Commissioners May Give Small Cable More DTV Leeway
The FCC commissioners are considering whether to give small cable systems leeway on requirements that all operators carry some broadcasters’ digital signals to both digital and analog subscribers, said commission and industry officials. Chairman Kevin Martin circulated April 9 an order that he said would let systems under 553 MHz out of an obligation to carry high-definition signals of TV stations guaranteed cable carriage (CD April 9 p8). The commission may revise the draft to let systems send must-carry broadcast signals -- HD or not -- only in analog, the officials said.
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No commissioners besides Martin had voted for the draft order by midday Tuesday because they were waiting to compare the chairman’s draft with American Cable Association and NCTA requests, a commission official said. Aligning the proposed order with ACA’s and NCTA’s wishes may be as simple as removing its language on HD to keep small systems from having to carry must-carry stations’ analog and digital versions, said industry lawyers. But they said the change hasn’t been proposed and it’s unclear whether Martin would accept it. An FCC spokeswoman declined to comment.
The draft order doesn’t deal with ACA’s request to reduce the extra burden on small systems imposed by a September order requiring all operators to keep distributing must-carry stations to analog subscribers until Feb. 17, 2012, a cable lawyer said. The September order created no new hurdles for cable, Martin said at an April ACA conference. Not so, say cable operators, contending that the order creates a dual-carriage mandate. Media Bureau staffers who wrote the pending order may have limited the exemption to HD because that format was addressed in a recently approved order giving satellite-TV providers until Feb. 17, 2013, to meet digital carriage rules (CD March 18 p6), the lawyer speculated.
The commissioners besides Martin seem concerned about the order’s language, so the draft probably will change, said three cable attorneys. FCC members seem aware of the gap between the draft order and cable’s desires and are discussing a compromise, another lawyer said. “We're pleased that the chairman recognizes the need for small systems to get relief,” said NCTA Senior Vice President Dan Brenner. “We hope the commission can act speedily on a decision.” ACA is “confident” that the order will give “relief” to small operators, ACA Vice President Ross Lieberman said. “We're meeting with the commissioners to discuss the order and we'll be following up with the chairman’s office shortly.”
NCTA wants the order to exempt systems of 5,000 or fewer subscribers, it told an aide to Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein on Friday. Systems shouldn’t have to carry HD and standard definition must-carry signals if they convert digital signals to analog, an ex parte filing said. Those systems might not be able to “justify the additional costs necessary to carry the digital signals of must carry broadcasters in digital, too,” it said. Lieberman met with the aide April 22 to discuss ACA’s “understanding of the parameters” of Martin’s order, an ex parte said. Charter last week met with aides to Martin and Commissioners Michael Copps and Deborah Tate.
The Small Business Administration also wants systems with few subscribers to escape the rules. That “would allow small cable providers to continue to carry and distribute analog channels while they build the infrastructure to go digital,” it wrote Martin on Friday. The draft lacks a per- subscriber exemption, an FCC official said.