Ted Hearn writes:
... After an 11-hour delay to the start of its monthly meeting, the FCC voted 5-0 at about 10 p.m. to require cable systems to distribute local TV stations that demand carriage in both analog and digital formats for a three-year period starting Feb. 18, 2009. That’s the day after all 1,756 full-power TV stations must turn off their analog signals and rely exclusively on their digital feeds. Cable systems that are all-digital are exempt from the FCC’s dual carriage mandate. ¶ [Chairman] Martin’s [original] plan called for dual must carry without the 2012 sunset, which the FCC did reserve the right to extend. Lobbying pressure from the National Cable & Telecommunications Association forced Martin to yield not only on perpetual dual carriage but also on a second priority: Requiring cable systems to transmit “all content bits” in a digital TV signal, thereby eliminating the use of signal compression and statistical multiplexing that husband bandwidth. ...
Link: Multichannel News.
Also see Brooks Boliek's, Analog, digital a must for cable. Link: The Hollywood Reporter.
Update 13 September 2007:
Here is the FCC news release. Link: Word PDF. --Dennis
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