Absence of Multi-Channel Must Carry in Proposed DTV Legislation Detriment to Families

Absence of Multi-Channel Must Carry in Proposed DTV Legislation Detriment to Families

'The omission of Multi-Channel Must Carry from this important legislation is not some minor technical problem but one that will have a vast and deleterious effect on America's families.' - FRC President Tony Perkins

WASHINGTON, Oct. 31 /PRNewswire/ -- The advent of digital technology has given broadcast television stations the ability to provide several channels of programming within the same band width they have always used. This process is called "multicasting" and it is one of the technological phenomena occurring due to the transition of the Nation's broadcast industry from analog to digital transmission. The ability to "multicast" is critical to the survival of broadcast stations providing local and religious broadcasting.

Currently language to approve a Multi-Channel Must Carry in the proposed DTV legislation pending in the Committee on Energy and Commerce is absent. The legislation as-is does not, but should, call for the inclusion of all the new independent digital channels available to the market. Its absence also reduces the availability of needed family-friendly and religious programming being offered by local broadcast channels.

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins released the following statement regarding the pending DTV legislation in the Committee on Energy and Commerce:

"The omission of Multi-Channel Must Carry from this important legislation is not some minor technical problem but one that will have a vast and deleterious effect on America's families. This issue is critical because the presence of Multi-Channel Must Carry will ensure that a significant number of the new channels brought to the marketplace via digital cable television, which is becoming pervasive, will be subject to federal indecency rules covering free over-the-air broadcasting. Conversely, in the absence of Multi- Channel Must Carry, the new digital channels brought to the cable marketplace will, barring the application of indecency laws to cable generally, be at liberty to ignore the laws that now protect families from offensive and indecent broadcasting."

Source: Family Research Council

CONTACT: Amber Hildebrand, adh@frc.org, or for Radio: Bethanie Swendsen,
bas@frc.org, both of the Family Research Council Press Office,
+1-202-393-2100

Web site: http://www.frc.org/

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