§76.66. Satellite broadcast signal carriage.

Satellite carrier. A satellite carrier is an entity that uses the facilities of a satellite or satellite service licensed by the Federal Communications Commission, and operates in the Fixed-Satellite Service under part 25 of title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations or the Direct Broadcast Satellite Service under part 100 of title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations, to establish and operate a channel of communications for point-to-multipoint distribution of television station signals, and that owns or leases a capacity or a service on a satellite in order to provide such point-to-multipoint distribution, except to the extent that such entity provides such distribution pursuant to tariff under the Communications Act of 1934, other than for private home viewing.

Secondary transmission. A secondary transmission is the further transmitting of a primary transmission simultaneously with the primary transmission.

Subscriber. A subscriber is a person who receives a secondary transmission service from a satellite carrier and pays a fee for the service, directly or indirectly, to the satellite carrier or to a distributor.

Television broadcast station. A television broadcast station is an over-the-air commercial or noncommercial television broadcast station licensed by the Commission under subpart E of part 73 of title 47, Code of Federal Regulations, except that such term does not include a low-power or translator television station.

Television network. For purposes of this section, a television network is an entity which offers an interconnected program service on a regular basis for 15 or more hours per week to at least 25 affiliated broadcast stations in 10 or more States.

Local-into-local television service. A satellite carrier is providing local-into-local service when it retransmits a local television station signal back into the local market of that television station for reception by subscribers.

Each satellite carrier providing, under section 122 of title 17, United States Code, secondary transmissions to subscribers located within the local market of a television broadcast station of a primary transmission made by that station, shall carry upon request the signals of all television broadcast stations located within that local market, subject to section 325(b) of title 47, United States Code, and other paragraphs in this section. Satellite carriers are required to carry digital-only stations upon request in markets in which the satellite carrier is providing any local-into-local service pursuant to the statutory copyright license.

A satellite carrier that offers multichannel video programming distribution service in the United States to more than 5,000,000 subscribers shall, no later than December 8, 2005, carry upon request the signal originating as an analog signal of each television broadcast station that is located in a local market in Alaska or Hawaii; and shall, no later than June 8, 2007, carry upon request the signals originating as digital signals of each television broadcast station that is located in a local market in Alaska or Hawaii. Such satellite carrier is not required to carry the signal originating as analog after commencing carriage of digital signals on June 8, 2007. Carriage of signals originating as digital signals of each television broadcast station that is located in a local market in Alaska or Hawaii shall include the entire free over-the-air signal, including multicast and high definition digital signals.

Television broadcast stations must send election requests as provided in paragraphs (d)(1), (2), and (3) of this section on or before the relevant deadline.

Carriage after a market modification. Television broadcast stations that become eligible for mandatory carriage with respect to a satellite carrier (pursuant to § 76.66) due to a change in the market definition (by operation of a market modification pursuant to § 76.59) may, within 30 days of the effective date of the new definition, elect retransmission consent or mandatory carriage with respect to such carrier. A satellite carrier shall commence carriage within 90 days of receiving the carriage election from the television broadcast station. The election must be made in accordance with the requirements in paragraph (d)(1) of this section.

A local market, in the case of both commercial and noncommercial television broadcast stations, is the designated market area in which a station is located, unless such market is amended pursuant to § 76.59, and

A designated market area is the market area, as determined by Nielsen Media Research and published in the 1999-2000 Nielsen Station Index Directory and Nielsen Station Index United States Television Household Estimates, the October 2021 Nielsen Local TV Station Information Report, or any successor publication. In the case of areas outside of any designated market area, any census area, borough, or other area in the State of Alaska that is outside of a designated market area, as determined by Nielsen Media Research, shall be deemed to be part of one of the local markets in the State of Alaska.

