FCC Exempts Small Cablecos from Must-Carry Rules

The FCC yesterday exempted certain small cable operators from requirements to broadcast both analog and digital signals by next February.

Cable MSOs with 552MHz or lower-capacity systems, or that serve 2,500 or fewer subscribers, don’t have to carry both analog and digital signals for another three years.

The news came as a relief to small companies that had lobbied for the extension. The new time frame is “reasonable” and grants “needed relief for thousands of cable system operators who had neither the extra bandwidth nor the budget to comply with the digital must-carry obligation,” said Matt Polka, president of the American Cable Association, which represents small and rural operators.

The National Cable & Telecommunications Association also had pushed for the waiver.

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