61742 Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 202 / Friday, October 17, 2008 / Rules and Regulations 

cannot take effect until 60 days after it 

is published in the Federal Register. 

This action is not a ‘‘major rule’’ as 

defined by 5 U.S.C. 804(2). 

Under section 307(b)(1) of the Clean 

Air Act, petitions for judicial review of 

this action must be filed in the United 

States Court of Appeals for the 

appropriate circuit by December 16, 

2008. Filing a petition for 

reconsideration by the Administrator of 

this final rule does not affect the finality 

of this rule for the purposes of judicial 

review nor does it extend the time 

within which a petition for judicial 

review may be filed, and shall not 

postpone the effectiveness of such rule 

or action. This action may not be 

challenged later in proceedings to 

enforce its requirements. (See section 

307(b)(2).) 

List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 49 

Environmental protection, 

Administrative practice and procedure, 

Air pollution control, Indians, 

Intergovernmental relations, Reporting 

and recordkeeping requirements. 

Dated: September 22, 2008. 

Michelle Pirzadeh, 

Acting Regional Administrator, Region 10. 

■ Chapter I, title 40 of the Code of 

Federal Regulations is amended as 

follows: 

PART 49—[AMENDED] 

■ 1. The authority citation for part 49 

continues to read as follows: 

Authority: 42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq. 

Subpart M—[Amended] 

■ 2. Section 49.9930 is amended by 

adding a note to the end of the section 

to read as follows: 

§ 49.9930 Federally-promulgated 

regulations and Federal implementation 

plans. 

* * * * * 

Note to § 49.9930: EPA entered into a 

Partial Delegation of Administrative 

Authority with the Coeur d’Alene Tribe on 

August 26, 2008 for the rules listed in 

paragraphs (b), (g), and (i) of this section. 

[FR Doc. E8–24428 Filed 10–16–08; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6560–50–P 

FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS 

COMMISSION 

47 CFR Part 76 

[CS Docket No. 98–120; FCC 08–193] 

Carriage of Digital Television 

Broadcast Signals: Amendment to Part 

76 of the Commission’s Rules 

AGENCY: Federal Communications 

Commission. 

ACTION: Final rule. 

SUMMARY: The Commission addresses 

the obligations of small cable systems, 

and grants them an exemption from the 

material degradation requirement to 

carry high definition broadcast signals 

under the Commission’s rules. The 

Commission holds that cable systems 

that either have 2,500 or fewer 

subscribers and are not affiliated with a 

large cable operator, or have an 

activated channel capacity of 552 MHz 

or less, are exempt from the requirement 

to carry high definition versions of 

broadcast signals. This exemption will 

sunset three years after the conclusion 

of the digital television (DTV) 

Transition. The Commission notes that 

the signals of all must-carry stations 

must continue to be made viewable to 

all subscribers pursuant to the 

Commission’s rules. 

DATES: Effective November 17, 2008. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For 

additional information on this 

proceeding, please contact Lyle Elder, 

Lyle.Elder@fcc.gov of the Policy 

Division, Media Bureau, (202) 418– 

2120, or Eloise Gore, 

Eloise.Gore@fcc.gov, of the Media 

Bureau, (202) 418–7200. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This is a 

summary of the Federal 

Communications Commission’s Fourth 

Report and Order in CS Docket No. 98– 

120, FCC 08–193, adopted August 20, 

2008, and released September 4, 2008. 

The full text of this document is 

available for public inspection and 

copying during regular business hours 

in the FCC Reference Center, Federal 

Communications Commission, 445 12th 

Street, SW., CY–A257, Washington, DC 

20554. These documents will also be 

available via ECFS (http://www.fcc.gov/ 

cgb/ecfs/). (Documents will be available 

electronically in ASCII, Word 97, and/ 

or Adobe Acrobat.) The complete text 

may be purchased from the 

Commission’s copy contractor, 445 12th 

Street, SW., Room CY–B402, 

Washington, DC 20554. To request this 

document in accessible formats 

(computer diskettes, large print, audio 

recording, and Braille), send an e-mail 

to fcc504@fcc.gov or call the 

Commission’s Consumer and 

Governmental Affairs Bureau at (202) 

418–0530 (voice), (202) 418–0432 

(TTY). 

