With the transition to all-digital broadcast TV in June 2009 quickly approaching, all cable customers, including those whose cable viewing is done on analog TV sets, can rest assured that they will be able to view commercial broadcast signals after the transition. 

To ensure that analog cable customers will still be able to view commercial broadcast signals after June , 2009, the FCC in September 2007 adopted a cable-supported proposal for carriage of digital and analog broadcast signals.

As a result, cable companies will carry the main digital signal of commercial stations and will duplicate that signal into an analog format so that it can be viewed on analog TV sets connected to cable.  This approach will make the digital TV transition easy  for all cable customers and provide valuable assistance to commercial TV stations trying to reach all of the homes in their region.

Public broadcasting stations will also be carried by cable operators after the digital transition thanks to a 2005 agreement between cable and public stations that ensures cable carriage of  their digital TV signals during and after the transition. 

One of the benefits of the transition is that the new digital spectrum provides broadcasters the opportunity to produce additional broadcast channels, and hundreds are already on the air.  Cable systems across the country are carrying hundreds of these “multicast” stations.