Goto Section: 76.606 | 76.609 | Table of Contents
FCC 76.607
Revised as of October 2, 2015
Goto Year:2014 |
2016
§ 76.607 Transmission of commercial advertisements.
(a) Transmission of commercial advertisements by cable operator or other
multichannel video programming distributor. (1) Mandatory compliance with
ATSC A/85 RP. Effective December 13, 2012, cable operators and other
multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs), as defined in 47 U.S.C.
522, must comply with ATSC A/85 RP (incorporated by reference, see § 76.602),
insofar as it concerns the transmission of commercial advertisements.
(2) Commercials inserted by cable operator or other MVPD. A cable operator
or other multichannel video programming distributor that installs, utilizes,
and maintains in a commercially reasonable manner the equipment and
associated software to comply with ATSC A/85 RP shall be deemed in
compliance with respect to locally inserted commercials, which for the
purposes of this provision are commercial advertisements added to a
programming stream by a cable operator or other MVPD prior to or at the time
of transmission to viewers. In order to be considered to have installed,
utilized and maintained the equipment and associated software in a
commercially reasonable manner, a cable operator or other MVPD must:
(i) Install, maintain and utilize equipment to properly measure the loudness
of the content and to ensure that the dialnorm metadata value correctly
matches the loudness of the content when encoding the audio into AC-3 for
transmitting the content to the consumer;
(ii) Provide records showing the consistent and ongoing use of this
equipment in the regular course of business and demonstrating that the
equipment has undergone commercially reasonable periodic maintenance and
testing to ensure its continued proper operation;
(iii) Certify that it either has no actual knowledge of a violation of the
ATSC A/85 RP, or that any violation of which it has become aware has been
corrected promptly upon becoming aware of such a violation; and
(iv) Certify that its own transmission equipment is not at fault for any
pattern or trend of complaints.
(3) Embedded commercials—safe harbor. With respect to embedded commercials,
which, for the purposes of this provision, are those commercial
advertisements placed into the programming stream by a third party (i.e.,
programmer) and passed through by the cable operator or other MVPD to
viewers, a cable operator or other MVPD must certify that its own
transmission equipment is not at fault for any pattern or trend of
complaints, and may demonstrate compliance with the ATSC A/85 RP through one
of the following methods:
(i) Relying on a network's or other programmer's certification of compliance
with the ATSC A/85 RP with respect to commercial programming, provided that:
(A) The certification is widely available by Web site or other means to any
television broadcast station, cable operator, or multichannel video
programming distributor that transmits that programming; and
(B) The cable operator or other MVPD has no reason to believe that the
certification is false; and
(C) The cable operator or other MVPD performs a spot check, as defined in
§ 76.607(a)(3)(iv)(A), (B), (D), and (E), on the programming in response to
an enforcement inquiry concerning a pattern or trend of complaints regarding
commercials contained in that programming;
(ii) If transmitting any programming that is not certified as described in
§ 76.607(a)(3)(i):
(A) A cable operator or other MVPD that had 10,000,000 subscribers or more
as of December 31, 2011 must perform annual spot checks, as defined in
§ 76.607(a)(3)(iv)(A), (B), (C), and (E), of all the non-certified commercial
programming it receives from a network or other programmer that is carried
by any system operated by the cable operator or other MVPD, and perform a
spot check, as defined in § 76.607(a)(3)(iv)(A), (B), (D), and (E), on
programming in response to an enforcement inquiry concerning a pattern or
trend of complaints regarding commercials contained in that programming; and
(B) A cable operator or other MVPD that had fewer than 10,000,000 but more
than 400,000 subscribers as of December 31, 2011, must perform annual spot
checks, as defined in § 76.607(a)(3)(iv)(A), (B), (C), and (E), of a randomly
chosen 50 percent of the non-certified commercial programming it receives
from a network or other programmer that is carried by any system operated by
the cable operator or other MVPD, and perform a spot check, as defined in
§ 76.607(a)(3)(iv)(A), (B), (D), and (E), on programming in response to an
enforcement inquiry concerning a pattern or trend of complaints regarding
commercials contained in that programming; or
(iii) A cable operator or other MVPD that had fewer than 400,000 subscribers
as of December 31, 2011, need not perform annual spot checks but must
perform a spot check, as defined in § 76.607(a)(3)(iv)(A), (B), (D), and (E),
on programming in response to an enforcement inquiry concerning a pattern or
trend of complaints regarding commercials contained in that programming.
(iv) For the purposes of this section, a “spot check” of embedded
commercials requires monitoring 24 uninterrupted hours of programming with
an audio loudness meter compliant with the ATSC A/85 RP's measurement
technique, and reviewing the records from that monitoring to detect any
commercials transmitted in violation of the ATSC A/85 RP. The cable operator
or other MVPD must not inform the network or programmer of the spot check
prior to performing it.
(A) Spot-checking must be conducted after the signal has passed through the
cable operator or other MVPD's processing equipment (e.g., at the output of
a set-top box). If a problem is found, the cable operator or other MVPD must
determine the source of the noncompliance.
(B) To be considered valid, the cable operator or other MVPD must
demonstrate appropriate maintenance records for the audio loudness meter.
(C) With reference to the annual “safe harbor” spot check in
§ 76.607(a)(3)(ii):
(1) To be considered valid, the cable operator or other—MVPD must
demonstrate, at the time of any enforcement inquiry, that appropriate spot
checks had been ongoing.
