Source: https://www.fcc.gov/document/order-denying-market-mod-pet-and-condit-granting-must-carry-pet?fontsize=largeFont
Timestamp: 2015-07-05 15:13:45
Document Index: 126648592

Matched Legal Cases: ['§76', '§ 534', '§ 76', '§ 76', '§ 534', '§ 73', '§ 73', '§ 76', '§76']

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Order Denying Market Mod. Pet. And Condit. Granting Must Carry Pet.
DA 14-231
Complaint for Carriage by )
CSR-8752-M
Western Pacific Broadcast, LLC
Docket No. 12-364
Armstrong Utilities, Inc.
Petition for Modification of Philadelphia, PA
CSR-8838-A
Docket No. 13-245
Television Station WACP, Atlantic City, NJ
Adopted: February 20, 2014
1. Western Pacific Broadcast, LLC, licensee of commercial broadcast television station WACP-
DT, Atlantic City, NJ (“WACP”) filed a mandatory carriage petition seeking carriage on certain cable systems operated by Armstrong Utilities, Inc. (“Armstrong”) in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania designated market area (“DMA”), pursuant to Sections 76.7 and 76.61(a)(1) of the Commission's rules.1 Armstrong has opposed WACP’s petition on the grounds of poor signal quality,2 and WACP has filed multiple requests for extensions of time to improve its signal, the majority of which requests have been unopposed. Ultimately, Armstrong filed a separate petition to modify WACP’s market to remove the station from the cable communities where the station sought carriage,3 and WACP combined its opposition to this petition with its reply in the must carry matter.4 Given their interrelatedness, and for administrative convenience, the Bureau is consolidating these two matters into one proceeding,5 and we deny the market modification 1 Complaint of Western Pacific Broadcast, LLC, against Armstrong Utilities, Inc., CSR-8752-M; Docket No. 12-364, filed Dec. 6, 2013 (“WACP Petition”).
2 Opposition of Armstrong Utilities, Inc., filed Jan. 4, 2013 (“Armstrong Opp.”); Supplemental Opposition, of Armstrong Utilities, Inc., filed June 28, 2013 (“Armstrong Supp. Opp.”).
3 Petition for Special Relief of Armstrong Utilities, Inc., CSR-8838-A, Docket No. 13-245, filed Sept. 26, 2013 (“Armstrong Petition”). The Pennsylvania communities from which Armstrong seeks to delete WACP are East Nottingham Township (Twp), Elk Twp, Highland Twp, Londonderry Twp, Lower Oxford Twp, Oxford Twp, Upper Oxford Twp, West Fallowfield Twp, and West Nottingham Twp.
4 Opposition to Petition for Special Relief of WACP, filed Nov. 12, 2013 (“WACP Opp.”). Armstrong replied to both sets of pleadings. See Reply of Armstrong to Consolidated Opposition, filed Nov. 22, 2013 (“Armstrong Reply”).
5 WACP has sought to combine its response to Armstrong’s market modification petition with its reply in the must carry dispute. Motion for Extension of Time of WACP, filed September 30, 2013 at 2-3 (arguing “it makes little sense for Western Pacific to both address Armstrong's signal quality claim in the above-captioned proceeding and (continued....)
DA 14-231 petition and conditionally grant the must carry petition.
2. Pursuant to Section 614 of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended (the “Act”), and implementing rules adopted by the Commission, commercial television broadcast stations, such as WACP, are entitled to assert mandatory carriage rights on cable systems located within their market.6 A station’s market for this purpose is its “designated market area,” or DMA, as defined by the Nielsen Company.7 The term DMA is a geographic market designation that defines each television market exclusive of others, based on measured viewing patterns. Pursuant to the Commission’s must carry rules, cable operators have the burden of showing that a commercial station located in the same DMA is not entitled to carriage.8 A cable operator can show that a station's signal, which would otherwise be entitled to carriage, does not provide a good quality signal to a cable system's principal headend or is too distant from that headend.9 Should a station fail to provide the requisite over-the-air signal quality to a cable system's principal headend, it still may obtain carriage rights because under the Commission's rules a station may provide a cable operator with specialized equipment, at the station's expense, which will improve the station's signal to an acceptable quality at a cable system's principal headend.10 3. With respect to Armstrong’s market modification claim, under the Act, the Commission may consider requests to modify market areas. Section 614(h)(1)(C) provides that the Commission may:
with respect to a particular television broadcast station, include additionalcommunities within its television market or exclude communities from suchstation’s market to better effectuate the purposes of this section.11
the Commission shall afford particular attention to the value of localismby taking into account such factors as (I)
(...continued from previous page)address it once again in an opposition to the Market Modification Petition”). We agree and consolidate these actions.
