Opinion ID: 2506
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Historical Carriage Factor

Text: After the Bureau issued its 2006 Order, but before the FCC affirmed it, Verizon began carrying WRNN on its FiOS system to areas of Nassau and Suffolk Counties. 2007 FCC Order, 22 F.C.C.R. at 21056 ¶ 4 & n. 15. The FCC concluded that this overlapping carriage provides support for WRNN-DT with respect to the historic carriage factor. Id. at ¶ 4 n. 15. In a single paragraph in its brief, Cablevision argues that this analysis is contrary to clear statutory language because [c]arriage initiated in the past few months does not constitute historical carriage. Cablevision Br. at 36-37. Cablevision, however, fails to supply a contrary, correct definition of historically carried, and does not discuss whether we should defer to the Bureau's interpretation of the term, in accordance with Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837, 104 S.Ct. 2778, 81 L.Ed.2d 694 (1984), as we did with the must-carry statute generally in WLNY-TV, Inc. v. FCC, 163 F.3d at 142. Even if Cablevision could demonstrate error in the sense that the Verizon carriage was not historical, they have failed to show why such error would warrant vacatur given that (1) Cablevision does not contest the propriety of considering Verizon's carriage as an unenumerated, non-statutory factor, and (2) the Bureau decided to order carriage despite its belief that WRNN had not been historically carried in the relevant communities. Accordingly, we decline to vacate the FCC's order based on this asserted error in the FCC's analysis of the historical carriage factor.