A satellite carrier shall use the October 2021 Nielsen Local TV Station Information for the retransmission consent-mandatory carriage election cycle commencing on January 1, 2024, and ending on December 31, 2026. The October 2024 Nielsen Local TV Station Information Report shall be used for the retransmission consent-mandatory carriage election cycle commencing January 1, 2027, and ending December 31, 2029, and so forth using the publications for the October two years prior to each triennial election pursuant to this section. Provided, however, that a county deleted from a market by Nielsen need not be subtracted from a market in which a satellite carrier provides local-into-local service, if that county is assigned to that market in the 1999-2000 Nielsen Station Index Directory or any subsequent issue of that publication, or the Local TV Station Information Report commencing with October 2021, and every three years thereafter (i.e., October 2024, October 2027, etc.). A satellite carrier may determine which local market in the State of Alaska will be deemed to be the relevant local market in connection with each subscriber in an area in the State of Alaska that is outside of a designated market, as described in paragraph (e)(2) of this section.

A local receive facility is the reception point in each local market which a satellite carrier designates for delivery of the signal of the station for purposes of retransmission.

A satellite carrier may establish another receive facility to serve a market if the location of such a facility is acceptable to at least one-half the stations with carriage rights in that market.

Except as provided in paragraph (d)(2) of this section, a satellite carrier providing local-into-local service must notify local television stations of the location of the receive facility by June 1, 2001 for the first election cycle and at least 120 days prior to the commencement of all election cycles thereafter. After July 31, 2020, the written notices required by this paragraph (f)(3) shall be delivered to stations electronically in accordance with paragraph (d)(2)(ii) of this section.

A satellite carrier may relocate its local receive facility at the commencement of each election cycle. A satellite carrier is also permitted to relocate its local receive facility during the course of an election cycle, if it bears the signal delivery costs of the television stations affected by such a move. A satellite carrier relocating its local receive facility must provide 60 days notice to all local television stations carried in the affected television market. After July 31, 2020, the written notices required by this paragraph (f)(4) shall be delivered to stations electronically in accordance with paragraph (d)(2)(ii) of this section.

A television station asserting its right to carriage shall be required to bear the costs associated with delivering a good quality signal to the designated local receive facility of the satellite carrier or to another facility that is acceptable to at least one-half the stations asserting the right to carriage in the local market.

To be considered a good quality signal for satellite carriage purposes, a television station shall deliver to the local receive facility of a satellite carrier either a signal level of −45dBm for UHF signals or −49dBm for VHF signals at the input terminals of the signal processing equipment.

A satellite carrier is not required to carry a television station that does not agree to be responsible for the costs of delivering a good quality signal to the receive facility.

A satellite carrier shall not be required to carry upon request the signal of any local television broadcast station that substantially duplicates the signal of another local television broadcast station which is secondarily transmitted by the satellite carrier within the same local market, or the signals of more than one local commercial television broadcast station in a single local market that is affiliated with a particular television network unless such stations are licensed to communities in different States.

A satellite carrier may select which duplicating signal in a market it shall carry.

A satellite carrier may select which network affiliate in a market it shall carry.

A satellite carrier is permitted to drop a local television station whenever that station meets the substantial duplication criteria set forth in this paragraph. A satellite carrier must add a television station to its channel line-up if such station no longer duplicates the programming of another local television station.

A satellite carrier shall provide notice to its subscribers, and to the affected television station, whenever it adds or deletes a station's signal in a particular local market pursuant to this paragraph (h)(5). After July 31, 2020, the required notice to the affected television station shall be delivered to the station electronically in accordance with paragraph (d)(2)(ii) of this section.

A commercial television station substantially duplicates the programming of another commercial television station if it simultaneously broadcasts the identical programming of another station for more than 50 percent of the broadcast week.

A noncommercial television station substantially duplicates the programming of another noncommercial station if it simultaneously broadcasts the same programming as another noncommercial station for more than 50 percent of prime time, as defined by § 76.5(n), and more than 50 percent outside of prime time over a three month period, Provided, however, that after three noncommercial television stations are carried, the test of duplication shall be whether more than 50 percent of prime time programming and more than 50 percent outside of prime time programming is duplicative on a non-simultaneous basis.

