Background
In October 2001, the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) adopted rules governing public television
stations’ use of digital technology. Public TV stations, like
commercial TV stations, are in the process of converting to
digital television (DTV). Today, more than 85 percent of public TV
stations are on the air with a digital signal.
What Digital Television Means to You
Digital technology allows public TV
stations to provide even more educational programming than they
now offer. Digital technology also permits transmission of
programming with higher resolution for dramatically better
picture and sound quality. Digital technology includes “high
definition television,” or HDTV, which has theater-quality
pictures and CD-quality sound. Additionally, digital technology
enables public TV stations to transmit several different
programs at once in standard definition format. This
transmission is called “multicasting.” Digital technology can
also be used to transmit large amounts of data to a viewer’s
computer or television set.
When the DTV rules were being developed,
the FCC decided to give public broadcasters a great amount of
flexibility to encourage their development of innovative
services. The FCC rules require public broadcasters to provide
at least one free video programming stream of at least the same
quality we see today.
Beyond that, public broadcasters may offer
a wide range of services that are “ancillary or supplementary”
to their free video programming service. If they provide certain
types of ancillary or supplementary services, like subscription
channels, they must pay a fee of five percent of the gross
revenues generated by those services to the U.S. Treasury.
The FCC has concluded that this flexibility
must not be allowed to jeopardize the noncommercial and
educational mission of public TV.
Therefore, in addition to having to provide
at least one free video programming service like all TV
broadcasters, public TV stations must use all of their digital
capacity to provide a primarily noncommercial, nonprofit,
educational broadcast service. This requirement means that a
“substantial majority” of a public TV station’s digital
programming must be noncommercial. In addition, public TV
stations may not air advertisements or commercials during any of
their free video programming service. Like commercial
broadcasters, if they choose to provide ancillary services that
generate revenues, they must pay a fee of 5 percent of those
revenues to the U.S. Treasury.
For More Information
For more information about
DTV, visit the FCC’s DTV Web site at
www.dtv.gov or see the
FCC’s consumer fact sheet at
www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/digitaltv.html.
For information about other communications issues, visit the
FCC’s Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau Web site at
www.fcc.gov/cgb, or contact the FCC’s Consumer Center by
e-mailing fccinfo@fcc.gov; calling 1-888-CALL-FCC
(1-888-225-5322) voice or 1-888-TELL-FCC (1-888-835-5322)
TTY; faxing 1-866-418-0232; or writing to:
Federal Communications
Commission
Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau
Consumer Inquiries and Complaints Division
445 12th Street, SW
Washington, D.C. 20554. |
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