The FCC is tough on cable providers. Satellite, however, is another story.
Apparently, DirecTV and Dish Network don’t have the power to provide all local stations in high-def, so the government is giving them a temporary pass. Gizmodo says that just because a channel is available in high-def, they don’t have to deliver.
The FCC had originally told both DirecTV and Dish Network that they would have to provide full HD carriage in 2009. However, they soon changed the plan.
Now, by 2010, both services must offer all channels—“carry one, carry all in HD”—in at least 15 percent of their markets. That number needs to double by the following year and double again the year after that—with 100 percent by 2013. There’s no word on which markets will be the first to get the goods. However, it could spell sadness for rural customers—at least temporarily. Also, just because DirecTV offers one first does not mean that Dish needs to follow suit.
According to Multichannel News, DirecTV and Dish Network serve about 30 million pay-TV subscribers.
Seems to me, there are a lot of know-it-alls who read this site.
Because of the amount of confusion I have caused with this story, I have gone in to make some adjustments. I am sorry if this has caused any confusion to the readers. I think in my haste to sum things up, I was misleading to some. As hpavs has said: People are confused enough with what’s going on with their TV systems. I hope this clears things up!
The sources of the article are linked. Quote from Multichannel News:
“The satellite giants—which combined serve about 30 million pay-TV subscribers—convinced FCC officials that they lacked the channel capacity to provide every eligible station in HD immediately. They insisted that they needed several years to prepare for a full HD carriage requirement.
HD signals stress capacity because they take up much more bandwidth than digital signal transmitted at lower resolution.”
to the author “Rachel Cericola” or her editor
What or who is you source of (mis-)information on this article? --bad very bad!
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Danm- Make my Home Theater System pretty crappy. I have a 46 inch LCD Samsung… 
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>Seems to me, there are a lot of know-it-alls who >read this site.
Of course! This is an enthusiast website, right? My mom sure doesn’t read this website…
A little clearer now.