Commentary

Cable Operators Say No To The Little TV Station Guy

Who needs small TV stations? Not cable companies, apparently. Cable carriage cost money, and they'd rather stick with the big guys -- and, in a new world order, one where a TV outlet has some ratings.

Hey, do cable operators remember when they were the small guys -- desperately looking for programming and networks to fill all those channel positions? And when they couldn't put on anything, there was only barker channels and live, fixed-video cameras pointing at fish bowls 24 hours a day.

Cable operators have bigger fish to fry, specifically their problems in dealing with the 1,800 full-powered stations. Why should they bother with some 600 low-power TV stations? With the changeover to digital signals next year, cable operators say they don't have to carry these stations, that it's their First Amendment right not to. But adding those stations will actually give cable more programming diversity.

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Yes, cable carriage for a small TV station is a boon. Ratings go up, and, of course, that means improved advertising sales, as well as the ability to raise capital for improved operations.

The Federal Communications Commission approved licenses for these stations but -- until recently -- not must-carry cable carriage. The FCC is rushing to get this done in order to jive in a world where the TV stations have been pushed to change their analog to digital signals next year. Low power TV stations would be left in the lurch.

Bigger TV stations are hammering cable operators over money for retransmission signals as well as federal demands that cable systems carry local TV stations' new digital signals. The last thing a cable operator wants is to add some sparsely viewed TV outlets.

But don't kid yourself. The initial foundations of the cable industry were never about ratings. For cable operators it was really about the deal first -- getting advertising time to sell, maybe even cash from small and new cable channels. Quirky programming and weird video came out of those underpinnings.

Now cable operators are in a position to capitalize on the digital changeover in 2009. Those funny little TV stations should be allowed to thrive, reminding us of when real, original cable programming existed, and perhaps, what cable should still be about.

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