Telecommunications providers and television broadcasters have an opportunity to ensure television viewers a multiplicity of choices, said David J. Barrett, president and chief executive officer of Hearst-Argyle Television, Inc., owner of one of the nation's largest television station groups.

In a keynote speech today to the annual convention of the U.S. Telecom Association (USTA) in Las Vegas, Barrett proposed a "partnership" between television broadcasters and telecommunications providers wherein broadcasters' new digital program content and telephone companies' new distribution technologies, such as Internet protocol television (IPTV) can be combined "to provide America's television viewers with the most advanced local television service in our nation's history.

"The timing of your entry into the video distribution business could not be more opportune," Barrett told attendees. "Just as you are revolutionizing the way local television signals are distributed to viewers, broadcasters are revolutionizing the content of local television programming. Our new high- definition technology promises to take local television service to a new level. And new compression and 'multicasting' technologies could allow each local television station to broadcast multiple different digital programming streams within a single digital signal."

Barrett noted that multicasting need not come at the expense of broadcasters' high-definition programming. "A local television station can now offer high-definition programming and multiple standard definition program streams within a single digital signal," he said. "The programming possibilities are limitless."

"The future may include gavel-to-gavel coverage of special legislative proceedings, high school sporting events, political debates, and real-time election returns," Barrett noted. "It is this array of choices and niche programming that viewers may demand. Technology is no longer an impediment, and can bring to life many of these programming possibilities."

Similarly, Barrett noted, technology can better enable TV broadcasters in their roles as "first informers" during crises such as Hurricane Katrina, throughout which the journalists and staff of Hearst-Argyle's New Orleans station WDSU-TV, which went on the air as Louisiana's first TV station in 1948, "allocated every minute of the broadcast day to provide weather, evacuation and relief information to viewers.

"Imagine a local station multicasting during a hurricane," Barrett said. "It could offer one primary news channel, one channel devoted solely to weather coverage, one channel devoted to rescue and relief information, one channel devoted to evacuation routes and traffic information, and one channel devoted to school and business closings."

Citing Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg's April 2005 speech at the National Association of Broadcasters convention, in which he explained to broadcasters how the bandwidth on Verizon's fiber network changes the "conversation about scarcity to one about abundance," Barrett said, "The broadcast industry is excited about joining with you to exploit this abundance of capacity to benefit television viewers throughout America."

The Legislative Challenge: Battling Antiquated Policies and Arguments

At the same time, Barrett urged, the two industries can work together to overcome barriers being erected in the path of these new programming services.

"You have your own important battles in Washington," Barrett acknowledged to his audience. "One of them is to break down antiquated or inefficient barriers to competition in the video distribution marketplace-particularly in the local franchising context. Your goals in reforming the franchising process are in many ways similar to our goals in promoting multicast carriage- more choices for consumers.

"Given our shared commitment to expanding choice and enhancing content, the sooner we embark on this partnership the better," Barrett said. "We are in the throes of a political battle in Washington with your cable and satellite competitors who want to restrict consumer access to multicast programming. If telephone companies can help us secure multicast carriage for all television viewers, you will find broadcasters across America welcoming your arrival to the program distribution market."

The Senate and House Commerce Committees each recently circulated bills setting a deadline for return of broadcasters' analog spectrum, neither of which includes a provision seeking carriage by cable and satellite providers of broadcasters' digital multicast signals. The same committees reportedly expect soon to release draft bills streamlining fees and processes for local IPTV franchising.

"Where you cheer the 'abundance' of distribution capacity," Barrett told the telecommunications representatives, "cable complains of a capacity shortage. Of course, there is no 'shortage.' An analog television signal occupies 6 MegaHertz (MHz) on a cable system and a digital television signal- including multicast or high definition (HD) programming within that signal- occupies just 3 MHz."

Not "Must-Carry" But "Must Not Strip Out Content"

Barrett urged a change in the debate in Washington over broadcasters' efforts to seek cable and satellite carriage of broadcasters' full digital signals. "The term 'must carry' is the relic of an analog age," he asserted. "We should discard it. Digital multicast streams are carried within-not in addition to-a single 19.4 megabit digital television signal.

"We are not asking distributors to carry additional channels," Barrett made clear. "We are simply asking cable to carry our digital signal in its entirety-and to prohibit cable operators from blocking or stripping out streams they feel may be too competitive with cable programming. So what broadcasters really want might better be termed an 'anti-content-stripping' rule."

A multiplicity of local television services is both good public policy and good business, Barrett concluded. "Multicasting is a vitally important service," he noted. "It will offer a new world of program choices for viewers on both a national and a local level. It will provide a voice for underserved issues and communities. And it will expand broadcasters' abilities to provide critical public safety information."

Full text of the speech can be found at Hearst-Argyle's website, http://www.hearstargyle.com, in the "In the News" section.