NAB President David Rehr says the trade association has begun a campaign on Capitol Hill to win multicast must carry rights for broadcasters.

Just don't call it multicast must carry.

In his address kicking off the NAB convention this morning, Rehr stressed the importance of defining the terms in the debate over whether cable systems should be required to carry all TV stations' digital services.

"When people hear about multicasting, they assume that the cable companies have to cut their channels to accept ours," Rehr said.

"Now we all know that's not true.

"This is not a case where the pie in only so big and we want to eat the cable companies' slices.

"Through the magic of compression technology, we are making the pie bigger by adding extra slices, extra programming. The cable companies intend to strip our new programming because we're in competition.

"This is, in effect, stripping.

"That's what's happening. They are ripping out our data, taking our valuable programming away from consumers. We're not asking to take someone else's property or programming. We're simply asking that the cable companies not take ours. We're simply asking that they do not take the anti-competitive step of stripping our signals."

To strengthen broadcasters' hand in arguments for measures that would prohibit cable systems from down-converting stations' HD signals—that is, reducing resolution to save bandwidth—Rehr urged broadcasters to call it "digital discrimination" or "HD discrimination."

"Doesn't calling it discrimination make more sense than ‘down conversion?" he asked.

"The NAB will work on Capitol Hill to protect the investment of TV viewers and TV broadcasters alike. We will work to prevent the discrimination of high-definition broadcast signals."

Rehr also called on broadcasters to help NAB come up with new words for broadcasting that suggest that it is a cutting-edge medium.

"We were wireless before it was hot, but we are captives of the language of decades gone by," he said. "The language of our past is confusing and perhaps obsolete. We need to update and clarify. We need to reframe and rebrand."

One word long associated with broadcasting that Rehr does like is "local."

"It's a word that policymakers immediately understand and definitely appreciate," he said. "In this day, when society is homogenized and globalized with international corporations, local broadcasters are the only means to keep people and communities together and informed.