AT2W

Black Churches Will Have to Adjust to FCC’s Viewability Rule Being Lifted

Apparently, the FCC has voted and ruled that the viewability rule will be lifted. Many viewers of faith based programming may be affected if they have not adjusted to the analog to digital switch that occurred in 2009.

Read below the official statement from the FCC and Broadcast & Cable institutions about the details in the change to take place in the next six months:

FCC Releases Viewability Order

By John Eggerton — Broadcasting & Cable, 6/12/2012 1:01:25 PM

 The FCC made it official Tuesday, releasing the final order sunsetting this December its requirement that cable operators with hybrid analog/digital systems deliver must-carry TV stations in both formats.

The commissioners had voted unanimously to lift the requirement Monday night or the rules would have sunset immediately on Tuesday.

Broadcasters had been pushing the FCC to extend that requirement another three years, while cable operators said it was time to lift it and give them more capacity to offer other services consumers might want. Both sides were doing hefty lobbying in the run-up to the vote, but cable’s arguments held sway in the final order.

Cable operators must still provide dual carriage for a six-month transition period, give customers 90 days of warning before they end their analog transmissions, and face potential reinstatement of an analog signal if there are too many consumer complaints.

The National Cable & Telecommunications Association was naturally pleased, and broadcasters were not.

“NAB remains concerned that today’s FCC decision has the potential to impose negative financial consequences on small local TV stations that are a source for minority, religious and independent program diversity across America,” said National Association of Broadcasters spokesman Dennis Wharton. “If that is the outcome, millions of viewers will be the losers. NAB will be reviewing our options with our Board of Directors. We would like to thank the members of Congress who urged the FCC to extend the viewability rule another three years, along with groups like Consumers Union that also weighed in on the side of local broadcasters.”

Read the full report HERE

We think that churches and their faith based programming need to look at the future and what this can do for them in the long run. This change is no different from going from landlines to cell phones. People are preferring cell phones now and this is why there are over 500,000 cell phones owned by Americans today. If they have not, people will have to do the same for analog T.V.