In a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Association of Public Television Stations (APTS), the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting presented a case that the FCC has the authority to adopt digital cable carriage rules now for public television stations.

APTS President & CEO John M. Lawson said that the three public broadcasting entities are seeking mandatory cable carriage of all free, over-the-air digital programming - commercial and noncommercial. That said, the filing goes on to cite "the unique statutory, factual, economic and historical circumstances of public television stations" in making a "PTV now" position. This filing is necessary to secur some of the core needs of public television stations.

For example, last month APTS announced that it was beginning an exploration of the circumstances under which public television stations could embrace a "hard date" for the early return of analog spectrum. Mr. Lawson pointed out — then and now — that cable carriage is essential to the viability of that undertaking: "Any plan for an early return of analog spectrum is dead without guarantees-either negotiated or mandated-that all of our stations' digital signals are carried on cable and direct broadcast satellite systems. Without this carriage, we would not be able to ensure that we are fulfilling our universal service obligations in the post-analog world."