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 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 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 Nielsen Station Index Directory and Nielsen Station Index
   US Television Household Estimates or any successor publications.

   (i) For the 1999 election pursuant to  Sec. 76.64(f), which becomes effective on
   January 1, 2000, DMA assignments specified in the 1997–98 Nielsen Station
   Index Directory and September 1997 Nielsen Station Index US Television
   Household Estimates, available from Nielsen Media Research, 770 Broadway,
   New York, NY, shall be used.

   (ii) The applicable DMA list for the 2002 election pursuant to  Sec. 76.64(f)
   will be the DMA assignments specified in the 2000–2001 list, and so forth
   for each triennial election pursuant to  Sec. 76.64(f).

   (3) In addition, the county in which a station's community of license is
   located will be considered within its market.

   (4) 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.

   (5) In the absence of any mandatory carriage complaint or market
   modification petition, cable operators in communities that shift from one
   market to another, due to the change in 1999–2000 from ADI to DMA, will be
   permitted to treat their systems as either in the new DMA market, or with
   respect to the specific stations carried prior to the market change from ADI
   to DMA, as in both the old ADI market and the new DMA market.

   (6) If the change from the ADI market definition to the DMA market
   definition in 1999–2000 results in the filing of a mandatory carriage
   complaint, any affected party may respond to that complaint by filing a
   market modification request pursuant to  Sec. 76.59, and these two actions may be
   jointly decided by the Commission.

   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;  64 FR 42617 , Aug. 5, 1999;
    68 FR 17312 , Apr. 9, 2003]