FCC 76.971 Revised as of October 1, 2007
Goto Year:2006 |
2008
Sec. 76.971 Commercial leased access terms and conditions.
(a)(1) Cable operators shall place leased access programmers that request
access to a tier actually used by most subscribers on any tier that has a
subscriber penetration of more than 50 percent, unless there are technical
or other compelling reasons for denying access to such tiers.
(2) Cable operators shall be permitted to make reasonable selections when
placing leased access channels at specific channel locations. The Commission
will evaluate disputes involving channel placement on a case-by-case basis
and will consider any evidence that an operator has acted unreasonably in
this regard.
(3) On systems with available leased access capacity sufficient to satisfy
current leased access demand, cable operators shall be required to
accommodate as expeditiously as possible all leased access requests for
programming that is not obscene or indecent. On systems with insufficient
available leased access capacity to satisfy current leased access demand,
cable operators shall be permitted to select from among leased access
programmers using objective, content-neutral criteria.
(4) Cable operators that have not satisfied their statutory leased access
requirements shall accommodate part-time leased access requests as set forth
in this paragraph. Cable operators shall not be required to accept leases
for less than one half-hour of programming. Cable operators may accommodate
part-time leased access requests by opening additional channels for
part-time use or providing comparable time slots on channels currently
carrying leased or non-leased access programming. The comparability of time
slots shall be determined by objective factors such as day of the week, time
of day, and audience share. A cable operator that is unable to provide a
comparable time slot to accommodate a part-time programming request shall be
required to open an additional channel for part-time use unless such
operator has at least one channel designated for part-time leased access use
that is programmed with less than 18 hours of part-time leased access
programming every day. However, regardless of the availability of partially
programmed part-time leased access channels, a cable operator shall be
required to open an additional channel to accommodate any request for
part-time leased access for at least eight contiguous hours, for the same
time period every day, for at least a year. Once an operator has opened a
vacant channel to accommodate such a request, our other leased access rules
apply. If, however, the operator has accommodated such a request on a
channel already carrying an existing full-time non-leased access programmer,
the operator does not have to accommodate other part-time requests of less
than eight hours on that channel until all other existing part-time leased
access channels are substantially filled with leased access programming.
(b) Cable operators may not apply programming production standards to leased
access that are any higher than those applied to public, educational and
governmental access channels.
(c) Cable operators are required to provide unaffiliated leased access users
the minimal level of technical support necessary for users to present their
material on the air, and may not unreasonably refuse to cooperate with a
leased access user in order to prevent that user from obtaining channel
capacity. Leased access users must reimburse operators for the reasonable
cost of any technical support actually provided by the operator that is
beyond that provided for non-leased access programmers on the system. A
cable operator may charge leased access programmers for the use of technical
equipment that is provided at no charge for public, educational and
governmental access programming, provided that the operator's franchise
agreement requires it to provide the equipment and does not preclude such
use, and the equipment is not being used for any other non-leased access
programming. Cable operators that are required to purchase technical
equipment in order to accommodate a leased access programmer shall have the
option of either requiring the leased access programmer to pay the full
purchase price of the equipment, or purchasing the equipment and leasing it
to the leased access programmer at a reasonable rate. Leased access
programmers that are required to pay the full purchase price of additional
equipment shall have all rights of ownership associated with the equipment
under applicable state and local law.
(d) Cable operators may require reasonable security deposits or other
assurances from users who are unable to prepay in full for access to leased
commercial channels. Cable operators may impose reasonable insurance
requirements on leased access programmers. Cable operators shall bear the
burden of proof in establishing reasonableness.
(e) Cable operators may not set terms and conditions for commercial leased
access use based on content, except:
(1) To the limited extent necessary to establish a reasonable price for the
commercial use of designated channel capacity by an unaffiliated person; or
(2) To comply with 47 U.S.C. 532 (h), (j) and Sec. 76.701.
(f)(1) A cable operator shall provide billing and collection services for
commercial leased access cable programmers, unless the operator demonstrates
the existence of third party billing and collection services which in terms
of cost and accessibility, offer leased access programmers an alternative
substantially equivalent to that offered to comparable non-leased access
programmers.
(2) If an operator can make the showing required in paragraph (f)(1) of this
section, it must, to the extent technically feasible make available data
necessary to enable a third party to bill and collect for the leased access
user.
(g) Cable operators shall not unreasonably limit the length of leased access
contracts. The termination provisions of leased access contracts shall be
commercially reasonable and may not allow operators to terminate leased
access contracts without a reasonable basis.
(h) Cable operators may not prohibit the resale of leased access capacity to
persons unaffiliated with the operator, but may provide in their leased
access contracts that any sublessees will be subject to the non-price terms
and conditions that apply to the initial lessee, and that, if the capacity
is resold, the rate for the capacity shall be the maximum permissible rate.
[ 58 FR 29753 , May 21, 1993, as amended at 61 FR 16401 , Apr. 15, 1996; 62 FR 11381 , Mar. 12, 1997]
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