ASHINGTON, Jan. 19 — In a sharp setback for the nation's broadcasters, the Federal Communications Commission decided today to deny television stations the right to force cable companies to transmit both their digital and analog signals as they slowly convert to high-definition television, agency officials said.
The decision was the parting shot at the broadcasters by William E. Kennard, who completed his last day as chairman of the commission after battling with the industry over a variety of issues for the better part of three years.
The decision is all but certain to be upheld by regulators appointed by the next administration.
Officials said the decision would be formally announced on Monday. They said Mr. Kennard, who has long said that the requirement imposed on the cable industry is probably unconstitutional, was joined in the decision by the agency's two Republican commissioners, Harold W. Furchtgott- Roth and Michael K. Powell, the leading candidate to be the next chairman.
The order, which was being completed this evening, is part of a larger regulatory package, much of it issued today by the F.C.C., to address a number of complicated issues surrounding the delay in conversion to digital television.
These included a proposed rule that would phase in requirements that television manufacturers produce sets capable of receiving both analog and digital signals. There was also a report affirming the agency's commitment to a particular technical standard for transmitting digital signals, one that has been widely favored by the industry and is different from the one used in Europe.
But by far, the most closely watched issue concerned the application of the so- called must-carry rule to digital broadcasters. Under the 1992 Cable Act, cable operators are obliged to transmit the analog signals of broadcasters.
Cable companies had challenged the constitutionality of the must-carry rules, saying that forcing them to transmit the programming of the networks violated their First Amendment rights. In 1997, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the must-carry rules. In so doing, the court laid down the rule that any must-carry provisions must be narrowly tailored to satisfy a compelling state interest.
Mr. Kennard and his colleagues supporting the F.C.C. decision today have said that the rule would almost certainly be violated by a requirement that the cable operators transmit both the analog and digital signals. Because both signals convey the same programming, they have argued, it would be too great an imposition on the cable operators.
The broadcast industry has lobbied the F.C.C. and lawmakers hard to expand the must-carry rules to apply to both analog and digital signals. Industry executives have blamed the slow transition to digital television in part on the reluctance of the cable industry to provide channels for both analog and digital signals.
Today, the F.C.C. said that broadcasters basically had a choice. In a case filed by WHDT-DT, a digital television station based in Stuart, Fla., the agency ruled that broadcasters could either have their digital or their analog signal transmitted under the must-carry rule, but not both.
Instead, the agency tried to leave it to the market to decide what would be viewed by cable watchers. Cable companies and the broadcasters would have to negotiate the terms of any arrangements under which a station could have both its analog and its digital signal transmitted.