Summary of the Final Rule 

I. Introduction 

1. In the Third Report and Order, 73 

FR 6043, February 1, 2008, and Third 

Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, 

73 FR 6099, February 1, 2008, we 

established rules governing the 

viewability of broadcast signals, 

retained and reaffirmed the standard 

governing material degradation of 

broadcast signals, and sought comment 

on the effect of these rules on small 

cable systems, and other issues. In this 

Fourth Report and Order, we address 

the obligations of small cable systems, 

and grant them an exemption from the 

material degradation requirement to 

carry high definition (HD) broadcast 

signals under the Commission’s rules, as 

discussed below. 

2. We hold that cable systems that 

either have 2,500 or fewer subscribers 

and are not affiliated with a large cable 

operator, or have an activated channel 

capacity of 552 MHz or less, are exempt 

from the requirement to carry high 

definition versions of broadcast signals 

for three years following the digital 

television (DTV) Transition. We 

emphasize, however, that no exemption 

from the viewability requirements is 

necessary; nor, indeed, would it be 

appropriate. The mandatory carriage 

rules serve their purpose only when 

must-carry stations are viewable by all 

cable subscribers. We therefore remind 

cable operators that the signals of all 

must-carry stations must be made 

viewable to all subscribers pursuant to 

the Commission’s rules, and 

acknowledge the continued pledges of 

cable industry commenters, including 

the operators of small systems, to ensure 

viewability. 

II. Discussion 

3. The Communications Act of 1934, 

as amended (the ‘‘Act’’), at section 

614(b)(4)(A), requires that cable 

operators carry broadcast signals 

‘‘without material degradation,’’ and, in 

particular, instructs the Commission to 

‘‘adopt carriage standards to ensure that, 

to the extent technically feasible, the 

quality of signal processing and carriage 

provided by a cable system for the 

carriage of local commercial television 

stations will be no less than that 

provided by the system for carriage of 

any other type of signal.’’ In 2001, the 

First Report and Order, 66 FR 16533, 

March 26, 2001, in this docket 


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Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 202 / Friday, October 17, 2008 / Rules and Regulations 61743 

established the following requirement to 

avoid material degradation of digital 

signals: ‘‘A cable operator may not 

provide a digital broadcast signal in a 

lesser format or lower resolution than 

that afforded to any digital programmer 

(e.g., non-broadcast cable programming, 

other broadcast digital program, etc.) 

carried on the cable system, provided, 

however, that a broadcast signal 

delivered in HDTV [i.e., high definition] 

must be carried in HDTV.’’ The Third 

Report and Order retained and 

reaffirmed this standard. The 

Commission also adopted rules 

requiring that broadcast signals carried 

pursuant to the must-carry rules be 

made viewable to all subscribers. In the 

Third FNPRM, we expressed concern 

about the impact these rules might have 

on small cable operators, and sought 

comment on ways to minimize any 

harms. In particular, we sought 

comment on a number of proposals 

offered by cable commenters, including 

a waiver or revision of the 

Commission’s 2001 decision to require 

carriage of HD signals in HD. We also 

asked for comment on ‘‘system 

characteristics’’ for the purposes of any 

changes to the rules that came in 

response to the Third FNPRM. 

4. Both the National Cable and 

Telecommunications Association 

(NCTA) and the American Cable 

Association (ACA), as well as individual 

cable operators, filed comments and 

replies on these questions, along with a 

number of ex parte filings and 

presentations. Taken together, the cable 

commenters do not lodge strong 

objections to the requirement to 

‘‘provide all subscribers with a viewable 

signal,’’ but rather ask the Commission 

to exempt ‘‘small systems from any 

requirement to also provide a digital 

signal under the FCC’s interpretation of 

the ‘no material degradation’ provisions 

of section 614.’’ 

