcast stations which cable
operators also carry.
For example, in Springfield, Illinois, Insight carries 2 public TV
stations-WILL and WSEC.
In a large market like Washington, DC, Comcast and Cox carry 3 PBS
stations-WHUT, WMPT, and WETA-in addition to other independent public TV
stations. The
focus of my testimony today is on what cable operators are doing above and
beyond what the law requires.
First, I'd like to emphasize that during the transition to digital TV,
cable operators will continue to carry the analog signals of local PBS stations.
No cable customer will ever lose access to their local PBS station or
favorite PBS program.
And once the transition is complete and broadcast stations have returned
to the government the spectrum they currently use for analog broadcasting, cable
operators will carry the primary video digital signal of commercial and public
broadcasters alike.
Programs that are carried on cable in analog today will be carried on
cable in digital in the future. Given
the vital role played by public broadcasters and the fact that they are well
ahead of their commercial counterparts in creating high value digital
programming, a number of cable operators have negotiated, or are in the process
of negotiating, agreements with public stations to carry their digital signals
even before these stations return their analog spectrum. For
example, my company, Insight Communications, recently announced an agreement in
principle with the Public Broadcasting Service and the Association of Public
Television Stations to carry digital broadcasts of local public broadcast
stations in all our franchise areas.
Under the agreement, 31 public television stations are eligible for
carriage on systems Insight has upgraded to 750 Mhz.
To create the additional bandwidth to allow for such carriage, Insight
has invested more than $500 million dollars in system upgrades.
During
the transition to digital television, Insight customers will receive a wide
array of public broadcasters digital services, including high definition and
unique standard definition programs.
Many of the markets served by Insight have more than one public broadcast
station. While
competing bandwidth demands make it impractical to carry duplicative content,
our agreement provides in some circumstances for the carriage of multiple public
stations that provide differentiated digital services.
The give and take we went through in negotiating this agreement
highlights the value of marketplace negotiations to finding win-win solutions
that allow us to carry the unique digital services offered by public
broadcasters while preserving our ability to offer other advanced services that
consumers want. Insight
is by no means alone in working with public broadcasting.
The second largest multiple system operator, Time Warner Cable, has an
agreement to carry some 140 public TV stations across the country during the
digital transition.
Here in the DC area, Comcast has announced plans to carry the high
definition broadcast signal of Channel 26 WETA.
And just two days ago, Comcast announced that it had reached an agreement
to carry the digital signal of public broadcast station WHYY in Philadelphia. Collectively,
these agreements between leading cable operators and public television stations
provide for the carriage of the digital signals of more than 170 local public
broadcasters. I believe these agreements are particularly noteworthy in light of
the fact that today less than one-third of the nation's public television
stations are transmitting a digital signal.
And additionally, other cable operators currently are negotiating with
PBS stations to carry their digital signals. Mr.
Chairman, when all is said and done, compelling digital content is what will
drive the transition to digital television.
That is why cable operators like Insight and Time Warner Cable have
negotiated digital carriage agreements with PBS.
And it is also why the cable industry is so strongly committed to high
definition television.
We believe that high definition programming is the very type of
compelling digital content that will incent consumers to make the switch to
digital and purchase DTV equipment.
Cable operators including Time Warner Cable, Comcast, and Charter are
currently offering customers high definition programming in a number of markets
across the country.
Other companies, including Insight, have announced plans to introduce
high definition services in the near future. Cable
programmers are also the leading producers of high definition programming.
HBO and Showtime both offer separate HD versions of their primary
service. HBO alone provides more HD programming in any given week than all of
the broadcast networks combined.
The Madison Square Garden Network airs the home games of the Knicks and
Rangers in high definition. Last month, Discovery launched Discovery HD Theater, a 24-hour service offering the Discovery
Networks' most compelling content in high-definition. The
CBS and ABC broadcast networks have also made commitments to high definition
programming. This
is a good beginning. However, we think it is also essential that other broadcast
networks and local stations begin to create the HDTV programs the broadcast
industry promised Congress when it sought and obtained billions of dollars of
public spectrum to transition to digital. I
am proud to say that cable was the first industry to endorse the voluntary plan
proposed by FCC Chairman Michael Powell designed to accelerate the digital
television transition.
Chairman Powell asked the four major broadcast networks, HBO and Showtime
to provide high definition or compelling new digital programming during their
prime time schedules and he asked cable operators to carry that programming.
In May, the industry's 10 largest cable operators endorsed Chairman
Powell's challenge by making the following commitments for systems in the top
100 markets that have been upgraded to 750 Mhz and serve at least 25,000
customers:
At
Insight, we plan to meet our commitment to the Powell Plan by offering a mix of
high definition programming offered by broadcasters and cable programmers as
well as the digital services of local public broadcast stations.
We believe that the digital services offered by local public television
stations offer our customers added value. In
the six years since the passage of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, the cable
industry has invested more than $60 billion-or $1,000 per cable customer-to
upgrade our plant to an interactive digital broadband platform.
Cable companies invested private risk capital to create a digital
platform in order to offer consumers new competitive services-digital video,
high definition television, high-speed Internet access, cable telephony and
interactive television.
However, even with this enormous investment, cable systems have finite
capacity. Therefore,
cable operators must maintain the flexibility to make choices about the use of
our limited bandwidth in order to provide the right mix of digital services to
attract customers. Unfortunately,
some broadcasters continue to ask the government for favors-in this case to
force cable operators to carry their digital broadcast signals as well as their
analog broadcast signals during the digital transition.
Rather than invest in high value digital programming that will attract
viewers and give cable operators a business reason to carry them, these
broadcasters seek to have the government expropriate valuable digital capacity
that cable operators have just invested billions to create so that the
broadcasters can offer duplicative analog and digital versions of the same
programs. Consumers already enjoy very good quality analog pictures.
Slightly better quality standard definition digital pictures are not
going to offer consumers much more value or incent them to spend $2,000 for a
new DTV. Quite
simply, our cable consumers don't want two copies of every analog broadcast
station they currently receive.
What they want is digital content that is dramatically different! Mr.
Chairman, the success of the transition to digital broadcasting is largely in
the hands of the broadcast industry-by offering compelling digital content
that attracts consumers and gives them a reason to purchase new digital
television equipment, broadcasters can speed their own transition. To their
credit, public broadcasters seem well ahead of many of their commercial
counterparts in recognizing this. Mr. Chairman, thank you for giving me the opportunity to testify before your Committee. I would be happy to answer any questions you or your colleagues may have.
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