No satellite carrier shall be required to provide the signal of a local television broadcast station to subscribers in that station's local market on any particular channel number or to provide the signals in any particular order, except that the satellite carrier shall retransmit the signal of the local television broadcast stations to subscribers in the stations' local market on contiguous channels.

All local television stations carried under mandatory carriage in a particular television market must be offered to subscribers at rates comparable to local television stations carried under retransmission consent in that same market.

Within a market, no satellite carrier shall provide local-into-local service in a manner that requires subscribers to obtain additional equipment at their own expense or for an additional carrier charge in order to obtain one or more local television broadcast signals if such equipment is not required for the receipt of other local television broadcast signals.

All television stations carried under mandatory carriage, in a particular market, shall be presented to subscribers in the same manner as television stations that elected retransmission consent, in that same market, on any navigational device, on-screen program guide, or menu provided by the satellite carrier.

Each television station carried by a satellite carrier, pursuant to this section, 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. For noncommercial educational television stations, a satellite carrier must also carry any program-related material that may be necessary for receipt of programming by persons with disabilities or for educational or language purposes. Secondary audio programming must also be carried. Where appropriate and feasible, satellite carriers may delete signal enhancements, such as ghost-canceling, from the broadcast signal and employ such enhancements at the local receive facility.

A satellite carrier, at its discretion, may carry any ancillary service transmission on the vertical blanking interval or the aural baseband of any television broadcast signal, including, but not limited to, multichannel television sound and teletext.

Each local television station whose signal is carried under mandatory carriage shall, to the extent technically feasible and consistent with good engineering practice, be provided with the same quality of signal processing provided to television stations electing retransmission consent, including carriage of HD signals in HD if any local station in the same market is carried in HD. A satellite carrier is permitted to use reasonable digital compression techniques in the carriage of local television stations.

Satellite carriers must provide carriage of local stations' HD signals if any local station in the same market is carried in HD, pursuant to the following schedule:

A satellite carrier shall not accept or request monetary payment or other valuable consideration in exchange either for carriage of local television broadcast stations in fulfillment of the mandatory carriage requirements of this section or for channel positioning rights provided to such stations under this section, except that any such station may be required to bear the costs associated with delivering a good quality signal to the receive facility of the satellite carrier.

A satellite carrier may accept payments from a station pursuant to a retransmission consent agreement.

Whenever a local television broadcast station believes that a satellite carrier has failed to meet its obligations under this section, such station shall notify the carrier, in writing, of the alleged failure and identify its reasons for believing that the satellite carrier failed to comply with such obligations.

The satellite carrier shall, within 30 days after such written notification, respond in writing to such notification and comply with such obligations or state its reasons for believing that it is in compliance with such obligations.

A local television broadcast station that disputes a response by a satellite carrier that it is in compliance with such obligations may obtain review of such denial or response by filing a complaint with the Commission, in accordance with § 76.7 of title 47, Code of Federal Regulations. Such complaint shall allege the manner in which such satellite carrier has failed to meet its obligations and the basis for such allegations.

The satellite carrier against which a complaint is filed is permitted to present data and arguments to establish that there has been no failure to meet its obligations under this section.

The Commission shall determine whether the satellite carrier has met its obligations under this section. If the Commission determines that the satellite carrier has failed to meet such obligations, the Commission shall order the satellite carrier to take appropriate remedial action. If the Commission determines that the satellite carrier has fully met the requirements of this section, it shall dismiss the complaint.

The Commission will not accept any complaint filed later than 60 days after a satellite carrier, either implicitly or explicitly, denies a television station's carriage request.

A broadcast television station that chooses to deploy Next Gen TV service, see § 73.682(f) of this chapter, may assert mandatory carriage rights under this section only with respect to its ATSC 1.0 signal and may not assert mandatory carriage rights with respect to its ATSC 3.0 signal.

With respect to a Next Gen TV station that moves its 1.0 simulcast signal to a host station's (i.e., a station whose facilities are being used to transmit programming originated by another station) facilities, the station may assert mandatory carriage rights under this section only if it: