Source: https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?mc=true&node=se47.2.25_1701&rgn=div8
Timestamp: 2020-08-06 22:45:01
Document Index: 335352256

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 25', '§25', '§25', '§73', '§25', '§25', '§25', '§25', '§25', 'art 76']

Title 47 → Chapter I → Subchapter B → Part 25 → Subpart J → §25.701
Subpart J—Public Interest Obligations
§25.701 Other DBS Public interest obligations.
(b) Political broadcasting requirements—
(1) Legally qualified candidates for public office for purposes of this section are as defined in §73.1940 of this chapter.
(3) Reasonable access. (i) DBS providers must comply with section 312(a)(7) of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, by allowing reasonable access to, or permitting purchase of reasonable amounts of time for, the use of their facilities by a legally qualified candidate for federal elective office on behalf of his or her candidacy.
(ii) Weekend access. For purposes of providing reasonable access, DBS providers shall make facilities available for use by federal candidates on the weekend before the election if the DBS provider has provided similar access to commercial advertisers during the year preceding the relevant election period. DBS providers shall not discriminate between candidates with regard to weekend access.
(4) Use of facilities; equal opportunities. DBS providers must comply with section 315 of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, by providing equal opportunities to legally qualified candidates for DBS origination programming.
(i) General requirements. Except as otherwise indicated in §25.701(b)(3), no DBS provider is required to permit the use of its facilities by any legally qualified candidate for public office, but if a DBS provider shall permit any such candidate to use its facilities, it shall afford equal opportunities to all other candidates for that office to use such facilities. Such DBS provider shall have no power of censorship over the material broadcast by any such candidate. Appearance by a legally qualified candidate on any:
(ii) Uses. As used in this section and §25.701(c), the term “use” means a candidate appearance (including by voice or picture) that is not exempt under paragraphs (b)(3)(i)(A) through (b)(3)(i)(D) of this section.
(iii) Timing of request. A request for equal opportunities must be submitted to the DBS provider within 1 week of the day on which the first prior use giving rise to the right of equal opportunities occurred: Provided, however, That where the person was not a candidate at the time of such first prior use, he or she shall submit his or her request within 1 week of the first subsequent use after he or she has become a legally qualified candidate for the office in question.
(iv) Burden of proof. A candidate requesting equal opportunities of the DBS provider or complaining of noncompliance to the Commission shall have the burden of proving that he or she and his or her opponent are legally qualified candidates for the same public office.
(v) Discrimination between candidates. In making time available to candidates for public office, no DBS provider shall make any discrimination between candidates in practices, regulations, facilities, or services for or in connection with the service rendered pursuant to this part, or make or give any preference to any candidate for public office or subject any such candidate to any prejudice or disadvantage; nor shall any DBS provider make any contract or other agreement that shall have the effect of permitting any legally qualified candidate for any public office to use DBS origination programming to the exclusion of other legally qualified candidates for the same public office.
(c) Candidate rates—(1) Charges for use of DBS facilities. The charges, if any, made for the use of any DBS facility by any person who is a legally qualified candidate for any public office in connection with his or her campaign for nomination for election, or election, to such office shall not exceed:
(d) Political file. Each DBS provider shall maintain a complete and orderly political file.
(e) Commercial limits in children's programs. (1) No DBS provider shall air more than 10.5 minutes of commercial matter per hour during children's programming on weekends, or more that 12 minutes of commercial matter per hour on week days.
Note 1 to paragraph (e): Commercial matter means airtime sold for purposes of selling a product or service.
Note 2 to paragraph (e): For purposes of this section, children's programming refers to programs originally produced and broadcast primarily for an audience of children 12 years old and younger.
(f) Carriage obligation for noncommercial programming—
(1) Reservation requirement. DBS providers shall reserve four percent of their channel capacity exclusively for use by qualified programmers for noncommercial programming of an educational or informational nature. Channel capacity shall be determined annually by calculating, based on measurements taken on a quarterly basis, the average number of channels available for video programming on all satellites licensed to the provider during the previous year. DBS providers may use this reserved capacity for any purpose until such time as it is used for noncommercial educational or informational programming.
(2) Qualified programmer. For purposes of these rules, a qualified programmer is:
(3) Editorial control. (i) A DBS operator will be required to make capacity available only to qualified programmers and may select among such programmers when demand exceeds the capacity of their reserved channels.
(5) Rates, terms and conditions. (i) In making the required reserved capacity available, DBS providers cannot charge rates that exceed costs that are directly related to making the capacity available to qualified programmers. Direct costs include only the cost of transmitting the signal to the uplink facility and uplinking the signal to the satellite.
(6) Public file. (i) In addition to the political file requirements in §25.701, each DBS provider shall maintain in the online file hosted by the Commission a complete and orderly record of:
(iii) Each DBS provider must also place in the online file hosted by the Commission the records required to be placed in the public inspection file by §25.701(e) (commercial limits in children's programs) and by §25.601 and 47 CFR part 76, subpart E (equal employment opportunity requirements) and retain those records for the period required by those rules.
(7) Effective date. DBS providers are required to make channel capacity available pursuant to this section upon the effective date. Programming provided pursuant to this rule must be available to the public no later than six months after the effective date.
[69 FR 23157, Apr. 28, 2004, as amended at 72 FR 50033, Aug. 29, 2007; 78 FR 8431, Feb. 6, 2013; 81 FR 10122, Feb. 29, 2016; 84 FR 45668, Aug. 30, 2019]