Must carry rules?

[Garrett Wollman <wollman@lcs.mit.edu>]

<<On Tue, 8 Apr 2003 17:04:10 -0400 (EDT), I wrote:

> Every system (and DBS operator in a l-into-l market) must carry every
> station which is in the Nielsen market they serve, [...]

I forgot to mention: if a station was carried on the system at certain
times in the past, prior to the 1994 Cable Act, it may also have
must-carry rights even if it is not considered part of the market.

Stations can sell their must-carry rights.  The TV Food Network
famously paid WNJM-TV (50 Montclair, N.J.) a million dollars to
relinquish its must-carry rights on Time Warner Cable in Manhattan.
NCE-TV licensees have no retrans consent rights and a different
must-carry provision; the principal difference is in the number of
NCE-TV channels a cable operator is required to carry.  (That's why
so many Boston-area cable operators carry channel 11 or channel 36;
they are required in most cases to carry up to three.)  This may only
apply to stations receiving CPB funding; I'm not sure.

-GAWollman