Sec.  76.56   Signal carriage obligations.

   (a)  Carriage of qualified noncommercial educational stations. A cable
   television  system  shall  carry  qualified NCE television stations in
   accordance with the following provisions:

   (1) Each cable operator shall carry on its cable television system any
   qualified local NCE television station requesting carriage, except that

   (i)  Systems with 12 or fewer usable activated channels, as defined in
    Sec. 76.6(oo), shall be required to carry the signal of one such station;

   (ii)  Systems  with  13 to 36 usable activated channels, as defined in
    Sec. 76.5(oo), shall be required to carry at least one qualified local NCE
   station, but not more than three such stations; and

   (iii) Systems with more than 36 usable activated channels shall be required
   to  carry  the  signals of all qualified local NCE television stations
   requesting carriage, but in any event at least three such signals; however a
   cable system with more than 36 channels shall not be required to carry an
   additional qualified local NCE station whose programming substantially
   duplicates the programming of another qualified local NCE station being
   carried on the system.

   Note:  For  purposes  of  this  paragraph, a station will be deemed to
   “substantially  duplicate”  the  programming  of another station if it
   broadcasts the same programming, simultaneous or non-simultaneous, for more
   than 50 percent of prime time, as defined in  Sec. 76.5(n), and more than 50
   percent outside of prime time over a three-month period.

   (2)(i) In the case of a cable system with 12 or fewer channels that operates
   beyond the presence of any qualified local NCE stations, the cable operator
   shall import one qualified NCE television station.

   (ii) A cable system with between 13 and 36 channels that operates beyond the
   presence of any qualified local NCE stations, the cable operator shall
   import at least one qualified NCE television station.

   (3) A cable system with 12 or fewer usable activated channels shall not be
   required to remove any programming service provided to subscribers as of
   March  29,  1990, to satisfy these requirements, except that the first
   available channel must be used to satisfy these requirements.

   (4) A cable system with 13 to 36 usable activated channels which carries the
   signal of a qualified local NCE station affiliated with a State public
   television network shall not be required to carry more than one qualified
   local NCE station affiliated with such network, if the programming of such
   additional stations substantially duplicates, as defined in the note in
   paragraph (a)(1) of this section, the programming of a qualified local NCE
   television station receiving carriage.

   (5) Notwithstanding the requirements of paragraph (a)(1) of this section,
   all cable operators shall continue to provide carriage to all qualified
   local NCE television stations whose signals were carried on their systems as
   of March 29, 1990. In the case of a cable system that is required to import
   a distance qualified NCE signal, and such system imported the signal of a
   qualified NCE station as of March 29, 1990, such cable system shall continue
   to import such signal until such time as a qualified local NCE signal is
   available to the cable system. This requirements may be waived with respect
   to  a particular cable operator and a particular NCE station, upon the
   written consent of the cable operator and the station.

   (b) Carriage of local commercial television stations. Effective June 2,
   1993, a cable television system shall carry local commercial broadcast
   television stations in accordance with the following provisions:

   (1) A cable system with 12 or fewer usable activated channels, as defined in
    Sec. 76.5(oo),  shall  carry the signals of at least three qualified local
   commercial television stations, except that if such system serves 300 or
   fewer subscribers it shall not be subject to these requirements as long as
   it  does not delete from carriage the signal of a broadcast television
   station which was carried on that system on October 5, 1992.

   (2) A cable system with more than 12 usable activated channels, as defined
   in   Sec. 76.5(oo),  shall carry local commercial television stations up to
   one-third of the aggregate number of usable activated channels of such
   system.

   (3) If there are not enough local commercial television stations to fill the
   channels set aside under paragraphs (b)(1) and (b)(2) of this section, a
   cable operator of a system with 35 or fewer usable activated channels, as
   defined in  Sec. 76.5(oo), shall, if such stations exist, carry one qualified low
   power  television  station and a cable system with more than 35 usable
   activated channels shall carry two qualified low power stations.

   (4) Whenever the number of local commercial television stations exceeds the
   maximum  number  of  signals a cable system is required to carry under
   paragraph (b)(1) or (b)(2) of this section, the cable operator shall have
   discretion in selecting which such stations shall be carried on its cable
   system, except that

   (i) Under no circumstances shall a cable operator carry a qualified low
   power station in lieu of a local commercial television station; and

   (ii) If the cable operator elects to carry an affiliate of a broadcast
   network,  as defined in  Sec. 76.55(f), such cable operator shall carry the
   affiliate of such broadcast network whose community of license reference
   point, as defined in  Sec. 76.53, is closest to the principal headend, as defined
   in  Sec. 76.5(pp), of the cable system.

