Sec. 76.55  Definitions applicable to the must-carry rules.

    For purposes of the must-carry rules set forth in this subpart, the 
following definitions apply:
    (a) Qualified noncommercial educational (NCE) television station. A 
qualified NCE television station is any television broadcast station 
which
    (1)(i) Under the rules and regulations of the Commission in effect 
on March 29, 1990, is licensed by the Commission as an NCE television 
broadcast station and which is owned and operated by a

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public agency, nonprofit foundation, corporation, or association; and
    (ii) Has as its licensee an entity which is eligible to receive a 
community service grant, or any successor grant thereto, from the 
Corporation for Public Broadcasting, or any successor organization 
thereto, on the basis of the formula set forth in section 396(k)(6)(B) 
of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended; or
    (2) Is owned and operated by a municipality and transmits 
noncommercial programs for educational programs for educational 
purposes, as defined in Sec. 73.621 of this chapter, for at least 50 
percent of its broadcast week.
    (3) This definition includes:
    (i) The translator of any NCE television station with five watts or 
higher power serving the franchise area,
    (ii) A full-service station or translator if such station or 
translator is licensed to a channel reserved for NCE use pursuant to 
Sec. 73.606 of this chapter, or any successor regulations thereto, and
    (iii) Such stations and translators operating on channels not so 
reserved but otherwise qualified as NCE stations.

    Note to paragraph (a): For the purposes of Sec. 76.55(a), ``serving 
the franchise area'' will be based on the predicted protected contour of 
the NCE translator.

    (b) Qualified local noncommercial educational (NCE) television 
station. A qualified local NCE television station is a qualified NCE 
television station:
    (1) That is licensed to a community whose reference point, as 
defined in Sec. 76.53 is within 80.45 km (50 miles) of the principal 
headend, as defined in Sec. 76.5(pp), of the cable system; or
    (2) Whose Grade B service contour encompasses the principal headend, 
as defined in Sec. 76.5(pp), of the cable system.
    (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 Sec. 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.
    (c) Local commercial television station. A local commercial 
television station is any full power television broadcast station, other 
than a qualified NCE television station as defined in paragraph (a) of 
this section, licensed and operating on a channel regularly assigned to 
its community by the Commission that, with respect to a particular cable 
system, is within the same television market, as defined below in 
paragraph (e) of this section, as the cable system, except that the term 
local commercial television station does not include:
    (1) Low power television stations, television translator stations, 
and passive repeaters with operate pursuant to part 74 of this chapter.
    (2) A television broadcast station that would be considered a 
distant signal under the capable compulsory copyright license, 17 U.S.C. 
111, if such station does not agree to indemnify the cable operator for 
any increased copyright liability resulting from carriage on the cable 
system; or
    (3) A television broadcast station that does not deliver to the 
principal headend, as defined in Sec. 76.5(pp), of a cable system either 
a signal level of -45dBm for UHF signals or -49dBm for VHF signals at 
the input terminals of the signal processing equipment, i.e., the input 
to the first active component of the signal processing equipment 
relevant to the signal at issue, if such station does not agree to be 
responsible for the costs of delivering to the cable system a signal of 
good quality or a baseband video signal.
    (d) Qualified low power station. A qualified low power station is 
any television broadcast station conforming to the low power television 
rules contained in part 74 of this chapter, only if:
    (1) Such station broadcasts for at least the minimum number of hours 
of operation required by the Commission for full power television 
broadcast stations under part 73 of this chapter;
    (2) Such station meets all obligations and requirements applicable 
to full power television broadcast stations under part 73 of this 
chapter, with respect to the broadcast of nonentertainment programming; 
programming and rates involving political candidates, election issues, 
controversial issues of

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public importance, editorials, and personal attacks; programming for 
children; and equal employment opportunity; and the Commission 
determines that the provision of such programming by such station would 
address local news and informational needs which are not being 
adequately served by full power television broadcast stations because of 
the geographic distance of such full power stations from the low power 
station's community of license;
    (3) Such station complies with interference regulations consistent 
with its secondary status pursuant to part 74 of this chapter;
    (4) Such station is located no more than 56.32 km (35 miles) from 
the cable system's principal headend, as defined in Sec. 76.5(pp), and 
delivers to that headend an over-the-air signal of good quality;
    (5) The community of license of such station and the franchise area 
of the cable system are both located outside of the largest 160 
Metropolitan Statistical Areas, ranked by population, as determined by 
the Office of Management and Budget on June 30, 1990, and the population 
of such community of license on such date did not exceed 35,000; and
    (6) There is no full power television broadcast station licensed to 
any community within the county or other equivalent political 
subdivision (of a State) served by the cable system.

    Note to paragraph (d): For the purposes of this section, a good 
quality signal shall mean a signal level of either -45 dBm for UHF 
signals or -49 dBm for VHF signals at the input terminals of the signal 
processing equipment, or a baseband video signal.

    (e) Television market. (1) Until January 1, 2000, a commercial 
broadcast television station's market, unless amended pursuant to 
Sec. 76.59, shall be defined as its Area of Dominant Influence (ADI) as 
determined by Arbitron and published in the Arbitron 1991-1992 
Television ADI Market Guide, as noted below, except that for areas 
outside the contiguous 48 states, the market of a station shall be 
defined using Nielsen's Designated Market Area (DMA), where applicable, 
as published in the Nielsen 1991-92 DMA Market and Demographic Rank 
Report, and that Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Guam will 
each be considered a single market.
    (2) Effective January 1, 2000, a commercial broadcast television 
station's market, unless amended pursuant to Sec. 76.59, shall be 
defined as its Designated Market Area (DMA) as determined by Nielsen 
Media Research and published in its DMA Market and Demographic Rank 
Report or any successor publication, as noted below.
    (3) A cable system's television market(s) shall be the one or more 
ADI markets in which the communities it serves are located until January 
1, 2000, and the one or more DMA markets in which the communities it 
serves are located thereafter.
    (4) In addition, the county in which a station's community of 
license is located will be considered within its market.

    Note to paragraph (e): For the 1996 must-carry/retransimission 
consent election, the ADI assignments specified in the 1991-1992 
Television ADI Market Guide, available from the Arbitron Ratings Co., 
9705 Patuxent Woods Drive, Columbia, MD, will apply. For the 1999 
election, which becomes effective on January 1, 2000, DMA assignments 
specified in the 1997-98 DMA Market and Demographic Rank Report, 
available from Nielsen Media Research, 299 Park Avenue, New York, NY, 
shall be used. The applicable DMA list for the 2002 election will be the 
2000-2001 list, etc.

    (f) Network. For purposes of the must-carry rules, a commercial 
television network is an entity that offers programming on a regular 
basis for 15 or more hours per week to at least 25 affiliates in 10 or 
more states.

[ 58 FR 17359 , Apr. 2, 1993, as amended at  58 FR 44951 , Aug. 25, 1993;  59 FR 62344 , Dec. 5, 1994;  61 FR 29313 , June 10, 1996]