5. First, we clarify that our rules do 

not require cable operators, irrespective 

of system size, to carry an SD digital 

version of a broadcast station’s signal, in 

addition to the analog version, to satisfy 

the material degradation requirement 

retained in the Third Report and Order. 

This is because both an SD digital 

version and an analog version of the 

digital broadcast signal received at the 

headend should have the same 

resolution—480i—and thus there 

should be no perceivable difference 

between the two versions of the signal. 

We also reiterate that, for purposes of 

the Viewability requirements, any cable 

operator, irrespective of system size, 

may be required to carry an SD version 

of a must carry station’s signal if there 

are digital subscribers to the system who 

would otherwise be unable to view the 

analog version of that station’s signal. 

Therefore, cable systems subject to the 

exemption in this order, which exempts 

certain cable systems as described 

herein from carrying broadcast signals 

in HD or any other digital format, would 

not be required to carry an HD or an SD 

version as long as all subscribers can 

receive and view the downconverted 

analog signal. 

6. Commenters state that, without an 

exemption from the material 

degradation rules, ‘‘small systems will 

be forced to absorb or impose significant 

and unsustainable price increases, or in 

some instances to shut down 

altogether.’’ The National Association of 

Broadcasters and Maximum Service 

Television (NAB), in a joint comment 

and joint reply, expressed opposition to 

this small system exemption. Section 

614(b)(4)(A) of the Act directs the 

Commission to adopt material 

degradation standards ensuring that ‘‘to 

the extent technically feasible, the 

quality of signal processing and carriage 

provided by a cable system for the 

carriage of local commercial television 

stations will be no less than that 

provided by the system for carriage for 

any other type of signal.’’ 

7. We are persuaded by the comments 

filed by cable operators that requiring 

small systems with certain 

characteristics to carry HD versions of 

all broadcast television stations’ HD 

signals would not be appropriate. 

Regarding the question of what system 

characteristics are appropriate under 

this exemption, we will first use the 

technical standard originally adopted 

for waivers of these rules, and apply the 

exemption to systems of 552 MHz or 

less. We will also exempt systems with 

2,500 or fewer subscribers that are not 

affiliated with a cable operator serving 

more than 10% of all multichannel 

video programming distributor (MVPD) 

customers. The Rural Independent 

Competitive Alliance (RICA) argues that 

‘‘pressing uneconomic digital carriage 

upon small * * * rural systems may 

well * * * limit access to broadcast 

signals for rural consumers generally by 

creating a regime in which the required 

carriage is too expensive to operate.’’ 

The Organization for the Promotion and 

Advancement of Small 

Telecommunications Companies 

(OPASTCO) expresses a similar 

concern, stating that this could lead to 

the loss of lower-priced video offerings 

in many markets, thus reducing 

consumer choice. Charter 

Communications, Inc. (Charter), 

operator of a number of small systems, 

provides specific examples of systems 

with very few subscribers, where persubscriber upgrade costs would be so 

high as to make it not worthwhile to 

continue operating the system. As even 

NAB and MSTV acknowledge, in some 

markets there is no local-into-local 

Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) service, 

so the loss of a small cable system could 

mean the effective loss of all MVPD 

service for some customers. Indeed, in 

some areas, due to poor over-the-air 

reception, loss of a small cable system 

could mean loss of any access to some 

or all broadcast signals as well. The 

Commission will review these 

exemptions between February 18, 2011 

and February 17, 2012, and they will 

expire at the conclusion of that period 

if not renewed. We note that as with all 

Commission rules, systems that do not 

fall within either of these exemption 

categories may still file for individual 

waivers. We will expedite the review 

process for cable operators that are 

requesting a waiver for systems with 

5,000 or fewer subscribers, which could 

require shortening the comment and 

reply period to 10 days for comment 

and 5 days for reply, so that the Bureau 

will resolve the request no later than 30 

days after it is received by the 

commission. 

8. Cable commenters, including 

NCTA, argue that because all must-carry 

stations will remain viewable and 

available to all cable subscribers even 

after the grant of a material degradation 

exemption, any harm to broadcasters 

will be less than the harm that would be 

suffered by small cable system operators 

if these exemptions were not granted. 

This argument is not directly 

contradicted by NAB and MSTV. 

9. ACA proposed also looking to the 

number of subscribers served by a 

system to determine the scope of the 

exemption. Based on the record in this 

proceeding, we find that for some 

systems with a small number of 

subscribers, the cost of mandatory HD 

carriage warrants an exemption from 

compliance. Therefore, we will also 

exempt systems with 2,500 or fewer 

subscribers that are not affiliated with a 

cable operator serving more than 10% of 

all multichannel video programming 

distributor (MVPD) customers. In 

systems with 2,500 or fewer subscribers, 

the cost-per-subscriber could be 

significant, even if costs were borne in 

part by analog subscribers (who would 

receive no direct benefit from the HD 

carriage). We recognize, however, that 

small cable systems may be part of 

larger, multiple-cable-system, networks. 

This potentially allows even very high 

costs to be spread over large numbers of 

subscribers, easing the upgrade cost 

burden even in systems with small 

numbers of subscribers. Therefore, we 


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61744 Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 202 / Friday, October 17, 2008 / Rules and Regulations 

exclude from this exemption any system 

affiliated with a cable operator serving 

more than 10% of all multichannel 

video programming distributor (MVPD) 

subscribers. 

10. In their comments to the Second 

FNPRM, 72 FR 31244, June 6, 2007, 

ACA proposed that must-carry 

broadcasters should be required to pay 

the cost of downconverting their signals 

for carriage in analog. The Commission 

declined to adopt this proposal for all 

cable operators, noting that ‘‘posttransition downconversion will be 

undertaken by operators, at their 

discretion, in order to comply with the 

Act.’’ We raised this issue for comment 

in the Third FNPRM, asking whether 

must-carry stations should be required 

to pay the costs associated with 

downconversion by small cable 

operators in particular. No commenters 

supported this proposal, and we decline 

to adopt it. 

11. The exemptions adopted in this 

Fourth Report and Order shall be in 

force for three years from the date of the 

digital transition, subject to review by 

the Commission during the last year of 

this period (i.e., between February 2011 

and February 2012). In light of the 

numerous issues associated with the 

transition, it is important to retain 

flexibility as we deal with emerging 

concerns. A three-year sunset provides 

the Commission with the opportunity 

after the transition to review these rules 

in light of the potential cost and service 

disruption to consumers, and the state 

of technology and the marketplace. 

Additionally, providing a window of 

time to phase in new technology gives 

systems a clear opportunity to come into 

compliance with the rules by spreading 

their effort and costs over an extended 

period. 

12. In conclusion, we are granting 

relief to operators of cable systems with 

2,500 or fewer subscribers that are not 

affiliated with a cable operator serving 

more than 10% of all MVPD subscribers, 

and to those with an activated channel 

capacity of 552 MHz or less, from the 

requirement to carry HD versions of 

broadcast signals. The Commission will 

review these material degradation 

exemptions simultaneously with the 

viewability rules adopted in the 

Viewability Order, and they will expire 

on February 17, 2012 if not renewed. All 

operators must continue to ensure that 

every subscriber to a cable system is 

able to view every must-carry signal, by 

downconverting it if necessary and 

carrying it in a format or formats that 

can be viewed by all subscribers. We 

find that the record in this case supports 

the cable commenters’ suggestion that 

this exemption will best ensure the 

continued viability and competitiveness 

of small cable systems in markets 

throughout the country, thereby 

ensuring the broadest possible cable 

carriage after the transition. 

