Must-carry
In cable television, governments apply a must-carry regulation stating that locally licensed television stations must be carried on a cable provider's system. North America. Canada. Under current CRTC regulations, the lowest tier of service on all Canadian television providers may not be priced higher than $25 per-month, and must include all local Canadian broadcast television channels, local legislative and educational services, and all specialty services that have 9(1)(h) must-carry status. All specialty channels licensed by the CRTC as a mainstream news channel must also be offered by all television providers, although they do  not necessarily have to be on the lowest tier of service. In the mid-to-late 1970s, the CRTC implemented a rule that a cable system must carry a broadcast television station at no cost to the broadcaster so long as the transmitter emitted an equivalent isotropically radiated power of at least 5 watts. This CRTC rule may have changed over the years, but in principle, a broadcast television station transmitting at 1 kW EIRP must be carried. The status of terrestrial "digital only" channels with respect to the must-carry requirement is untested as, unlike the U.S., some television  stations in Canada did not operate digital signals until the August 2011 and the digital broadcasters that were active prior to then were merely high definition simulcasts of those stations' existing analog signals in major centres such as Toronto and Vancouver with no additional digital subchannels offered due to broadcasters opting not to carry any due to CRTC rules that require subchannels to be licensed separately. CITY-TV in Toronto (according to its own website and annual reports) owes its financial success as an independent station to this CRTC must-carry rule. It is assumed that this must-carry rule  was aimed at smaller television stations in Ontario and Quebec, many of which are not carried by satellite television providers. For many years, the Canadian must-carry rules created very little friction between terrestrial broadcasters and cable systems, as providers are allowed to more aggressively implement other digital telecommunications services (like cable internet services and IP telephony) with less overall regulation than their U.S. counterparts. However, in 2008, Canada's two largest commercial television networks, CTV and Global, began to demand that the CRTC permit them to charge a fee for cable carriage, even alleging that some smaller market stations  would be forced to cease operations if this was not allowed. United States. In the United States, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulates this area of business and public policy pursuant to 47 U.S.C. Part II. These rules were upheld in a 5–4 decision by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1997 in the case "Turner Broadcasting v. FCC" (95-992). Although cable television service providers routinely carried local affiliates of the major broadcast networks, independent stations and affiliates of minor networks were sometimes not carried, on the premise it would allow cable providers to instead carry non -local programming which they believed would attract more customers to their service. Many cable operators were also equity owners in these cable channels, especially Tele-Communications Inc., then the nation's largest multiple system operator (MSO), and had moved to replace local channels with equity-owned programming (at the time, TCI held a large stake in Discovery Communications). This pressure was especially strong on cable systems with limited bandwidth for channels. The smaller local broadcasters argued that by hampering their access to this increasing segment of the local television audience, this posed a threat to the viability of free-to -view broadcast television, which they argued was a worthy public good. Local broadcast stations also argued cable systems were attempting to serve as a "gatekeeper" in competing unfairly for advertising revenue. Some affiliates of major networks also feared that non-local affiliates might negotiate to provide television programming to local cable services to expand their advertising market, taking away this audience from local stations, with similar adverse impact on free broadcast television. Although cable providers argued that such regulation would impose an undue burden on their flexibility in selecting which services would be most appealing to their customers, the current  must-carry rules were enacted by the United States Congress in 1992 (via the Cable Television Protection and Competition Act), and the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the rules in rejecting the arguments of the cable industry and programmers in the majority decision authored by Justice Anthony Kennedy. That decision also held that MSOs were functioning as a vertically integrated monopoly. A side effect of the must-carry rules is that a broadcast station cannot charge a cable television provider license fees for the program content retransmitted on the cable network under the rule. But note that must-carry is  an option of the station and the station may, in lieu of must-carry, negotiate license fees as part of a retransmission consent agreement. Applicability. There are a few exceptions to must-carry, most notably: Digital must-carry. Digital