Must Carry?
I have heard of the "requirement" that cable companies carry any locally receivable channels, and of course pay those channels for the privilege. What bothers me is the increasing pace of local broadcasters shutting down the transmitters (repeaters) they used to use for "A bit outside city limits" folks. How miserable can they make OTA before one _has_ to buy a cable plan? And of course the "basic package" will include "Standard Definition" (480i in the U.S. case), down-sampled from the HD it was broadcast in. And there must be some convoluted rule about what, _exactly_ they must carry, as I do get, OTA, some sub-channels of local stations that my son does not get in his extended lineup on cable.
I assume that eventually, the major networks (or owners, like Sinclair) will operate a 10W transmitter within a few blocks of the local FCC office to qualify. Meanwhile, the physical-disk Netflix subscription is looking better.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
