Brandon Burgess, Chief Executive Officer
Dean M. Goodman, President and COO
ION Media Networks
601 Clearwater Park Road
West Palm Beach, FL 33401
Dear Brandon and Dean:
NAB was pleased to learn about your innovative campaign to create a 24/7 digital television broadcast channel for children. This impressive partnership between ION, Scholastic, NBC Universal, Telemundo, Corus Entertainment and Classic Media/Big Idea to launch a "Smart Place for Kids" across multiple distribution platforms clearly demonstrates the broadcast industry's commitment to creative uses of digital spectrum and even greater public service in the DTV era.
Especially encouraging is your pledge to dedicate digital multicasting capacity featuring bilingual content on ION's 60 local television stations and the NBC and Telemundo broadcast networks. Increasing the amount of foreign language programming on free, over-the-air DTV spectrum will clearly benefit the public interest while serving an America population that continues to explode in cultural diversity.
It is NAB's policy to promote creative use of digital spectrum that will benefit the entire viewing community. Central to that vision is a recognition that digital compression technology allows broadcasters to deliver multiple program streams simultaneously, without creating additional capacity burdens on cable operators. Given that reality, NAB agrees with ION's contention that cable operators should not be permitted to strip out or thwart delivery of these new program initiatives.
In closing, NAB salutes your effort to serve American parents and children with niche educational programming channels using DTV spectrum. As broadcasters embrace our future, be assured that NAB will continue to work with you to ensure that consumers realize the full potential of digital television.
Sincerely,
David K. Rehr
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