must-carry (also incorrectly called "dual must-carry") is the requirement that cable companies carry either the analog (over a hybrid analog/digital cable system) or digital (over a digital-only pay television system like AT&T U-verse or Verizon FiOS) signal. They must still meet the every-subscriber/television receiver laws, i.e. "Pursuant to Section 614(b)(7) and 615(h), the operator  of a cable system is required to ensure that signals carried in fulfillment of the must-carry requirements are provided to EVERY subscriber of the system", of local stations. This has been opposed by numerous cable networks, which might be bumped off of digital cable were this to happen, and promoted by television stations and the National Association of Broadcasters, whom it would benefit by passing their high definition or digital multicast signals through to their cable viewers. In June 2006, the FCC was poised to pass new digital must-carry rules, but the item was pulled before a vote  actually took place, apparently due to insufficient support for the chairman's position. In September 2007, the Commission approved a regulation that requires cable systems to carry the analog signals if the cable system uses both types of transmission. The FCC left the decision to also retransmit the digital signal up to the cable provider. Digital-only operators are not required to provide an analog signal for their customers (AT&T U-verse, Verizon FiOS). Small cable operators were allowed to request a waiver. The regulation ended three years after the date of the digital television transition (which occurred on June  12, 2009), and applies only to stations not opting for retransmission consent. Cable operators (analog and digital) that transmit more than 12 channels need only provide a maximum of their total channel size to this must-carry requirement. Thus with about 150 channels available to a 1 GHz operator, they are only required to support up to 50 analog channels (42 for 850 MHz, 36 for 750 MHz). Cable providers that decide to scale back their analog selection merely need provide written notification on their bill (or equivalent) for 30 days prior to their change. Customers already using digital cable  set-top boxes will usually be unaffected (if anything after the change, they may get a large number of additional channels because each analog channel can be replaced by 2–51 digital channels). The requirement only applies to must-carry stations; most metro providers carry many more analog stations by choice, not law. Other networks. A variation of "must-carry" also applies to DBS services like DirecTV and Dish Network, as first mandated by the Satellite Home Viewer Act. These providers are not required to carry local stations in "every" metropolitan area in which they provide service, but must carry "all  of an area's local stations if they carry any at all. Sometimes, these will be placed on spot beams: narrowly directed satellite signals targeted to an area of no more than a few hundred miles diameter, in order to allow the transponder frequencies to be re-used in other markets. In some cases, stations of lower perceived importance are placed on side satellites" which require a second antenna. This practice has raised some controversy within the industry, leading to the requirement that the satellite provider offer to install any extra dish antenna hardware for free and place a notice  to this effect in place of any missing channels. Retransmission consent. If a broadcaster elects retransmission consent, there is no obligation for the cable/satellite system to carry the signal. This option allows broadcasters who own stations, including those affiliated with major networks such as CBS, NBC and ABC or Fox to request cash or other compensation from cable/satellite providers for signals. Initially, stations usually attempted to gain further distribution of cable/satellite services and/or co-owned low-power television stations in which they also hold an equity position rather than direct cash compensation, which cable/satellite systems had  almost universally balked at paying. However, in the mid 2000s the stations succeeded in earning carriage fees from cable/satellite systems. In some cases, these channels have been temporarily removed from distribution by systems who felt broadcasters were asking too steep a price for their signal. Examples include the removal of all CBS-owned local stations as well as MTV, VH1 and Nickelodeon from Dish Network for two days in 2004, the removal of ABC-owned stations from Time Warner Cable for a little under a day in 2000, and the removal of all Hearst Television local stations from Time  Warner for more than a week in 2012. In August 2013, Time Warner Cable and CBS Corporation reached an impasse in negotiations over retransmission fees, forcing a one-month blackout of CBS-owned broadcast and cable networks similar to the 2004 Dish Network blackout. It was the longest such blackout to date, and has produced calls for Congress to revisit the issue of retransmission consent. TWC had offered affected customers a $20 credit on their bill for the inconvenience, but the blackout caused at least one class-action lawsuit against the cable operator, and others are pending. In the  U.S., retransmission consent has often been chosen over must-carry by the major commercial television