Opinion ID: 760117
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The FCC's Order

Text: 37 Discussion passes, in light of Congress' expressed aim, to an analysis of the FCC's actions in this case. The FCC first applied each statutory factor, finding that factors 1, 3, and 4 did not support cable carriage for petitioners in the communities at issue. So as to give effect to Congress' expressed design to preserve local programming, the agency focused on factor 2 and employed Grade B contours, mileage and geographical considerations to determine how far each station's market extended. 38 These considerations are particularly relevant to the New York ADI. As many of the FCC Cable Services Bureau's decisions point out, the New York ADI is unusually large in terms of geography and populations. See, e.g., In re Clear Cablevision Inc., 11 F.C.C.R. at 22290-91; In re Cablevision Sys. Corp., 11 F.C.C.R. at 6472. Because the New York ADI is the largest in the country, it contains geographies and demographics unlike the typical ADI. For example, it consists of 6,749,500 television households--meaning that even when a large percentage of the ADI is removed from a station's must-carry coverage, as it was in the case of WRNN-TV (78 percent) and WHAI-TV (89 percent)--that station is still able to reach hundreds of thousands of households. Moreover, the New York ADI is significantly more populous than the second-ranked Los Angeles ADI--exceeding it by almost 2 million television households. 39 With respect to its geographic make-up, not only does the New York ADI span four states, but the counties within this area are not contained in one contiguous land mass. Rather, they are separated by several bodies of water, including the Hudson River and Long Island Sound. New York City acts as a natural boundary because its complicated and congested traffic patterns make it difficult for residents at one end of the ADI to access communities at the other end. The ADI therefore has an obvious tendency to break itself up into smaller divisions reflecting localized regions. New York City serves as the hub, with its stations' programming and advertising being of widespread interest across the ADI. Outlying communities are the spokes, with their stations generally showing programming and advertising of interest only to viewers in relatively close proximity to that community. 40 The FCC's order is an appropriate application of the statute. It analyzes each of the four factors for evaluating exclusion requests listed in the statute and recounts the FCC Cable Services Bureau's determination that the stations generally had no history of carriage in the cable communities in question [factor 1], that they had virtually no over-the-air audience in the cable communities at issue [factor 4], and that other area stations provide subscribers residing in the cable communities with an abundance of targeted local newscasts and public affairs programming [factor 3]. In re Market Modifications, 12 F.C.C.R. at 12267. According to the FCC, the Bureau recognized the difficulties of applying the four statutory factors to stations of recent origin ... or more specialized formats. If a decision were based on these specific statutory criteria alone [factors 1, 3, and 4], the stations at issue would have virtually no market at all to assert their signal carriage rights because they fail to satisfy each of the factors throughout the New York ADI. Id. at 12268. 41 Instead of limiting itself to the four factors, the Bureau properly interpreted the statute's legislative history indicating that the four enumerated factors are not intended to be exclusive in determining a particular station's television market. Id. The Bureau relied more heavily on basic geographic and political features and recognized marketing facts as the best alternative evidence of the market boundaries of the stations subject to deletion here. Id. The FCC order at issue here emphasizes the Bureau's use of Grade B contours in constructing the station's markets. Id. at 12268-71. However, the Bureau's decisions are based on other factors as well. For example, the Bureau's decision on WHAI's market on Long Island states that while WHAI-TV provides Grade B service to some of the Long Island communities named in the petition, the intervention of the Long Island sound between these communities and the Bridgeport situs of the station appears to be a logical boundary to its market area and validates the absence of audience and historic carriage as appropriate market defining evidence. In re Cablevision Sys. Corp., 11 F.C.C.R. at 6478. In addition, the Bureau took into consideration the New York Interconnect sub-zones, advertising zones created by the cable operators in the New York ADI for local advertisers. See id. at 6479-80; see also In re Market Modifications, 12 F.C.C.R. at 12268; In re Clear Cablevision Inc., 11 F.C.C.R. at 22291. In sum, the FCC, in adopting most of the findings and conclusions of its Cable Services Bureau, properly applied the statute by considering the four factors in the statute as well as others not enumerated in order to preserve local programming. 42 From the above analysis, we think the following rule has thus been distilled: in the normal course, the ADI presumption applies. When broadcast stations are located at the hub of an ADI, they will ordinarily have no problem satisfying the four factors listed in the statute, and will be able to repel requests for exclusion. Accordingly, in most cases, the ADI lines will more accurately delineate the area in which a station provides local service than will any arbitrary mileage-based definition. 43 However, when spoke or rim broadcast stations, located at the edge of an ADI, are targeted for exclusion proceedings, a strict application of the four statutory factors might indicate that widespread exclusion is in order. Inasmuch as the New York ADI is the largest ADI in the country, it is not surprising that it presents a paradigmatic rim case. But, because the statutory factors are illustrative rather than exclusive, the FCC does not controvert Congress' plan--continuing the local origination of programming--when it considers the Grade B contour, the station's distance from the community, and geographical and political boundaries as additional factors in order to prevent widespread exclusion. 44 Accordingly, in general, the FCC should (1) observe the presumption that a broadcast station's market is the ADI in which it is located; (2) consider the four statutory factors in an exclusion proceeding to evaluate particularized evidence of local origination of programming; and (3) if the four factors alone would trigger widespread exclusion, consider Grade B contours, distance, geographical and political boundaries, and other unenumerated factors to limit the scope of the exclusion. 45 We hold that this approach--used by the FCC in this case--is in accord with the plain language of the statute, with the purposes of the legislation articulated in the findings section of the Act, and with the legislative history, and that it duly respects the value of localism.CONCLUSION 46 Having considered petitioners' remaining arguments and finding them to be without merit, we affirm the order.