WASHINGTON—Qualified noncommercial educational (NCE) TV translator stations will not be required to send an email notification regarding carriage to MVPDs by Oct. 1, as the FCC has officially granted a petition on the matter.

America’s Public Television Stations (APTV) and PBS filed a joint petition to the FCC about its newly adopted MVPD carriage election notice requirements, which would have required NCE translator stations, as well as qualified LPTV stations, to email a “baseline” carriage notice to any MVPDs on which they were seeking or expecting carriage during the 2021-2023 carriage cycle. The deadline to do so was going to be Oct. 1.

The petition argued that sending such emails would result in a “substantial burden” for NCE stations, and as a result the requirement should be waived. Key to their arguments were that the NCE translator stations do not originate programming, but rather rebroadcast of NCE full-power TV stations; that NCEs may only elect “must carry” options for MVPDs, while LPTVs can select either “must carry” or retransmission consent; also, in many cases, NCEs do not know which MVPDs are carrying them and there is no resource to easily determine the information. Ultimately, emailing MVPDs provides no benefit, the petition argued, but could result in loss of service in the event that an NCE fails to provide proper notice.

“Given the unique characteristics of NCE translators, the public interest would be best served by waiving the baseline email notification requirement for NCE translators adopted in the 2020 Report and Order,” the FCC said.

The petition went unopposed by MVPDs.

The FCC added that email requirements are still in place for all qualified LPTV stations.

For more information, the full FCC document is available online. 

WASHINGTON—Cable and satellite operators won’t be required to lick any more stamps when it comes to sending out certain required notices to TV stations, as the FCC has unanimously voted to allow MVPDs to send notices as emails rather than as traditional paper notifications.

Under previous rules, cable and satellite TV providers had to submit paper notifications to local TV stations before taking certain actions, like launching in a new market, deleting or repositioning a station in the channel lineup or retransmitting certain stations. With the new rules, these notifications can be sent out via email.

Stations that have an online public inspection file will receive the electronic notifications in the inbox used for communications related to the election of must carry/retransmission consent status. Stations without a public file will receive notifications via their general inbox.

This result is said to be part of the FCC’s Modernization of Media Regulation Initiative led by Chairman Ajit Pai, which seeks to eliminate or modify media regulations that are “outdated, unnecessary or unduly burdensome,” per the commission. It was first proposed in July 2019.

Chairman Pai and all of the FCC commissioners (Michael O’Rielly, Jessica Rosenworcel, Brendan Carr and Geoffrey Starks) all voted for the update. 

WASHINGTON—Interested parties have about a month to make their comments known about the FCC’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding notification rules for cable and satellite TV providers, specifically transitioning the requirement of some paper notifications to email delivery. The FCC has set a comment deadline of Sept. 4; reply comments are then due by Sept. 19.

The FCC originally voted on the above NPRM on July 10, but it was published in the Federal Register as of Monday, Aug. 5., which adhering to the commission’s traditional deadlines of 30 and 45 days for comments and reply comments, sets the deadlines to the dates mentioned above.

Currently, upon starting service in a new market, or when deleting or repositioning a broadcast station, cable operators must notify broadcasters by mail, certified mail or hand delivery. This NPRM would allow for such notifications to be delivered over email to the station’s designated inbox according to its FCC filing. It also asks whether email delivery should be allowed for satellite MVPD notices to stations as well.

In addition, the NPRM seeks comment on how to extend email notifications to low-power stations without Class A status and certain noncommercial translator stations.

All comments must be filed according to the instructions provided in the NPRM, which is available in full on the FCC website.

WASHINGTON—One of the items on the docket of the FCC’s July 10 open meeting will be a new proposal made by small and mid-size cable operators that would allow for email delivery of various required notices to broadcasters. Instances where email could be used would include service in a market, deleting or repositioning a TV station and facilities changes.

The specifics of the NPRM proposes that “cable operators be required to distribute these written notices to broadcast television stations electronically via email to an address designated by the station in the [FCC’s] online public inspection file (OPIF).” Additional areas that it covers is seeking comments on extending that to satellite, as well as how it can be applied to low power TVs and translators.

The origins of this proposal came from ACA Connects last fall, when the organization argued that if the FCC was going to allow broadcasters to use email to make carriage elections that it should do the same for cable operations. The emailing of carriage elections will also be voted on in the July 10 meeting.