FCC Low-Power DTV Item May Fan Must-Carry Concerns
A revived FCC rulemaking notice to pave the way for low- power stations to demand cable carriage (CD Sept 26 p2) could trigger commissioners’ concern about its must-carry implications, said agency officials. Some FCC members balked earlier when Chairman Kevin Martin made a similar proposal, they said. As of midday Tuesday Neither Martin nor colleagues had voted on the further rulemaking notice. Martin has said he wants a final vote by next Wednesday’s commission meeting.
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The notice closely resembles one Martin circulated in February but on which no other commissioner voted, several FCC officials said. In February the other four FCC members let Martin know that they wouldn’t approve the notice. Some were said at the time to oppose parts of the notice that would help Class A stations become full-power broadcasters, entitling them to must-carry rights. Martin’s new notice may spur those same concerns, said agency and industry officials.
As the previous draft did, the new notice tentatively concludes that all low-power broadcasters should have to stop broadcasting in analog in 2012, said agency officials. The new item aims to boost diversity. More than 230 Class A and low-power stations broadcast in Spanish, Martin said Sept. 25. The low-power notice is important because it impacts Spanish speakers and others “who have special voices,” said an FCC spokeswoman. She said the notice would also help religious broadcasters, who, along with Spanish stations, represent a large portion of Class A stations.
Some pay-TV companies oppose the notice, maintaining that giving Class A stations must-carry rights would sap system capacity and exceed FCC authority. “There is no legal or policy basis for increasing must-carry burdens on cable operators,” said a Comcast ex parte on executives’ Thursday meetings with aides to Commissioners Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps. “Consideration of additional must-carry proposals is counter-productive, especially at a time when energies must be focused on effectuating a successful broadcast DTV transition.”
Many American Cable Association members already carry Class A stations with “local and diverse programming,” the group told an aide to Martin in a Friday meeting, said an ex parte. Letting Class A stations demand and get cable carriage would “eliminate the market-based incentive that today drives them to offer compelling content,” the ACA said. During the meeting the ACA cited concerns about FCC statutory authority and “other constitutional issues.”
Instead of focusing on the DTV transition as Congress in recent weeks has asked the commission to do, the agency “seems poised to create more uncertainty,” said NCTA Executive Vice President James Assey. “The reported low- power item risks distracting the commission and the industry at a critical time in the digital transition by imposing unnecessary and unconstitutional requirements. The law is clear - Congress granted must carry rights to low-power TV stations only in limited circumstances.”
Meanwhile, Martin still has not voted on a notice asking whether the FCC has authority to bar broadcasters from pulling their signals from cable, satellite and other pay-TV operators around the time of the DTV transition, said agency officials. All other members have voted on the rulemaking notice (CD Oct 2 p3), they said. Martin hasn’t voted on the quiet period notice because he’s awaiting feedback from other commissioners on a change he proposed to it, said the FCC spokeswoman. She said Martin has spoken publicly of his support for such a quiet period and she declined to describe the chairman’s proposed change. Martin almost always votes for items as he circulates them, so it’s unusual that he didn’t do so on the low-power and quiet period notices, said agency officials.