FOR YOUR INFORMATION............................NOVEMBER 26, 1991
FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION STAFF OPPOSES PROPOSED FCC
"MUST-CARRY" RULE FOR CABLE TV SYSTEMS
Staff of the Federal Trade Commission, in comments made
public today, expressed its opposition to a proposed
reinstatement of Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules
requiring cable television systems to carry the signals of local
TV stations. The comments were submitted in response to an FCC
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) concerning reinstituting
signal carriage ("must-carry") requirements.
The previous must-carry rules -- adopted by the FCC in the
1960s when cable television's principal function was to provide
improved reception of local TV signals -- required cable systems
to carry all local broadcast signals. In the 1980s, these rules
were held unconstitutional. The purpose of the NPRM is to deter-
mine whether signal carriage requirements are currently needed in
the marketplace and, if so, how they should be structured.
Taking into consideration the preferences of cable sub-
scribers, the FTC staff recommends that the FCC not adopt new
signal carriage requirements. A must-carry requirement could
force cable systems to carry relatively low-rated stations in
place of programming that cable subscribers value more highly,
the FTC staff said.
Evidence reviewed by the FTC staff suggests that, when the
must-carry rules were struck down, most of the local broadcast
stations were still being carried voluntarily by the cable
systems that formerly were required to carry them. Local
stations that were dropped tended either to duplicate existing
network programming signals or to generate relatively low view-
ship. This suggested to the FTC staff that cable systems were
attempting to respond to viewer preference.
FTC staff also examined whether must-carry rules could
provide competitive benefits by preventing cable systems from
acquiring or exercising market power in advertising markets. The
staff concluded there is insufficient evidence of such a possible
problem to justify adoption of new must-carry rules.
- more -
(Cable TV Advocacy -- 11/26/91)
The comments represent views of FTC staff and do not
necessarily reflect those of the Commission or any individual
commissioner.
Copies of the comments are available from the FTC's Public
Reference Branch, Room 130, 6th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue,
N.W., Washington, D.C. 20580; 202-326-2222; TTY 1-866-653-4261.
# # #
MEDIA CONTACT: Don Elder, Office of Public Affairs
202-326-2181
STAFF CONTACT: Michael Vita, Bureau of Economics
202-326-3493
or
John Wiegand, San Francisco Regional Office
901 Maarket St., Suite 570
San Francisco, California 94103
415-744-7920
(CABLETV)