Section 76.55 - Definitions applicable to the must-carry rulesFor purposes of the must-carry rules set forth in this subpart, the following definitions apply:
(a)Qualified noncommercial educational (NCE) television station. A qualified NCE television station is any television broadcast station which (1)(i) Under the rules and regulations of the Commission in effect on March 29, 1990, is licensed by the Commission as an NCE television broadcast station and which is owned and operated by a public agency, nonprofit foundation, corporation, or association; and(ii) Has as its licensee an entity which is eligible to receive a community service grant, or any successor grant thereto, from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, or any successor organization thereto, on the basis of the formula set forth in section 396(k)(6)(B) of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended; or(2) Is owned and operated by a municipality and transmits noncommercial programs for educational programs for educational purposes, as defined in § 73.621 of this chapter, for at least 50 percent of its broadcast week.(3) This definition includes: (i) The translator of any NCE television station with five watts or higher power serving the franchise area,(ii) A full-service station or translator if such station or translator is licensed to a channel reserved for NCE use pursuant to § 73.606 of this chapter, or any successor regulations thereto, and(iii) Such stations and translators operating on channels not so reserved but otherwise qualified as NCE stations. Note to paragraph (a): For the purposes of § 76.55(a) , "serving the franchise area" will be based on the predicted protected contour of the NCE translator.
(b)Qualified local noncommercial educational (NCE) television station. A qualified local NCE television station is a qualified NCE television station: (1) That is licensed to a community whose reference point, as defined in § 76.53 is within 80.45 km (50 miles) of the principal headend, as defined in § 76.5(pp) , of the cable system; or(2) Whose Grade B service contour encompasses the principal headend, as defined in § 76.5(pp) , of the cable system.(3) Notwithstanding the provisions of this section, a cable operator shall not be required to add the signal of a qualified local noncommercial educational television station not already carried under the provision of § 76.56(a)(5) , where such signal would be considered a distant signal for copyright purposes unless such station agrees to indemnify the cable operator for any increased copyright liability resulting from carriage of such signal on the cable system.(c)Local commercial television station. A local commercial television station is any full power television broadcast station, other than a qualified NCE television station as defined in paragraph (a) of this section, licensed and operating on a channel regularly assigned to its community by the Commission that, with respect to a particular cable system, is within the same television market, as defined below in paragraph (e) of this section, as the cable system, except that the term local commercial television station does not include: (1) Low power television stations, television translator stations, and passive repeaters with operate pursuant to part 74 of this chapter.(2) A television broadcast station that would be considered a distant signal under the capable compulsory copyright license, 17 U.S.C. 111 , if such station does not agree to indemnify the cable operator for any increased copyright liability resulting from carriage on the cable system; or(3) A television broadcast station that does not deliver to the principal headend, as defined in § 76.5(pp) , of a cable system a signal level of -45dBm for analog UHF signals, -49dBm for analog VHF signals, or -61dBm for digital signals at the input terminals of the signal processing equipment, i.e., the input to the first active component of the signal processing equipment relevant to the signal at issue, if such station does not agree to be responsible for the costs of delivering to the cable system a signal of good quality or a baseband video signal.(d)Qualified low power station. A qualified low power station is any television broadcast station conforming to the low power television rules contained in part 74 of this chapter, only if: (1) Such station broadcasts for at least the minimum number of hours of operation required by the Commission for full power television broadcast stations under part 73 of this chapter;(2) Such station meets all obligations and requirements applicable to full power television broadcast stations under part 73 of this chapter, with respect to the broadcast of nonentertainment programming; programming and rates involving political candidates, election issues, controversial issues of public importance, editorials, and personal attacks; programming for children; and equal employment opportunity; and the Commission determines that the provision of such programming by such station would address local news and informational needs which are not being adequately served by full power television broadcast stations because of the geographic distance of such full power stations from the low power station's community of license;(3) Such station complies with interference regulations consistent with its secondary status pursuant to part 74 of this chapter;(4) Such station is located no more than 56.32 km (35 miles) from the cable system's principal headend, as defined in § 76.5(pp) , and delivers to that headend an over-the-air signal of good quality;(5) The community of license of such station and the franchise area of the cable system are both located outside of the largest 160 Metropolitan Statistical Areas, ranked by population, as determined by the Office of Management and Budget on June 30, 1990, and the population of such community of license on such date did not exceed 35,000; and(6) There is no full power television broadcast station licensed to any community within the county or other equivalent political subdivision (of a State) served by the cable system. Note to paragraph (d): For the purposes of this section, for over-the-air broadcast, a good quality signal shall mean a signal level of either -45 dBm for analog VHF signals, -49 dBm for analog UHF signals, or -61 dBm for digital signals (at all channels) at the input terminals of the signal processing equipment.
