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File how2ftp (.txt & .wp) is in directory \pub\Public_Notices\Miscellaneous. ***************************************************************** ******** $//MO&O granting the addition of 8 communities to KTTC's ADI, DA 95-2214//$ $/76.59 Modification of television markets./$ Before the FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION Washington, DC 20554 In re: ) ) KTTC Television, Inc. ) CSR-3926-A Rochester, Minnesota ) ) For Modification of Television ) Broadcast Station KTTC's ADI ) MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER Adopted: October 20, 1995 Released: November 2, 1995 By the Deputy Chief, Cable Services Bureau: INTRODUCTION 1. KTTC Television, Inc., licensee of Television Broadcast Station KTTC (NBC, Channel 10), Rochester, Minnesota, has filed a "Petition for Special Relief" seeking to include within the Rochester, Minnesota-Mason City, Iowa-Austin, Minnesota "area of dominant influence" the following Minnesota cable communities, all of which are located in Winona County and are served either by TCI Cable, Midwest Cablevision, or Crown Cable: Winona, St. Charles, Dakota, Altura, Rolling Stone, Lewiston, Stockton, and Hidden Valley Village. KTTC's petition is unopposed. BACKGROUND 2. Pursuant to 4 of the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992 ["1992 Cable Act"] and implementing rules adopted by the Commission in its Report and Order in MM Docket 92-259, a commercial television broadcast station is entitled to assert mandatory carriage rights on cable systems located within the station's market. A station's market for this purpose is its "area of dominant influence," or ADI, as defined by the Arbitron audience research organization. An ADI is a geographic market designation that defines each television market exclusive of others, based on measured viewing patterns. Essentially, each county in the United States is allocated to a market based on which home- market stations receive a preponderance of total viewing hours in the county. For purposes of this calculation, both over-the-air and cable television viewing are included. 3. Under the Act, however, the Commission is also directed to consider changes in ADI areas. Section 614(h) provides that the Commission may: with respect to a particular television broadcast station, include additional communities within its television market or exclude communities from such station's television market to better effectuate the purposes of this section. In considering such requests, the 1992 Cable Act provides that: the Commission shall afford particular attention to the value of localism by taking into account such factors as-- (I) whether the station, or other stations located in the same area, have been historically carried on the cable system or systems within such community; (II) whether the television station provides coverage or other local service to such community; (III) whether any other television station that is eligible to be carried by a cable system in such community in fulfillment of the requirements of this section provides news coverage of issues of concern to such community or provides carriage or coverage of sporting and other events of interest to the community; and (IV) evidence of viewing patterns in cable and noncable households within the areas served by the cable system or systems in such community. 4. The legislative history of this provision indicates that: where the presumption in favor of ADI carriage would result in cable subscribers losing access to local stations because they are outside the ADI in which a local cable system operates, the FCC may make an adjustment to include or exclude particular communities from a television station's market consistent with Congress' objective to ensure that television stations be carried in the areas which they serve and which form their economic market. * * * * * [This subsection] establishes certain criteria which the Commission shall consider in acting on requests to modify the geographic area in which stations have signal carriage rights. These factors are not intended to be exclusive, but may be used to demonstrate that a community is part of a particular station's market. 5. The Commission provided guidance in MM Docket 92-259, supra, to aid decision making in these matters, as follows: For example, the historical carriage of the station could be illustrated by the submission of documents listing the cable system's channel line-up (e. g., rate cards) for a period of years. To show that the station provides coverage or other local service to the cable community (factor 2), parties may demonstrate that the station places at least a Grade B coverage contour over the cable community or is located close to the community in terms of mileage. Coverage of news or other programming of interest to the community could be demonstrated by program logs or other descriptions of local program offerings. The final factor concerns viewing patterns in the cable community in cable and noncable homes. Audience data clearly provide appropriate evidence about this factor. In this regard, we note that surveys such as those used to demonstrate significantly viewed status could be useful. However, since this factor requires us to evaluate viewing on a community basis for cable and noncable homes, and significantly viewed surveys typically measure viewing only in noncable households, such surveys may need to be supplemented with additional data concerning viewing in cable homes. 6. In adopting rules to implement this provision, the Commission indicated that changes requested should be considered on a community-by-community basis, rather than on a county-by-county basis, and that they should be treated as specific to particular stations rather than applicable in common to all stations in the market. The rules further provide, in accordance with the requirements of the 1992 Cable Act, that a station not be deleted from carriage during the pendency of an ADI change request. 