Comcast 2011 Annual Report Download - page 24

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licenses upon finding that the television station has served the public interest, convenience and necessity;
there have been no serious violations by the licensee of the Communications Act or FCC regulations; and
there have been no violations by the licensee of the Communications Act or FCC regulations, which, taken
together, indicate a pattern of abuse.
In addition, CTA and FCC regulations also require that the FCC consider in its review of broadcast television
station license renewals whether the station has served the educational and informational (“E/I”) needs of
children. Under the FCC’s regulations, a station licensee will be deemed to have met its obligation to serve
the E/I needs of children if it has broadcast on its main program stream a minimum of three hours per week
of programming that has a significant purpose of serving the E/I needs of children under 17 years of age. For
broadcast television stations that multicast, FCC regulations include a similar standard whereby the amount
of E/I programming deemed to meet the station’s E/I obligation increases in proportion to the amount of free
multicast programming aired. Under the NBCUniversal Order, we have committed to provide an additional
hour of E/I programming per week on either the primary or multicast streams of our owned NBC affiliated
local television stations and on the primary signal of our owned Telemundo affiliated local television stations.
FCC regulations also limit the display during children’s programming of Internet addresses of websites that
contain or link to commercial material or that use program characters to sell products. The FCC is consider-
ing whether the requirements for E/I programming have been effective in promoting the availability of
educational content for children on broadcast television, and there can be no assurance that the FCC will not
impose more stringent requirements.
Under the NBCUniversal Order, we have committed to expand local news and information programming on
our owned local television stations and to enter into cooperative arrangements with locally focused nonprofit
news organizations in certain markets.
Renewal applications are pending for a number of our broadcast television station licenses. The FCC may
grant any license renewal application with or without conditions, including renewal for a lesser term than the
maximum otherwise permitted. A station’s authority to operate is automatically extended while a renewal
application is on file and under review. Three pending applications have been formally opposed by third par-
ties and other applications are pending due to unresolved complaints of alleged indecency in the stations’
programming. The Communications Act also requires prior FCC approval for any sale of a broadcast station
license, whether through the assignment of the license and related assets from one company to another or
the transfer of control of the stock or other equity of a company holding an FCC license. Third parties may
oppose such applications. The FCC may decline to renew or approve the transfer of a license in certain cir-
cumstances. Although we have received such renewals and approvals in the past, there can be no assurance
that we will always obtain necessary renewals or that approvals in the future will contain acceptable FCC
license conditions.
Ownership Limits
FCC regulations limit the ability of individuals and entities to have “attributable interests” above specific levels
in local television stations, as well as other specified mass media entities, such as limits on the cross–
ownership of broadcast stations and newspapers in thesamemarket.TheFCC,bylaw,mustreviewthe
ownership regulations detailed below once every four years, and the most recent review was initiated in
December 2011 (“2011 Media Ownership Notice”). In addition, there is pending litigation relating to regu-
lations adopted in a prior review. We cannot predict when the pending litigation or the FCC’s current review
will be completed or whether or how any of these regulations will change.
Local Television Ownership
Under the FCC’s local television ownership rule, a licensee may own up to two broadcast television stations
in the same DMA, as long as at least one of the two stations is not among the top four-ranked stations in the
Comcast 2011 Annual Report on Form 10-K 22