III. Procedural Matters 

A. Final Regulatory Flexibility Act 

Analysis 

13. As required by the Regulatory 

Flexibility Act of 1980, as amended 

(RFA), an Initial Regulatory Flexibility 

Analysis (IRFA) was incorporated in the 

Third Further Notice of Proposed 

Rulemaking (Third FNPRM). The 

Commission sought written public 

comment on the proposals in the Third 

FNPRM, including comment on the 

IRFA. This present Final Regulatory 

Flexibility Analysis (FRFA) conforms to 

the RFA. 

1. Need for, and Objectives of, the 

Fourth Report and Order 

This Fourth Report and Order 

exempts certain cable systems from the 

material degradation requirement to 

carry HD versions of HD broadcast 

signals that was reaffirmed in the Third 

Report and Order. We are granting relief 

to operators of cable systems with 2,500 

or fewer subscribers that are not 

affiliated with a cable operator serving 

more than 10% of all MVPD subscribers, 

and to those with an activated capacity 

of 552 MHz or less. The Commission 

will review these material degradation 

exemptions simultaneously with the 

viewability rules adopted in the 

Viewability Order (i.e., between 

February 18, 2011 and February 17, 

2012), and they will expire on February 

17, 2012 if not renewed. All operators 

must continue to ensure that every 

subscriber to a cable system is able to 

view every must-carry signal, by 

downconverting it if necessary and 

carrying it in a format or formats that 

can be viewed by all subscribers. 

2. Summary of Significant Issues Raised 

by Public Comments in Response to the 

IRFA 

14. No comments were filed in 

response to the IRFA. 

3. Description and Estimate of the 

Number of Small Entities to Which the 

Report and Order Will Apply 

15. The RFA directs the Commission 

to provide a description of and, where 

feasible, an estimate of the number of 

small entities that will be affected by the 

rules adopted herein. The RFA defines 

the term ‘‘small entity’’ as having the 

same meaning as the terms ‘‘small 

business,’’ ‘‘small organization,’’ and 

‘‘small governmental jurisdiction.’’ In 

addition, the term ‘‘small business’’ has 

the same meaning as the term ‘‘small 

business concern’’ under the Small 

Business Act. A small business concern 

is one which: (1) Is independently 

owned and operated; (2) is not 

dominant in its field of operation; and 

(3) satisfies any additional criteria 

established by the Small Business 

Administration (‘‘SBA’’). The decision 

of the Commission in this Fourth Report 

and Order primarily affects cable 

operators and television stations. A 

description of these small entities, as 

well as an estimate of the number of 

such small entities, is provided below. 

16. Cable Television Distribution 

Services. Since 2007, these services 

have been defined within the broad 

economic census category of Wired 

Telecommunications Carriers; that 

category is defined as follows: ‘‘This 

industry comprises establishments 

primarily engaged in operating and/or 

providing access to transmission 

facilities and infrastructure that they 

own and/or lease for the transmission of 

voice, data, text, sound, and video using 

wired telecommunications networks. 

Transmission facilities may be based on 

a single technology or a combination of 

technologies.’’ The SBA has developed 

a small business size standard for this 

category, which is: All such firms 

having 1,500 or fewer employees. To 

gauge small business prevalence for 

these cable services we must, however, 

use current census data that are based 

on the previous category of Cable and 

Other Program Distribution and its 

associated size standard; that size 

standard was: All such firms having 

$13.5 million or less in annual receipts. 

According to Census Bureau data for 

2002, there were a total of 1,191 firms 

in this previous category that operated 

for the entire year. Of this total, 1,087 

firms had annual receipts of under $10 

million, and 43 firms had receipts of 

$10 million or more but less than $25 

million. Thus, the majority of these 

firms can be considered small. 

17. Cable Companies and Systems. 

The Commission has also developed its 

own small business size standards, for 

the purpose of cable rate regulation. 

Under the Commission’s rate regulation 

rules, a ‘‘small cable company’’ is one 

serving 400,000 or fewer subscribers, 

nationwide. Industry data indicate that, 

of 1,076 cable operators nationwide, all 

but eleven are small under this size 

standard. In addition, under the 

Commission’s rate regulation rules, a 

‘‘small system’’ is a cable system serving 

15,000 or fewer subscribers. Industry 

data indicate that, of 7,208 systems 

nationwide, 6,139 systems have under 

10,000 subscribers, and an additional 

379 systems have 10,000–19,999 


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Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 202 / Friday, October 17, 2008 / Rules and Regulations 61745 

subscribers. Thus, under this rate 

regulation size standard, most cable 

systems are small. 