7. Adding communities to a station's ADI generally entitles that station to insist on cable carriage in those communities. However, this right is subject to several conditions: 1) a cable system operator is generally required to devote no more than one-third of the system's activated channel capacity to compliance with the mandatory signal carriage obligations; 2) the station is responsible for delivering a good quality signal to the principal headend of the system; 3) indemnification may be required for any increase in copyright liability resulting from carriage; and 4) the system operator is not required to carry the signal of any station whose signal substantially duplicates the signal of any other local signal carried, or the signal of more than one local station affiliated with a particular broadcast network. If, pursuant to these requirements, a system operator elects to carry the signal of only a single affiliate of a broadcast network, the operator is obliged to carry the affiliate from within the ADI of the station whose city of license is closest to the principal headend of the cable system. Accordingly, based on the specific circumstances involved, the addition of communities to a station's ADI may guarantee it cable carriage and specific channel position rights, or may simply provide the system operator with an expanded list of must-carry signals from which to choose, i. e., when the system has used up its channel capacity mandated for broadcast signal carriage, or determined which of duplicating network affiliated stations are entitled to carriage priority. MARKET FACTS AND PETITIONER'S ARGUMENTS 8. The communities at issue are currently all assigned to the LaCrosse-Eau Claire, Wisconsin ADI. Winona County is on the eastern border of the Rochester, Minnesota-Mason City, Iowa-Austin, Minnesota ADI, and KTTC places a Grade B or better contour over all of Winona County. KTTC adds that it also operates Television Broadcast Translator Station K74CZ from the community of Winona. 9. In support of its petition, KTTC states that it began broadcasting in July 1953, and that since then it has historically been carried by all the cable systems in Winona County from the date that they began delivering cable service. KTTC adds and that it serves Winona daily with half-hour newscasts at 6:00PM and at 10:00PM which cover local news and sports. KTTC also notes that its station I.D. is Rochester-Winona-Austin-Mason City, and that it originates substantial amounts of local programming either on tape or live, including local weather and public service projects information. In addition, KTTC states that its sales people make regular calls in Winona County, and that advertisers there (including colleges, auto dealers, and other retail establishments) constitute a major portion of the station's advertising revenues. KTTC points out that even the cover of the Winona telephone book features KTTC's logo, together with the slogan "40 Years Together", which the station claims is indicative of its close relationship with the County, particularly in view of the fact that, while the Directory displays several advertisements by KTTC, it has none from any other local stations. Finally, KTTC notes it has the highest number of viewers in the County in many key departs throughout the day, according to Nielsen's 1992 County/Coverage Study, even though KTTC adds that the County is also served by station WEAU-TV (NBC, Channel 13), Eau Claire, Wisconsin, as well as by the following stations licensed to LaCrosse, Wisconsin: WXOW-TV (ABC, channel 19); WKBT (CBS, channel 8); and WLAX (Ind., channel 25). ANALYSIS AND DECISION 10. We shall grant KTTC's petition with respect to the communities of Winona, St. Charles, Dakota, Altura, Rolling Stone, Lewiston, Stockton, and Hidden Valley Village. Initially, we note that KTTC has shown a history of carriage by the cable systems serving these communities. Moreover, the station's predicted Grade B or better contour encompasses all of the communities in question, and we have previously stated that this is sufficient to satisfy the second factor, KTTC also has established a translator station to serve the local communities in the area. In addition, the available evidence of viewing patterns indicates a strong preference for KTTC among network viewers in Winona County, who give it the highest ratings for a NBC-affiliate, both on cable and off cable. Furthermore, we note that Station KTTC is approximately 50% closer to the subject communities than is the current NBC affiliate Station WEAU-TV (NBC, channel 13) Eau Clair, Wisconsin, who has not objected to this petition. While KTTC has not fully addressed the issue of whether other stations presently entitled to mandatory carriage by cable systems in these communities already provide coverage of issues of concern to them, as well as carriage or coverage of sporting or other events of interest there, we do not believe that Congress intended this factor to operate as a bar to a station's ADI claim whenever other stations also could be shown to serve the communities at issue. Rather, we believe this criterion was intended to enhance a station's claim where it could be shown that other stations do not serve the communities at issue. Under such circumstances, a denial of carriage rights to the claiming station could deprive cable viewers of any broadcast signals that might provide programming geared to their communities. In this case, because other stations do appear to serve the communities named by KTTC, this enhancement factor does not appear to be applicable. 11. KTTC's showing on each of the other factors, however, is sufficient and, even absent enhancement under the third criterion, warrants grant of the requested relief. Therefore, for the purposes of determining mandatory signal carriage obligations, we shall consider the communities of Winona, St. Charles, Dakota, Altura, Rolling Stone, Lewiston, Stockton, and Hidden Valley Village to be part of the Rochester, Minnesota-Mason City, Iowa-Austin, Minnesota ADI with respect to KTTC, as well as within the LaCrosse-Eau Claire, Wisconsin ADI. This determination is subject to all generally applicable limitations on signal carriage rights, including copyright liability, signal quality, channel capacity, and program duplication. See paragraph 7, supra. ORDER 12. Accordingly, IT IS ORDERED, pursuant to 614 of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, (47 U.S.C. 534) and 76.56 and 76.59 of the Commission's Rules (47 CFR 76.56 and 76.59), That the captioned petition for special relief filed June 5, 1993, by KTTC Television, Inc. IS GRANTED. This change shall be effective in accordance with the following schedule: KTTC shall notify the cable systems in question in writing of its carriage and channel position elections (76.56, 76.57, and 76.64(f) of the Commission's Rules) within thirty (30) days of the release date of this Memorandum Opinion and Order. The affected cable systems shall come into compliance with the applicable rules within sixty (60) days of such notification. 13. This action is taken pursuant to authority delegated by 0.321 of the Commission's Rules. FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION William H. Johnson Deputy Chief, Cable Services Bureau