"Must carry" rules

[John]

Here in Southern Maine, Time-Warner pulled WBZ-TV also, which was a move
that is not appreciated.


SS 

-----Original Message-----
From: Sonny Daye [mailto:sonnydaye1@gmail.com] 
Sent: Friday, September 04, 2009 10:26 AM
To: boston-radio-interest@lists.BostonRadio.org
Subject: "Must carry" rules

In a posting, Garrett happened to mention that:

<<<<since all of New Hampshire is in the Boston market for must-carry, they
get the Boston signals in addition to the locals>>>

I'm wondering that if that is accurate, how would that apply to a situation
where Time-Warner has taken Channel 4/Boston OFF of their line-up in some NH
towns (Freedom for one) (allegedly for a money dispute), and are now
blocking out duplicate programming from Channel 7/Boston  (NBC) because of a
complaint from Channel 6/Portland which is a "must-carry" for Time-Warner. I
suspect the fact that Time-Warner is "based" in Portland (as far this area
is concerned) is a factor in this issue.
If as Garrett says, "all of New Hampshire is in the Boston market for
must-carry", shouldn't any cable system operating in any town in NH be
required to carry ALL of the Boston stations, even IF the company's "office"
is located in Portland? Exactly how does the "must carry" rules work, and
what are the "technicalities" involved in this issue?


Garrett's Posting:
For what it's worth, Comcast in WRJ allegedly carries WBZ, WCVB, and WHDH in
addition to WCAX, WVNY, and WNNE.  (Zap2it identifies it as the "Lebanon"
system, so presumably the headend is across the river and, since all of New
Hampshire is in the Boston market for must-carry, they get the Boston
signals in addition to the locals.) Do they really need a third ABC
affiliate?  (Do they really even need a second?)

-GAWollman