At the Portals

After a brief hiatus for the holidays, the flurry of digital retrans filings at the FCC has resumed (though it seems unlikely that retrans will make the FCC’s Jan 15 agenda). NCTA filed a response Wed to recent NBC and ABC filings, arguing that the broadcasters are asking for govt mandated cable carriage of yet-to-be developed services. The assn takes broadcasters to task for developing multicasting for just 1 network-owned station in nearly 5 years. NCTA contends that if the multicasting programming is compelling, cable operators will want to carry it.