WASHINGTON, DC – NAB President and CEO David K. Rehr sent a letter to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin late yesterday expressing NAB's full support for the Commission's viewability rule, which would protect 40 million analog cable customers from losing access to local broadcast signals after the digital TV transition. On Monday, six national cable programming networks filed a lawsuit asking an appellate court to overturn the FCC rule.
"[W]ithout rules ensuring the viewability of must-carry stations, many small, foreign language, and religious broadcast stations will go dark on some cable systems after the transition, disenfranchising millions of dedicated viewers that rely on cable companies to provide local stations without discrimination or material degradation," wrote Rehr. "We will fully support the FCC's defense of its pro-consumer viewability rules."
The entire letter can be read in PDF format here.
About NAB
The National Association of Broadcasters is a trade association that advocates on behalf of more than 8,300 free, local radio and television stations and also broadcast networks before Congress, the Federal Communications Commission and the Courts. Information about NAB can be found at www.nab.org.
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