Audio Video News

Local stations suffered a setback in the transition to digital television last week when the Federal Communications Commission ruled that satellite providers needn't carry local signals in HD till 2013.

That means 30 million viewers may not get all local channels in HD. DirecTV and the Dish Network convinced regulators that they would need extra time to increase limited channel capacity. As a result, the high-def signals of some local stations may get downconverted to standard-def. This reprieve gives the satellite operators a notably more lenient deal than the cable industry had struck.

The FCC did not announce the ruling on its webpage, as it normally would. Here's the writeup from Multichannel News.