The American Cable Association has asked the FCC to exempt small cable operators from having to provide on-air DTV transition education. The ACA said these small cable ops don’t have the necessary equipment to do so.

The comments are in response to the “DTV Consumer Education Initiative” order the FCC issued in April.

The ACA said independent cable operators recognize their important role in helping to educate their community about the upcoming transition, and support reasonable measures and initiatives.

“While many independent cable operators can use their systems to educate their subscribers through inserted advertisements, there are many smaller operators who simply do not have the equipment necessary to comply with such a requirement,” said ACA President and CEO Matthew M. Polka. “We have requested that the commission take notice of those operators whose systems do not have ad insertion capability, and adopt a fair and reasonable exemption from this one initiative.”

Based in Pittsburgh, the ACA is a trade organization that represents 1,100 smaller and medium-sized, independent cable companies.