(e)Television market.(1) Until January 1, 2000, a commercial broadcast television station's market, unless amended pursuant to § 76.59 , shall be defined as its Area of Dominant Influence (ADI) as determined by Arbitron and published in the Arbitron 1991-1992 Television ADI Market Guide, as noted below, except that for areas outside the contiguous 48 states, the market of a station shall be defined using Nielsen's Designated Market Area (DMA), where applicable, as published in the Nielsen 1991-92 DMA Market and Demographic Rank Report, and that Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Guam will each be considered a single market.(2) A commercial broadcast station's market, unless amended pursuant to § 76.59 , shall be defined as its Designated Market Area (DMA) as determined by Nielsen Media Research and published in its Nielsen Local TV Station Information Report or any successor publications. (i) The applicable DMA list for the 2023 election pursuant to § 76.64(f) will be the DMA assignments specified in the Nielsen October 2021 Local TV Station Information Report, and so forth using the publications for the October two years prior to each triennial election pursuant to § 76.64(f) .(ii) The applicable DMA list for the 2002 election pursuant to § 76.64(f) will be the DMA assignments specified in the 2000-2001 list, and so forth for each triennial election pursuant to § 76.64(f) .(3) In addition, the county in which a station's community of license is located will be considered within its market.(4) A cable system's television market(s) shall be the one or more ADI markets in which the communities it serves are located until January 1, 2000, and the one or more DMA markets in which the communities it serves are located thereafter.(5) In the absence of any mandatory carriage complaint or market modification petition, cable operators in communities that shift from one market to another, due to the change in 1999-2000 from ADI to DMA, will be permitted to treat their systems as either in the new DMA market, or with respect to the specific stations carried prior to the market change from ADI to DMA, as in both the old ADI market and the new DMA market.(6) If the change from the ADI market definition to the DMA market definition in 1999-2000 results in the filing of a mandatory carriage complaint, any affected party may respond to that complaint by filing a market modification request pursuant to § 76.59 , and these two actions may be jointly decided by the Commission. Note to paragraph (e): For the 1996 must-carry/retransimission consent election, the ADI assignments specified in the 1991-1992 Television ADI Market Guide, available from the Arbitron Ratings Co., 9705 Patuxent Woods Drive, Columbia, MD, will apply. For the 1999 election, which becomes effective on January 1, 2000, DMA assignments specified in the 1997-98 DMA Market and Demographic Rank Report, available from Nielsen Media Research, 299 Park Avenue, New York, NY, shall be used. The applicable DMA list for the 2002 election will be the 2000-2001 list, etc.
(f)Network. For purposes of the must-carry rules, a commercial television network is an entity that offers programming on a regular basis for 15 or more hours per week to at least 25 affiliates in 10 or more states.58 FR 17359, Apr. 2, 1993, as amended at 58 FR 44951, Aug. 25, 1993; 59 FR 62344, Dec. 5, 1994; 61 FR 29313, June 10, 1996; 64 FR 42617, Aug. 5, 1999; 68 FR 17312 , Apr. 9, 2003; 73 FR 5685 , Jan. 30, 2008; 83 FR 7626 , Feb. 22, 2018 83 FR 7626 , 4/23/2018; 87 FR 74988 , 1/6/2023