networks. Under the present rules, a new agreement is negotiated every three years, and stations must choose must-carry or retransmission consent for each cable system they wish their signal to be carried on. Non-commercial stations (such as local PBS stations) may not seek retransmission consent and may only invoke must-carry status. Mexico. Before 2013, no regulation required cable or satellite providers to carry national television networks or, in the case of cable, local stations. Cable providers had to negotiate retransmission consent with  Televisa and TV Azteca; often, they were bundled with other pay channels. Local stations had to strike separate agreements. This meant that few providers had all of the local stations available in an area, and availability varied significantly among providers in the same city. As part of the telecommunications reform of 2013 and the Federal Telecommunications and Broadcasting Law ("Ley Federal de Telecomunicaciones y Radiodifusión") of 2014, new "must-offer, must-carry" laws were introduced: Reactions and conflicts. This new law provoked complaints from television companies TV Azteca and Televisa, who argued that the action constituted copyright infringement and sought  royalties for the transmission of channels. In addition, Televisa requested a right of "amparo" to declare that the IFT did not have constitutional power to decide on the television channels. This controversy was solved when the President of Mexico announced the filing of a constitutional controversy before the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, to reaffirm the regulatory powers of the Institute, giving the agency legal and judicial power to make decisions on the matter. Europe. Czech Republic. In the Czech Republic, all television stations that have a terrestrial licence (analog or digital) are required to be placed in  the lowest (cheapest) offer of all cable, IPTV and satellite companies. Must-carry regulations are applied to: Ireland. In Ireland, cable, multichannel multipoint distribution services and satellite providers have Comreg regulated "must-carry" stations. For cable companies, this covers RTÉ One, RTÉ Two, TV3 and TG4. The same rules apply to digital MMDS systems. Analogue MMDS companies are required to carry only TV3 due to serious bandwidth limitations. Asia. India. The Indian government has applied a must-carry rule for public broadcaster channels from Doordarshan by cable, direct-to-home and IPTV network. Cable television operators must offer DD National , DD News, Lok Sabha TV, Rajya Sabha TV and regional channels to all subscribers. In addition, DD Bharati and DD Urdu must also be carried in their appropriate tiers. Indonesia. As stipulated in the Broadcasting Act No. 32 of 2002, all "subscription broadcasting institutions" (pay satellite, cable, and IPTV providers) are required to provide at least 10% of their channel capacity for domestic channels, both public (i.e. TVRI and local public broadcasters) and private broadcasters. Furthermore, according to the act, they also must provide one domestic production-based channel in ten foreign production-based channels, with at least one domestic  production-based channel. These rules were rooted from the previous 1997 Broadcasting Act. Because of the loose regulation, pay television providers are free to determine which network they would carry in their package as long as they reach the 10% minimum. Some providers carrying national private networks (unlike in terrestrial, they excluding local programming) and a number of local stations such as JakTV from Jakarta and JTV from Surabaya, even if the carriage is intended for national subscribers. Some are opt to not including several private networks because they did not have an agreement with the respective networks. Also, out  of three TVRI national channels and its local stations, only TVRI Nasional that carried by most providers (the exception is Transvision, who also carry TVRI Sport HD in its package). Unlike in terrestrial, the providers neither including local programming in TVRI Nasional feed as in analog nor carrying dedicated local station's channel as in digital. Philippines. The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) requires pay television operators to carry licensed free-to-air stations on their all their packages. The rule particularly forbids pay-TV operators from excluding such stations to places which ordinarily cannot receive a decent broadcast signal . Thailand. In Thailand, all terrestrial television channels are required to be carried on satellite and cable television platform as free-to-air channels and required to be placed on same EPG number as their terrestrial counterparts. Must-carry rule was applied to the analog terrestrial television channels and was dropped in 2014 replacing by digital terrestrial television channels. Thailand's National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) said the must-carry rule will be used to guarantee Thais' basic right to watch free-TV programs via any platform such as antennas and cable and satellite receivers. Vietnam. The Vietnamese government required  7 must-carry channels to be carried free-to-air on all television platform such as cable, satellite and the internet. These channels are designed to air news, information and propaganda for the public.