PBS pushes FCC for carriage on DISH
It seems the Sesame Street gang is pissed at DISH Network. Once the analog shutoff occurs next year, FCC Chairman Martin wants to hold DirecTV and DISH to a "non-discrimination" rule -- they cannot carry some HD locals, but not others. However, if a carrier can demonstrate that it has limited capacity that prevents it from going live with all the channels at once, the FCC can grant a waiver. As the FCC is getting ready to vote on these waivers, PBS and the Association for Public Television Stations (APTS) have taken the opportunity to point out that DISH has "...refused to negotiate in good faith for carriage of local public television signals in HD." The real salt in the wound is that PBS can point to its carriage deal with DirecTV as a counter-example, but we'll see how this is balanced out against PBS's announced HD rollout plans.
[Image courtesy Cynical-C]
