• by Wayne Friedman , June 16, 2006

Verizon Wireless is looking to make friends with governmental regulators and the FCC by exceeding a cable industry 'must carry' deal made last year in taking on new local TV digital signals.

Verizon will today announce a deal with PBS stations, in which it will take all public stations' new digital multicast signals and run them on Verizon's new IPTV service, called FiOS. Verizon has been seeking approval from local municipalities to start up its FiOS video service--which would compete with many local cable systems.

Although last year the cable industry also struck a carriage deal with PBS, the Verizon deal is said to be more far-reaching. The cable industry's deal with PBS has more restrictions on the number of signals that would be carried per market.

The cable industry used its PBS deal to show the FCC that a self-regulating industry is better than a government-mandated decision--one that would require all cable operators to carry all new local TV digital signals.

Currently, the cable industry is fighting the FCC over this possible decision. If that occurred, the cable industry says it would have to toss off existing cable networks to make room for the new digital local TV signals.