§  76.55   Definitions applicable to the must-carry rules.

   For 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) Effective January 1, 2000, a commercial broadcast television
   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 Station Index Directory and
   Nielsen Station Index US Television Household Estimates or any
   successor publications.

   (i) For the 1999 election pursuant to § 76.64(f), which becomes
   effective on January 1, 2000, DMA assignments specified in the 1997-98
   Nielsen Station Index Directory and September 1997 Nielsen Station
   Index US Television Household Estimates, available from Nielsen Media
   Research, 770 Broadway, New York, NY, shall be used.

   (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]