   (5)  A cable operator is not required to carry the signal of any local
   commercial television station that substantially duplicates the signal of
   another local commercial television station that is carried on its cable
   system, or to carry the signals of more than one local commercial television
   station  affiliated with a particular broadcast network, as defined in
    Sec. 76.55(f).  However, if a cable operator declines to carry duplicating
   signals, such cable operator shall carry the station whose community of
   license reference point, as defined in  Sec. 76.53, is closest to the principal
   headend of the cable system. For purposes of this paragraph, substantially
   duplicates means that a station regularly simultaneously broadcasts the
   identical programming as another station for more than 50 percent of the
   broadcast week. For purposes of this definition, only identical episodes of
   a television series are considered duplicative and commercial inserts are
   excluded from the comparison. When the stations being compared are licensed
   to communities in different time zones, programming aired by a station
   within one hour of the identical program being broadcast by another station
   will be considered duplicative.

   (6) [Reserved]

   (7)  A  local  commercial  television  station  carried to fulfill the
   requirements of this paragraph, which subsequently elects retransmission
   consent pursuant to  Sec. 76.64, shall continue to be carried by the cable system
   until the effective date of such retransmission consent election.

   (c) Use of public, educational, or governmental (PEG) channels. A cable
   operator required to carry more than one signal of a qualified low power
   station or to add qualified local NCE stations in fulfillment of these
   must-carry obligations may do so, subject to approval by the franchising
   authority pursuant to Section 611 of the Communications Act of 1934, as
   amended, by placing such additional station on public, educational, or
   governmental channels not in use for their designated purposes.

   (d)  Availability of signals. (1) Local commercial television stations
   carried in fulfillment of the requirements of this section shall be provided
   to every subscriber of a cable system. Such signals shall be viewable via
   cable on all television receivers of a subscriber which are connected to a
   cable system by a cable operator or for which a cable operator provides a
   connection.

   (2) Qualified local NCE television stations carried in fulfillment of the
   carriage  obligations  of a cable operator under this section shall be
   available to every subscriber as part of the cable system's lowest priced
   service tier that includes the retransmission of local commercial television
   broadcast signals.

   (3) The viewability and availability requirements of this section require
   that, after the broadcast television transition from analog to digital
   service for full power television stations cable operators must either:

   (i) Carry the signals of commercial and non-commercial must-carry stations
   in analog format to all analog cable subscribers, or

   (ii)  For  all-digital systems, carry those signals in digital format,
   provided that all subscribers, including those with analog television sets,
   that are connected to a cable system by a cable operator or for which the
   cable operator provides a connection have the necessary equipment to view
   the broadcast content.

   (4) Any costs incurred by a cable operator in downconverting or carrying
   alternative-format versions of signals under  Sec. 76.56(d)(3)(i) or (ii) shall
   be the responsibility of the cable operator.

   (5) The requirements set forth in paragraph (d)(3) of this section shall
   cease to be effective three years from the date on which all full-power
   television stations cease broadcasting analog signals, unless the Commission
   extends the requirements in a proceeding to be conducted during the year
   preceding such date.

   (e) Carriage of additional broadcast television signals on such system shall
   be at the discretion of the cable operator, subject to the retransmission
   consent rules,  Sec. 76.64. A cable system may also carry any ancillary or other
   transmission contained in the broadcast television signal.

   (f) Calculation of broadcast signals carried. When calculating the portion
   of  a  cable system devoted to carriage of local commercial television
   stations under paragraph (b) of this section, a cable operator may count the
   primary video and program-related signals of all such stations, and any
   alternative-format versions of those signals, that they carry.

   Note 1 to  Sec. 76.56: Section 76.1620 provides notification requirements for a
   cable operator who authorizes subscribers to install additional receiver
   connections, but does not provide the subscriber with such connections, or
   with the equipment and materials for such connections.

   Note 2 to  Sec. 76.56: Section 76.1614 provides response requirements for a cable
   operator who receives a written request to identify its must-carry signals.

   Note 3 to  Sec. 76.56: Section 76.1709 provides recordkeeping requirements with
   regard to a cable operator's list of must-carry signals.

   [ 58 FR 17360 , Apr. 2, 1993, as amended at  58 FR 39161 , July 22, 1993;  58 FR 40368 , July 28, 1993;  59 FR 62344 , Dec. 5, 1994;  65 FR 53614 , Sept. 5, 2000;
    66 FR 16553 , Mar. 26, 2001;  73 FR 6054 , Feb. 1, 2008]