(2) If there is no single 24 hour period in which all programmers of a given
channel are represented, an annual spot check could consist of a series of
loudness measurements over the course of a 7 day period, totaling no fewer
than 24 hours, that measure at least one program, in its entirety, provided
by each non-certified programmer that supplies programming for that channel.
(3) If annual spot checks are performed for two consecutive years without
finding evidence of noncompliance with the ATSC A/85 RP, no further annual
spot checks are required to remain in the safe harbor for existing
programming.
(4) Newly-added (or newly de-certified) non-certified channels must be
spot-checked annually using the approach described in this section. If
annual spot checks of the channel are performed for two consecutive years
without finding evidence of noncompliance with the ATSC A/85 RP, no further
annual spot checks are required to remain in the safe harbor for that
channel.
(5) Even after the two year period, if a spot check shows noncompliance on a
non-certified channel, the cable operator or other MVPD must once again
perform annual spot checks of that channel to be in the safe harbor for that
programming. If these renewed annual spot checks are performed for two
consecutive years without finding additional evidence of noncompliance with
the ATSC A/85 RP, no further annual spot checks are required to remain in
the safe harbor for that channel.
(D) With reference to the spot checks in response to an enforcement inquiry
pursuant to § 76.607(a)(3)(i)(C), (ii), or (iii):
(1) If notified of a pattern or trend of complaints, the cable operator or
other MVPD must perform the 24-hour spot check of the channel or programming
at issue within 30 days or as otherwise specified by the Enforcement Bureau;
and
(2) If the spot check reveals actual compliance, the cable operator or other
MVPD must notify the Commission in its response to the enforcement inquiry.
(E) If any spot check shows noncompliance with the ATSC A/85 RP, the cable
operator or other MVPD must notify the Commission and the network or
programmer within 7 days, direct the programmer's attention to any relevant
complaints, and must perform a follow-up spot check within 30 days of
providing such notice. The cable operator or other MVPD must notify the
Commission and the network or programmer of the results of the follow-up
spot check. Notice to the Federal Communications Commission must be provided
to the Chief, Investigations and Hearings Division, Enforcement Bureau, or
as otherwise directed in a Letter of Inquiry to which the cable operator or
other MVPD is responding.
(1) If the follow-up spot check shows compliance with the ATSC A/85 RP, the
cable operator or other MVPD remains in the safe harbor for that channel or
programming.
(2) If the follow-up spot check shows noncompliance with the ATSC A/85 RP,
the cable operator or other MVPD will not be in the safe harbor with respect
to commercials contained in programming for which the spot check showed
noncompliance until a subsequent spot check shows that the programming is in
compliance.
(4) Use of a real-time processor. A cable operator or other MVPD that
installs, maintains and utilizes a real-time processor in a commercially
reasonable manner will be deemed in compliance with the ATSC A/85 RP with
regard to any commercial advertisements on which it uses such a processor,
so long as it also:
(i) Provides records showing the consistent and ongoing use of this
equipment in the regular course of business and demonstrating that the
equipment has undergone commercially reasonable periodic maintenance and
testing to ensure its continued proper operation;
(ii) Certifies that it either has no actual knowledge of a violation of the
ATSC A/85 RP, or that any violation of which it has become aware has been
corrected promptly upon becoming aware of such a violation; and
(iii) Certifies that its own transmission equipment is not at fault for any
pattern or trend of complaints.
(5) Commercials locally inserted by a cable operator or other MVPD's
agent—safe harbor. With respect to commercials locally inserted, which for
the purposes of this provision are commercial advertisements added to a
programming stream for the cable operator or other MVPD by a third party
after it has been received from the programmer but prior to or at the time
of transmission to viewers, a cable operator or other MVPD may demonstrate
compliance with the ATSC A/85 RP by relying on the third party local
inserter's certification of compliance with the ATSC A/85 RP, provided that:
(i) The cable operator or other MVPD has no reason to believe that the
certification is false;
(ii) The cable operator or other MVPD certifies that its own transmission
equipment is not at fault for any pattern or trend of complaints; and
(iii) The cable operator or other MVPD performs a spot check, as defined in
§ 76.607(a)(3)(iv)(A), (B), (D), and (E), on the programming at issue in
response to an enforcement inquiry concerning a pattern or trend of
complaints regarding commercials inserted by that third party.
(6) Instead of demonstrating compliance pursuant to paragraphs (a)(2)
through (5) of this section, a cable operator or other MVPD may demonstrate
compliance with paragraph (a)(1) of this section in response to an
enforcement inquiry prompted by a pattern or trend of complaints by
demonstrating actual compliance with ATSC A/85 RP with regard to the
commercial advertisements that are the subject of the inquiry, and
certifying that its own transmission equipment is not at fault for any such
pattern or trend of complaints.
Note to § 76.607(a): For additional information regarding this requirement,
see Implementation of the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation
(CALM) Act, FCC 11-182.
(b) [Reserved]
[ 77 FR 40300 , July 9, 2012]
return arrow Back to Top
Goto Section: 76.606 | 76.609
Goto Year: 2014 |
2016
CiteFind - See documents on FCC website that
cite this rule
Want to support this service?
Thanks!
Report errors in
this rule. Since these rules are converted to HTML by machine, it's possible errors have been made. Please
help us improve these rules by clicking the Report FCC Rule Errors link to report an error.
hallikainen.com
Helping make public information public