Washington Post 2006 Annual Report Download - page 31

cable systems located within the station's market area. Similarly, a noncommercial public station may insist on carriage of its
signal on cable systems located either within the station's predicted Grade B signal contour or within 50 miles of a
reference point in a station's community designated by the FCC. As a result of these obligations (the constitutionality of
which has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court), certain of the Company's cable systems have had to carry broadcast
stations that they might not otherwise have elected to carry, and the freedom the Company's systems would otherwise
have to drop signals previously carried has been reduced.
Also as explained in that section, at three-year intervals beginning in October 1993 commercial broadcasters have had
the right to forego must-carry rights and insist instead that their signals not be carried by cable systems without their prior
consent. Under legislation enacted in 1999, Congress barred broadcasters from entering into exclusive retransmission
consent agreements through 2006. In November 2004 Congress extended the ban on exclusive retransmission consent
agreements until the end of 2010. The Company's cable systems are currently carrying all of the stations that insisted on
retransmission consent. In doing so, no agreements have been made to make cash payments for the privilege of carrying
any station's signal. However, in some cases commitments have been made to carry other program services offered by a
station or an affiliated company, to purchase advertising on a station, or to provide advertising availabilities on cable to a
station. In addition, broadcast stations are becoming increasingly aggressive in seeking cash payments in return for
permitting cable systems to carry their signals and no assurances can be given that the Company's cable systems will be
able to avoid making such payments in the future.
As has already been noted, the FCC has determined that only television stations broadcasting in a DTV-only mode can
require local cable systems to carry their DTV signals and that if a DTV signal contains multiple video streams only the
""primary'' stream of video, as designated by the station, is required to be carried. However the FCC is currently
considering requiring local cable systems to carry all video streams included in a DTV signal. The imposition of additional
must-carry obligations, either by the FCC or as a result of legislative action, could result in the Company's cable systems
being required to delete some existing programming to make room for all of the video streams included in broadcasters'
DTV signals.
Various other provisions in current federal law may significantly affect the costs or profits of cable television systems. These
matters include a prohibition on exclusive franchises, restrictions on the ownership of competing video delivery services, a
variety of consumer protection measures, and various regulations intended to facilitate the development of competing
video delivery services. Other provisions benefit the owners of cable systems by restricting regulation of cable television in
many significant respects, requiring that franchises be granted for reasonable periods of time, providing various remedies
and safeguards to protect cable operators against arbitrary refusals to renew franchises, and limiting franchise fees to 5%
of a cable system's gross revenues from the provision of cable service (which for this purpose includes digital video
service but does not include cable modem service).
Apart from its authority under the 1992 Cable Act and the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the FCC regulates various
other aspects of cable television operations. Since 1990 cable systems have been required to black out from the distant
broadcast stations they carry syndicated programs for which local stations have purchased exclusive rights and requested
exclusivity. Other long-standing FCC rules require cable systems to delete under certain circumstances duplicative network
programs broadcast by distant stations. The FCC also imposes certain technical standards on cable television operators,
exercises the power to license various microwave and other radio facilities frequently used in cable television operations,
and regulates the assignment and transfer of control of such licenses. In addition, pursuant to the Pole Attachment Act, the
FCC exercises authority to disapprove unreasonable rates charged to cable operators by most telephone and power
utilities for utilizing space on utility poles or in underground conduits. The FCC has adopted two separate formulas under
the Pole Attachment Act: one for attachments by cable operators generally and a higher rate for attachments used to
provide ""telecommunications services.'' However the Pole Attachment Act does not apply to poles and conduits owned by
municipalities or cooperatives. Also, states can reclaim exclusive jurisdiction over the rates, terms and conditions of pole
attachments by certifying to the FCC that they regulate such matters, and several states in which the Company has cable
operations have so certified. A number of cable operators (including the Company's Cable One subsidiary) are using
their cable systems to provide not only television programming but also Internet access and digital telephony. In 2002 the
U.S. Supreme Court held, based on a prior FCC ruling that Internet access service provided by cable operators is not a
""telecommunications service,'' that the lower pole attachment rates apply not only to attachments used to provide
traditional cable services but also to attachments used to provide Internet access. The FCC has not yet finally determined
whether digital telephony provided by cable operators is a ""telecommunications service'' that would trigger the higher
pole attachment rates.
The Copyright Act of 1976 gives cable television systems the ability, under certain terms and conditions and assuming that
any applicable retransmission consents have been obtained, to retransmit the signals of television stations pursuant to a
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