October 1999
"Priming The Pump": The Role of Retransmission Consent in the Transition To Digital Television
By Stuart N. Brotman

B. AT&T Broadband and Internet Services

AT&T BIS, the nation's second largest MSO today, also has concluded two major network owned and operated (O&O) station deals for digital television retransmission consent. Its deal with Fox, like the Time Warner-CBS retransmission consent agreement, can be viewed more broadly as a framework agreement that AT&T BIS can utilize with other Fox affiliates (See Appendix: Chart 4).

NBC also has concluded a digital retransmission consent agreement with AT&T BIS covering its O&O stations. The NBC-owned station deal could be a framework for agreements with other NBC affiliates. The same programming that led to an agreement with the owned stations will be available to the NBC affiliates. Thus, an additional 11.3 million cable subscribers, which represents AT&T BIS' current subscriber base, will be receiving at least two digital broadcast networks (See Appendix: Chart 5).