§ 76.59   Modification of television markets.

   (a) The Commission, following a written request from a broadcast
   station or a cable system, may deem that the television market of a
   particular commercial television broadcast station should include
   additional communities within its television market or exclude
   communities from such station's television market. In this respect,
   communities may be considered part of more than one television market.

   (b) Such requests for modification of a television market shall be
   submitted in accordance with § 76.7, petitions for special relief, and
   shall include the following evidence:

   (1) A map or maps illustrating the relevant community locations and
   geographic features, station transmitter sites, cable system headend
   locations, terrain features that would affect station reception,
   mileage between the community and the television station transmitter
   site, transportation routes and any other evidence contributing to the
   scope of the market.

   (2) Grade B contour maps delineating the station's technical service
   area and showing the location of the cable system headends and
   communities in relation to the service areas.

   Note to paragraph (b)(2): Service area maps using Longley-Rice (version
   1.2.2) propagation curves may also be included to support a technical
   service exhibit.

   (3) Available data on shopping and labor patterns in the local market.

   (4) Television station programming information derived from station
   logs or the local edition of the television guide.

   (5) Cable system channel line-up cards or other exhibits establishing
   historic carriage, such as television guide listings.

   (6) Published audience data for the relevant station showing its
   average all day audience (i.e., the reported audience averaged over
   Sunday-Saturday, 7 a.m.-1 a.m., or an equivalent time period) for both
   cable and noncable households or other specific audience indicia, such
   as station advertising and sales data or viewer contribution records.

   (c) Petitions for Special Relief to modify television markets that do
   not include such evidence shall be dismissed without prejudice and may
   be refiled at a later date with the appropriate filing fee.

   (d) A cable operator shall not delete from carriage the signal of a
   commercial television station during the pendency of any proceeding
   pursuant to this section.

   [ 58 FR 17361 , Apr. 2, 1993, as amended at  64 FR 33796 , June 24, 1999;
    67 FR 53892 , Aug. 22, 2002]

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