6 See Implementation of the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992, Broadcast Signal Carriage Issues, MM Docket No. 92-259, Report and Order, 8 FCC Rcd 2965, 2975-77 ¶¶ 41-46 (1993) (“Must Carry Order”). The Commission has subsequently extended mandatory carriage rights to digital television stations under Section 614(a) of the Act and has amended its rules accordingly. See Carriage of Digital Television Broadcast Signals First Report and Order, See 16 FCC Rcd 2598, 2606 ¶¶ 15-16, 2610 ¶ 28 (2001) (“DTV Must Carry Order”); see also 47 C.F.R. §76.64(f)(4).
7 Section 614(h)(1)(C) of the Communications Act, as amended by the Telecommunications Act of 1996, provides that a station’s market shall be determined by the Commission by regulation or order using, where available, commercial publications which delineate television markets based on viewing patterns. See 47 U.S.C. § 534(h)(1)(C). Section 76.55(e)(2) of the Commission’s rules specifies that a commercial broadcast television station’s market is its Designated Market Area as determined by The Nielsen Company. 47 C.F.R. § 76.55(e)(2).
8 See Must Carry Order, 8 FCC Rcd at 2990 ¶ 102.9 47 C.F.R. § 76.55(c)(3).10 Must Carry Order, 8 FCC Rcd at 2991 ¶ 104.11 47 U.S.C. § 534(h)(1)(C). 2
DA 14-231 been historically carried on the cable system or systems within such community;
whether the television station provides coverage or other local service to such community;
whether any other television station that is eligible to be carried by a
cable system in such community in fulfillment of the requirements of thissection provides news coverage of issues of concern to such community orprovides carriage or coverage of sporting and other events of interest to thecommunity;
evidence of viewing patterns in cable and noncable households within
the areas served by the cable system or systems in such community.12
12 Id.13 Must Carry Order, 8 FCC Rcd 2965, 2977 n.139. 14 Service area maps using Longley-Rice (version 1.2.2) propagation curves may also be included to support a technical service exhibit. The Longley-Rice model provides a more accurate representation of a station’s technical coverage area because it takes into account such factors as mountains and valleys that are not specifically reflected in a traditional Grade B contour analysis. In situations involving mountainous terrain or other unusual geographic features, Longley-Rice propagation studies can aid in determining whether or not a television station actually provides local service to a community under factor two of the market modification test. 15 While the Grade B contour defined an analog television station's service area, see 47 C.F.R. § 73.683(a), with the completion of the full power digital television transition on June 12, 2009, there are no longer any full power analog stations. Instead, as set forth in Section 73.622(e), a station's DTV service area is defined as the area within its noise-limited contour where its signal strength is predicted to exceed the noise-limited service level – which for VHF stations is 28 dBu. See 47 C.F.R. § 73.622(e). Accordingly, the Commission has treated a digital station’s noise limited service contour as the functional equivalent of an analog station’s Grade B contour. See Report To Congress: The Satellite Home Viewer Extension and Reauthorization Act of 2004; Study of Digital Television Field Strength Standards and Testing Procedures, 20 FCC Rcd 19504, 19507 ¶ 3, 19554 ¶ 111 (2005); Implementation of the Satellite Home Viewer Extension and Reauthorization Act of 2004, Implementation of Section 340 of the Communications Act, Report and Order, 20 FCC Rcd 17278, 17292 ¶ 31 (2005). See also Lenfest Broadcasting, LLC, 19 FCC Rcd 8970, 8974 ¶ 7 n.27 (2004) (“For digital stations operating on channels 14-69 [UHF stations], for market modification purposes the 41 dBu DTV service area contour is the digital equivalent of an analog station's Grade B contour.”).
