By Arshad Mohammed
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 16, 2006

Verizon Communications Inc. plans to announce today that its Fios TV service will carry new digital channels that public television stations plan to offer, including programming aimed at children and Hispanic viewers.

Under the deal reached by Verizon, the Public Broadcasting Service and the Association of Public Television Stations, Fios will carry not only the primary channel offered by public television stations but also all the additional channels that they are now able to broadcast as a result of digital technology.

These include PBS Kids Go, which will show cartoons such as "Arthur" and other programs for children, as well as Viva TV, a channel under development that will offer Spanish-language content aimed at the Hispanic community.

Verizon is announcing the deal, whose terms were not disclosed, ahead of a Federal Communications Commission meeting on Wednesday at which the agency is scheduled to vote on whether to oblige cable TV companies to carry all such "multicast" channels.

The agency rejected this as recently as last year, but FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin is a strong supporter of the idea and, with three Republicans now on the commission, he may have the votes to push it through.

Cable companies oppose such an obligation, arguing that they are required to carry only a local station's primary channel. If the FCC decision goes against them, they are expected to challenge it immediately in court.

New York-based Verizon has not said whether it is willing to carry multicast programming other than PBS, but officials have noted that their Fios network -- which runs on high-speed fiber-optic cables -- has considerable bandwidth and that they want to provide the programming their customers want.

"PBS represents quality programming," said Terry Denson, Verizon vice president of programming and marketing. "With PBS, you've got an editorial threshold that easily passes the grade." As for other broadcast stations, Denson said, "I am not so sure" they would meet the same threshold.