WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Verizon Communications will announce Friday an agreement to carry public television programming on its new subscription video service, the company said Thursday.
Verizon, the No. 2 U.S. telephone company, "will carry the full range of public television programming, including next-generation multicast offerings," according to a company statement.
As broadcasters switch to digital, new technology enables them to use the airwaves for additional channels, known as multicasting.
Executives from Verizon, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and the Association of Public Television Stations (APTS) are expected to attend the news conference Friday.
APTS reached an agreement last year for cable operators to carry up to four digital channels of non-commercial programming offered by each public television station in a market.
Verizon, which offers a suite of communications, Internet and wireless services, is expanding into subscription television to better compete with cable companies that have launched their own telephone and high-speed broadband Internet services.
The Federal Communications Commission is scheduled Wednesday to decide whether to require cable companies like Comcast to carry multicast channels that broadcasters are planning to offer.
Already some stations are airing news and weather multicast channels and there have been private commercial agreements by cable operators to carry some of the new channels.
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