18. Cable System Operators. The 

Communications Act of 1934, as 

amended, also contains a separate size 

standard for small cable system 

operators with respect to rate regulation 

requirements, which is ‘‘a cable operator 

that, directly or through an affiliate, 

serves in the aggregate fewer than 1 

percent of all subscribers in the United 

States and is not affiliated with any 

entity or entities whose gross annual 

revenues in the aggregate exceed 

$250,000,000.’’ The Commission has 

determined that an operator serving 

fewer than 677,000 subscribers shall be 

deemed a small operator, if its annual 

revenues, when combined with the total 

annual revenues of all its affiliates, do 

not exceed $250 million in the 

aggregate. Industry data indicate that, of 

1,076 cable operators nationwide, all 

but ten are small under this rate 

regulation size standard. We note that 

the Commission neither requests nor 

collects information on whether cable 

system operators are affiliated with 

entities whose gross annual revenues 

exceed $250 million, and therefore we 

are unable to estimate more accurately 

the number of cable system operators 

that would qualify as small under this 

size standard. 

19. Television Broadcasting. This 

Economic Census category ‘‘comprises 

establishments primarily engaged in 

broadcasting images together with 

sound. These establishments operate 

television broadcasting studios and 

facilities for the programming and 

transmission of programs to the public.’’ 

The SBA has created the following 

small business size standard for 

Television Broadcasting firms: Those 

having $14 million or less in annual 

receipts. The Commission has estimated 

the number of licensed commercial 

television stations to be 1,379. In 

addition, according to Commission staff 

review of the BIA Publications, Inc., 

Master Access Television Analyzer 

Database (BIA) on March 30, 2007, 

about 986 of an estimated 1,374 

commercial television stations (or 

approximately 72 percent) had revenues 

of $13 million or less. We therefore 

estimate that the majority of commercial 

television broadcasters are small 

entities. 

20. We note, however, that in 

assessing whether a business concern 

qualifies as small under the above 

definition, business (control) affiliations 

must be included. Our estimate, 

therefore, likely overstates the number 

of small entities that might be affected 

by our action, because the revenue 

figure on which it is based does not 

include or aggregate revenues from 

affiliated companies. In addition, an 

element of the definition of ‘‘small 

business’’ is that the entity not be 

dominant in its field of operation. We 

are unable at this time to define or 

quantify the criteria that would 

establish whether a specific television 

station is dominant in its field of 

operation. Accordingly, the estimate of 

small businesses to which rules may 

apply does not exclude any television 

station from the definition of a small 

business on this basis and is therefore 

possibly over-inclusive to that extent. 

4. Description of Projected Reporting, 

Recordkeeping, and Other Compliance 

Requirements for Small Entities 

21. So long as cable operators already 

maintain accurate business and 

technical records that would allow them 

to determine whether or not they fall 

within one of the two exemption 

classes, the Fourth Report and Order 

creates no additional reporting, 

recordkeeping, or compliance 

requirements for small cable operators. 

Small broadcast stations will also be 

affected by the rules in the Fourth 

Report and Order, but we do not have 

any reason to expect that the 

compliance burden will be any greater 

than under the prior rules. 

5. Steps Taken To Minimize Significant 

Economic Impact on Small Entities, and 

Significant Alternatives Considered 

22. The RFA requires an agency to 

describe any significant alternatives that 

it has considered in reaching its 

proposed approach, which may include 

the following four alternatives (among 

others): (1) The establishment of 

differing compliance or reporting 

requirements or timetables that take into 

account the resources available to small 

entities; (2) the clarification, 

consolidation, or simplification of 

compliance or reporting requirements 

under the rule for small entities; (3) the 

use of performance, rather than design, 

standards; and (4) an exemption from 

coverage of the rule, or any part thereof, 

for small entities. 

