§76.56. Signal carriage obligations. — Inbound Citations

(1) Any signal that was permitted (or, in the case of cable systems commencing operations after June 24, 1981, that would have been permitted) under the rules and regulations of the Federal Communications Commission in effect on June 24, 1981 (former 47 CFR 76.1 through 76.617 (1980)); or

(12) Noncommercial television stations shall, no later than July 31, 2020, provide an up-to-date email address and phone number for carriage-related questions and respond as soon as is reasonably possible to messages or calls from multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs). Each noncommercial television station is responsible for the continuing accuracy and completeness of the information furnished. Any such station requesting mandatory carriage pursuant to part 76 of this chapter shall place a copy of such request in its public file and shall retain both the request and relevant correspondence for the duration of any period to which the request applies.

(e) Any provision of § 76.56 that refers to a “cable television system” or “cable system” shall apply to an open video system. Any provision of § 76.56 that refers to a “cable operator” shall apply to an open video system operator. Section 76.56(d)(2) shall apply to open video systems as follows: An open video system operator shall make available to every subscriber of the open video system all qualified local commercial television stations and all qualified non-commercial educational television stations carried in fulfillment of its carriage obligations under this section.

A cable operator shall respond in writing within 30 days to any written request by any person for the identification of the signals carried on its system in fulfillment of the must-carry requirements of § 76.56. The required written response may be delivered by email, if the consumer used email to make the request or complaint directly to the cable operator, or if the consumer specifies email as the preferred delivery method in the request or complaint.

(a) The operator of every cable television system shall maintain for public inspection a file containing a list of all broadcast television stations carried by its system in fulfillment of the must-carry requirements pursuant to § 76.56. Such list shall include the call sign, community of license, broadcast channel number, cable channel number, and in the case of a noncommercial educational broadcast station, whether that station was carried by the cable system on March 29, 1990.

(1) Whenever a local commercial television station or a qualified low power television station believes that a cable operator has failed to meet its carriage or channel positioning obligations, pursuant to §§ 76.56 and 76.57, such station shall notify the operator, in writing, of the alleged failure and identify its reasons for believing that the cable operator is obligated to carry the signal of such station or position such signal on a particular channel.

(e) Each commercial broadcast television station carried pursuant to § 76.56 shall include in its entirety the primary video, accompanying audio, and closed captioning data contained in line 21 of the vertical blanking interval and, to the extent technically feasible, program-related material carried in the vertical blanking interval or on subcarriers. Where appropriate and feasible, operators may delete signal enhancements, such as ghost-canceling, from the broadcast signal and employ such enhancements at the system headend or headends.

(1) The distributor is a cable system and the signal is that of a commercial television station (including a low-power television station) that is being carried pursuant to the Commission's must-carry rules set forth in § 76.56;

(g) A community unit is not required to delete the duplicating network programming of any qualified NCE television broadcast station that is carried in fulfillment of the cable television system's mandatory signal carriage obligations, pursuant to § 76.56.

(3) Notwithstanding the provisions of this section, a cable operator shall not be required to add the signal of a qualified local noncommercial educational television station not already carried under the provision of § 76.56(a)(5), where such signal would be considered a distant signal for copyright purposes unless such station agrees to indemnify the cable operator for any increased copyright liability resulting from carriage of such signal on the cable system.

(iv) A Class A channel sharee station may qualify only for the cable carriage rights afforded to “qualified low power television stations” in § 76.56(b)(3) of this chapter.

(e) Any provision of § 76.56 that refers to a “cable television system” or “cable system” shall apply to an open video system. Any provision of § 76.56 that refers to a “cable operator” shall apply to an open video system operator. Section 76.56(d)(2) shall apply to open video systems as follows: An open video system operator shall make available to every subscriber of the open video system all qualified local commercial television stations and all qualified non-commercial educational television stations carried in fulfillment of its carriage obligations under this section.

(i) Notwithstanding a television station's election of must-carry status, if a cable operator proposes to retransmit that station's signal without according the station must-carry rights (i.e., pursuant to § 76.56(e)), the operator must obtain the station's express authority prior to retransmitting its signal.