§534 Carriage of local commercial television signals

Summary

Cable companies must carry the signals of local commercial TV stations on their systems, and in some cases they must carry qualified low‑power stations too. If a system has 12 or fewer usable channels it must carry at least three local commercial stations, unless the system has 300 or fewer subscribers — then it has no duty so long as it does not drop any broadcast station it already carries. If a system has more than 12 usable channels, the company must carry local commercial stations on up to one‑third of its usable channels. When there are more local stations than the system must carry, the company picks which ones to carry, but it may not substitute a qualified low‑power station for a full‑power local station. If the company carries an affiliate of a broadcast network, it must carry the affiliate whose city‑of‑license reference point is closest to the system’s main headend. Carriage must include the station’s main video, audio, and closed captions, and the whole program schedule unless a specific rule blocks some programs. The stations carried must be shown without material loss of quality; the federal agency will set and update quality rules and make any needed changes when broadcast standards change. Other rules: duplicate or overlapping signals may be excluded, and carrying multiple stations from the same network counts toward the one‑third limit. A station may choose its cable channel number from its over‑the‑air channel, the channel it used on July 19, 1985, or the one it used on January 1, 1992, or another number if both sides agree; disputes go to the federal agency. Every subscriber must get the carried signals on all connected TVs; if a subscriber needs a converter box the company must tell them and offer to sell or lease one at approved rates. The company must identify which signals it carries if asked, and must give a station at least 30 days’ written notice before dropping or moving it. Companies may not take money for required carriage or channel placement, except for reasonable costs to deliver a good signal to the headend, payments to cover added copyright liability for distant signals, and existing agreements made before June 26, 1990 that remain in force. If there are not enough full‑power stations to meet the carriage slots, systems with up to 35 channels must carry one qualified low‑power station and larger systems must carry two; extra low‑power stations may be put on unused public, educational, or governmental channels with local approval. If a station says it was wrongly denied carriage, it must notify the company in writing; the company must answer in 30 days. The station can file a complaint with the federal agency, which will decide within 120 days and can order carriage or repositioning and require at least 12 months of continued carriage if the company failed to meet its duties. A “local commercial television station” means a full‑power broadcast station in the same TV market as the cable system. A “qualified low‑power station” is a low‑power station that meets several technical, programming, distance, and market size conditions (for example, delivering a good signal, being within 35 miles, and serving a small community).