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

D. Future Agreements

For several reasons, the realities of the marketplace create a fertile environment for more digital retransmission consent negotiations to be consummated. First, the digital retransmission consent agreements struck by Time Warner and AT&T BIS have been reached at least seven years ahead of the government's projected analog to digital transition date. These early agreements by themselves serve as a positive indicator that more retransmission consent agreements will be reached in advance of the transition date.

Second, by October 1, 1999, commercial broadcast stations were required by FCC regulations to inform local cable systems whether they would be electing retransmission consent or must-carry status from January 1, 2000 through December 31, 2002. For those choosing the former, it is highly likely that discussions will include retransmission consent for the carriage of digital broadcast signals because the stations have utilized retransmission consent for analog signals in the past.

ABC's future activities in this area deserve brief attention here since the other three major broadcast networks have entered into major digital retransmission consent agreements. There are a number of reasons to expect ABC to negotiate retransmission consent agreements. ABC has negotiated analog retransmission consent agreements; ¹⁵ ABC's affiliates extended retransmission consent for digital in a number of prior agreements with MediaOne; ABC has its own unique digital broadcast programming (e.g., Monday Night Football) and cable programming assets (e.g., ESPN); and ABC has publicly expressed its intent to
negotiate. ¹⁶ All these signs point to the ABC network O&O stations and affiliates entering into retransmission consent agreements with major MSOs in the near future.

¹⁶ Ted Hearn, Digital Carriage Dance, Multichannel News, July 13, 1998 ("We are having very productive discussions with a variety of cable entities about carriage of digital signals, and we believe that would be premature for there to be any government intervention in that regard," Robert Iger, President, ABC Inc.).