DA 14-231 (3) Available data on shopping and labor patterns in the localmarket.
(6) Published audience data for the relevant station showing itsaverage all day audience (i.e., the reported audience averaged overSunday-Saturday, 7 a.m.-1 a.m., or an equivalent time period) for bothcable and noncable households or other specific audience indicia, suchas station advertising and sales data or viewer contribution records.16
5. Petitions for special relief to modify television markets that do not include the above evidence shall be dismissed without prejudice and may be re-filed at a later date with the appropriate filing fee. The Modification Final Report and Order provides that parties may continue to submit whatever additional evidence they deem appropriate and relevant.
6. In the Carriage of Digital Television Broadcast Signals First Report and Order (“DTV Must Carry Report and Order”), the Commission concluded that under Section 614(a) of the Act, digital-onlytelevision stations had mandatory carriage rights, and amended its rules to reflect this.17 The Commission also clarified its framework for analyzing market modifications for digital television stations.18 It found that the statutory factors in Section 614(h), the current process for requesting market modifications, and the evidence needed to support such petitions, would be applicable to digital television modification petitions.19 While the Commission presumed the market of a station’s digital signal would be coterminous with that station’s market area for its prior analog signal, it recognized that the technical coverage area of a digital television signal may not exactly replicate the technical coverage area of its former analog television signal.20 Therefore, in deciding DTV market modifications, the Commission would take changes in signal strength and technical coverage into consideration, on a case-by-case basis.
Mandatory Carriage Issues
WACP commenced broadcast operations in June 2012, and on June 6th it sent a letter pursuant to Section 76.64(f)(4) of our rules to Armstrong electing mandatory carriage on the latter’s cable 16 47 C.F. R. § 76.59(b). 17 See 16 FCC Rcd 2598, 2606 ¶ 15, 2610 ¶ 28 (2001); 47 C.F.R. §76.64(f)(4). 18 See 16 FCC Rcd at 2635-36 ¶¶ 84-85. The Commission affirmed that for digital signal carriage issues, it would continue to rely on the Nielsen Company’s market designations, publications, and assignments it used for analog signal carriage issues. See id. at 2636 ¶ 85.
19See DTV Must Carry Report and Order, 16 FCC Rcd at 2636 ¶ 85.20 See id. In adopting technical rules for the digital transmission of broadcast signals, the Commission attempted to ensure that a station’s digital over-the-air coverage area would replicate as closely as possible its former analog coverage area. See id. at 2636 ¶ 85 n.254, citing Sixth DTV Report and Order, 12 FCC Rcd 14588, 14605 ¶ 29 (1997).
DA 14-231 systems serving certain communities in Chester County in the Philadelphia, PA DMA.21 Specifically, the communities at issue are served by Armstrong’s Oxford cable system and contain about 5,400 customers.22 After no response was received to Armstrong’s June 6th carriage election letter, WACP sent the cable operator a carriage demand letter on September 14, 2012.23 However, Armstrong did not respond to this carriage demand within 30 days as required by Section 76.61(a)(2) of our rules.24 Although Armstrong asserts it sent an email to WACP on September 21st, this did not qualify as an affirmative denial.25 Instead, Armstrong denied WACP’s carriage demand in its response of November 19, 2013, and attached signal strength studies for support. WACP argued against the consideration of this denial on various grounds.26 As further detailed below, because the parties engaged in subsequent discussions, installations, and further testing of WACP’s signal over several months, we consider the timeliness of Armstrong’s response moot and proceed to consider WACP’s signal quality issues on their merits.
8. WACP filed its timely must carry complaint on Dec