Rural cable TV network gets a distribution boost

The 24-hour rural network RFD-TV, which televises

Hee Haw

reruns and farming news, has scored a victory in its public lobbying for more carriage into American homes.

AT&T Inc. will carry the standard-definition RFD-TV channel on its U-verse pay-TV system, expanding RFD-TV's national distribution by 5.7 million homes, the companies said Monday.

With the agreement, RFD-TV says it will be available in 46 million homes.

RFD-TV's founder and chairman, Patrick Gottsch, has lobbied federal regulators and legislators in the merger review proceedings for the AT&T/DirecTV and Comcast Corp./Time Warner Cable Inc. deals, saying he believed the mergers could threaten the independent network.

AT&T began seriously talking to RFD-TV about distributing the network after a Washington hearing over AT&T's proposed acquisition of DirecTV, the nation's largest satellite-TV operator.

Gottsch said 95 percent of the public comments to the Federal Communications Commission regarding the proposed AT&T/DirecTV merger involved RFD-TV.

"No other channel gets so much support from its audience," Gottsch said.

The AT&T TV service intends to add a high-definition RFD-TV channel later this year, AT&T spokesman Jim Greer said Monday.