23. Because the requirements in this 

Order are in the manner of an 

exemption from existing cable rules, 

they do not impose a negative economic 

impact on any small cable operators, 

and provide a positive economic impact 

to any operator that operates a system 

that is exempted. Although we sought 

comment on whether there was a 

specific legal basis for affording relief to 

small cable operators, we have declined 

to adopt exemptions based on such 

grounds. Instead, we extend the 

exemptions to specific cable systems 

with certain characteristics. Many of 

these systems are owned by small 

entities, who, as noted, will receive 

positive economic impact from the 

exemptions. The rules do not impose 

any significant burdens on small 

television stations. 

B. Report to Congress 

24. The Commission will send a copy 

of the Fourth Report and Order, 

including this FRFA, in a report to be 

sent to Congress pursuant to the 

Congressional Review Act. In addition, 

the Commission will send a copy of the 

Fourth Report and Order, including this 

FRFA, to the Chief Counsel for 

Advocacy of the SBA. The Fourth 

Report and Order and FRFA (or 

summaries thereof) will also be 

published in the Federal Register. 

C. Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 

Analysis 

25. The Fourth Report and Order has 

been analyzed with respect to the 

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 

(PRA). This document does not contain 

new or modified information collection 

requirements subject to the PRA, Public 

Law 104–13. In addition, therefore, it 

does not contain any new or modified 

‘‘information collection burden for 

small business concerns with fewer than 

25 employees,’’ pursuant to the Small 

Business Paperwork Relief Act of 2002, 

Public Law 107–198, see 44 U.S.C. 

3506(c)(4). 

D. Congressional Review Act 

26. The Commission will include a 

copy of this Fourth Report and Order in 

a report to be sent to Congress and the 

Government Accountability Office 

pursuant to the Congressional Review 

Act, see 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A). 

E. Additional Information 

27. For more information on this 

Fourth Report and Order, please contact 

Lyle Elder, Lyle.Elder@fcc.gov, of the 

Media Bureau, Policy Division, 202– 

418–2120, or Eloise Gore, 

Eloise.Gore@fcc.gov, of the Media 

Bureau, 202–418–7200. 

IV. Ordering Clauses 

28. Accordingly, it is ordered, that, 

pursuant to authority found in sections 

4(i), 4(j), 303(r), 614, and 615 of the 

Communications Act of 1934, as 

amended, 47 U.S.C. 154(i), 154(j), 

303(r), 534, and 535, and § 1.3 of the 

Commission’s rules, 47 CFR 1.3, this 

Fourth Report and Order is hereby 

adopted and shall become effective 

November 17, 2008. 


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61746 Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 202 / Friday, October 17, 2008 / Rules and Regulations 

29. It is further ordered that cable 

systems with (1) 2,500 or fewer 

subscribers that are not affiliated with a 

cable operator serving more than 10% of 

all MVPD subscribers, or (2) an 

activated channel capacity of 552 MHz 

or less, are exempt, from February 18, 

2009 through February 17, 2012, from 

the requirement, under 47 CFR 76.62, to 

carry high definition versions of 

broadcast stations’ signals. 

30. It is further ordered that the 

Consumer and Governmental Affairs 

Bureau, Reference Information Center, 

shall send a copy of this Fourth Report 

and Order, including the Final 

Regulatory Flexibility Analysis, to the 

Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the Small 

Business Administration. 

31. It is further ordered that the 

Commission shall send a copy of this 

Fourth Report and Order in a report to 

be sent to Congress and the General 

Accountability Office pursuant to the 

Congressional Review Act, see 5 U.S.C. 

801(a)(1)(A). 

List of Subjects in 47 CFR Part 76 

Cable television. 

Federal Communications Commission. 

Marlene H. Dortch, 

Secretary. 

[FR Doc. E8–24317 Filed 10–16–08; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6712–01–P 


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