The Federal Communications Commission is getting ready to vote soon on a plan that would make cable companies carry extra channels that broadcasters are launching.
With the emergence of digital broadcasting, TV stations now have the ability to present a lot more channels, which is called multicasting. Currently, a broadcaster is able to make cabel carry its primary signal.
The cable industry has fought broadcasters' efforts to have the FCC require the extra channels be carried, and is expected to challenge any such plan in court.
Dennis Wharton, a spokesman for the National Association of Broadcasters, said that multicasting would "result in an explosion in programming choices, including public interest programming that has long been the hallmark of local broadcasting."
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