NASHVILLE PUBLIC TELEVISION TO LAUNCH NEW NPT2 DIGITAL CHANNEL on JANUARY 1, 2006
Nashville Public Television (NPT) is pleased to announce that it will expand its services to the residents of Middle Tennessee and Southern Kentucky by launching a new digital channel, NPT2, on January 1, 2006. NPT2's digital broadcast will be available to viewers with off-air digital receivers as well as subscribers to Comcast Cable's digital tier on channel 191 and to Charter Cable digital subscribers on channel 176. A simulcast of NPT's analog station, channel 8, is currently offered on the station’s primary digital channel, which can be seen on channel 190 on Comcast. The opportunity to add a new digital channel became possible as part of the FCC-mandated transition to digital broadcasting. In 2009, the existing analog TV broadcasts will be shut down and all stations will be digital only.
"NPT2 is a concept we have been developing for some time," said Beth Curley, NPT President and CEO. "Our analog and simulcast digital channels are obviously vital, but we want to expand our scope of services by offering quality programming unique to NPT2. We hope to develop NPT2 into an important community resource that educates and enlightens through the exciting, relatively new medium of digital television."
Aside from digital television program channels, NPT is involved in a pilot project to transmit digital data over-the-air for use by fire, police and other emergency services. NPT has received a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) to demonstrate how such a system might work with emergency response agencies and the station will participate in emergency response exercises this spring.
Programming on NPT2 will initially consist of educational offerings supplied by the CPB's Annenberg program service as well as other public television content. Additionally, from 6:00 pm - 6:00 am each day, NPT2 will become just the second station in the country to broadcast programming from The Documentary Channel, a new network based out of Nashville that is exclusively dedicated to the presentation of documentaries. NPT2 will be announcing additional programming offerings in the near future.