Cable television

“ Cable television systems and broadcast television stations increasingly compete for television advertising revenues. As the proportion of households subscribing to cable television increases, proportionately more advertising revenues will be reallocated from broadcast to cable television systems. ”

“ For a variety of reasons, including local franchising requirements and the extraordinary expense of constructing more than one cable television system to serve a particular geographic area, most cable television subscribers have no opportunity to select between competing cable systems. Without the presence of another multichannel video programming distributor, a cable system faces no local competition. The result is undue market power for the cable operator as compared to that of consumers and video programmers. ”

“ A Government mandate for a substantial societal investment in alternative distribution systems for cable subscribers, such as the 'A/B' input selector antenna system, is not an enduring or feasible method of distribution and is not in the public interest. (19) At the same time, broadcast programming that is carried remains the most popular programming on cable systems, and a substantial portion of the benefits for which consumers pay cable systems is derived from carriage of the signals of network affiliates, independent television stations, and public television stations. ”

“ The advent of cable television and video cassette recorders has created a technological revolution in the television industry that affords producers and broadcasters virtually limitless possibilities to improve and enrich TV programming. Quality television programming can open wide the windows of curiosity for children and enable them to share in the wonder of man's experience-whether in history, politics, religion, culture, or sports. ”

“ Nor can we doubt that CATV systems are engaged in interstate communication, even where, as here, the intercepted signals emanate from stations located within the same State in which the CATV system operates. [29] We may take notice that television broadcasting consists in very large part of programming devised for, and distributed to, national audiences; respondents thus are ordinarily employed in the simultaneous retransmission of communications that have very often originated in other States. The stream of communication is essentially uninterrupted and properly indivisible. ”

“ For instance, the largest platform has over 210,000,000 Americans users—over 160,000,000 of them on a daily basis. By contrast, the largest cable television provider has 22,430,000 subscribers, while the largest satellite television provider has 21,000,000 subscribers. And the most-watched television broadcast in United States history had 118,000,000 viewers. (8) The public nature of broadcast television, radio, and satellite ensures a level of publicity for any political advertisement. ”

“ As a result of the economic incentive that cable systems have to delete, reposition, or not carry local broadcast signals, coupled with the absence of a requirement that such systems carry local broadcast signals, the economic viability of free local broadcast television and its ability to originate quality local programming will be seriously jeopardized. ”

“ STATEMENT OF POLICY— It is the policy of the Congress in this Act to— (1) promote the availability to the public of a diversity of views and information through cable television and other video distribution media; (2) rely on the marketplace, to the maximum extent feasible, to achieve that availability; (3) ensure that cable operators continue to expand, where economically justified, their capacity and the programs offered over their cable systems ”

“ Cable television and related technology can provide the means for equalizing the television reception opportunity for all viewers. This capability corrects the limitation of the electronic spectrum to provide a minimum choice of signals for all citizens on an equal basis by whatever means reception is secured. Copyright owners have greatly increased their earnings, because of wide dissemination made possible by television, and pay nothing for the benefits conferred upon them by the use of the public’s air waves. ”

“ In implementing this conclusion, the Committee generally followed a proposal submitted by the cable and motion picture industries, the two industries most directly affected by the establishment of copyright royalties for cable television systems. Under the proposal, the royalty fee is determined by a two step computation. First, a value called a "distant signal equivalent" is assigned to all "distant" signals. Distant signals are defined as signals retransmitted by a cable system, in whole or in part, outside the local service area of the primary transmitter. ”

“ Within one year after the date of enactment of the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992, the Commission shall prescribe regulations which establish minimum technical standards relating to cable systems' technical operation and signal quality. The Commission shall update such standards periodically to reflect improvements in technology. A franchising authority may require as part of a franchise (including a modification, renewal, or transfer thereof) provisions for the enforcement of the standards prescribed under this subsection. ”

“ PURPOSE— The purpose of this section is to promote the public interest, convenience, and necessity by increasing competition and diversity in the multichannel video programming market, to increase the availability of satellite cable programming and satellite broadcast programming to persons in rural and other areas not currently able to receive such programming, and to spur the development of communications technologies. ”

“ Finally, Arkansas' sales tax is not content based. There is nothing in the language of the statute that refers to the content of mass media communications. Moreover, the record establishes that cable television offers subscribers a variety of programming that presents a mixture of news, information, and entertainment. It contains no evidence, nor is it contended, that this material differs systematically in its message from that communicated by satellite broadcast programming, newspapers, or magazines. ”

“ The Commission has concluded, and Congress has agreed, that these obligations require for their satisfaction the creation of a system of local broadcasting stations, such that 'all communities of appreciable size (will) have at least one television station as an outlet for local self-expression.' [39] In turn, the Commission has held that an appropriate system of local broadcasting may be created only if two subsidiary goals are realized. First, significantly wider use must be made of the available ultra-high-frequency channels. ”

“ Digital signals are transmitted as compressed data in the form of binary digits, or “bits.” (Id. ¶¶ 19–20, 38) . The number of bits that can be sent in a second is known as the “bitrate.” (Id. ¶ 41) . Digital signals allow for a greater variety in television programming—because more signals can be transmitted in the same space—as well as interactive services and, often, better audio and image quality than analog television. (Id. ¶¶ 39–42) . The RS-DVR would be offered as part of Cablevision’s digital cable service. ”

“ A cable operator of a cable system with more than 12 usable activated channels shall carry the signals of local commercial television stations, up to one-third of the aggregate number of usable activated channels of such system. ”

“ Since rate deregulation, monthly rates for the lowest priced basic cable service have increased by 40 percent or more for 28 percent of cable television subscribers. Although the average number of basic channels has increased from about 24 to 30, average monthly rates have increased by 29 percent during the same period. The average monthly cable rate has increased almost 3 times as much as the Consumer Price Index since rate deregulation. ”

“ CATV systems receive the signals of television broadcasting stations, amplify them, transmit them by cable or microwave, and ultimately distribute them by wire to the receivers of their subscribers. [8] CATV systems characteristically do not produce their own programming, [9] and do not recompense producers or broadcasters for use of the programming which they receive and redistribute. [10] Unlike ordinary broadcasting stations, CATV systems commonly charge their subscribers installation and other fees. ”

“ It shall be permitted to disseminate through a group antenna or a cable network, the works broadcasted by another radio or television organization via satellite or terrestrial network, if it is done within the framework of concurrent, integral and free dissemination of radio and television programs and is designed for a specific group of recipients living in either a single apartment building or single family houses including up to 50 households. ”

“ The Federal Government has a substantial interest in making all nonduplicative local public television services available on cable systems because— (A) public television provides educational and informational programming to the Nation's citizens, thereby advancing the Government's compelling interest in educating its citizens ”

“ The Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984, in its amendments to the Communications Act of 1934, limited the regulatory authority of franchising authorities over cable operators. Franchising authorities are finding it difficult under the current regulatory scheme to deny renewals to cable systems that are not adequately serving cable subscribers. (21) Cable systems should be encouraged to carry low-power television stations licensed to the communities served by those systems where the low-power station creates and broadcasts, as a substantial part of its programming day, local programming. ”

“ IN GENERAL— A cable operator shall not accept monetary payment or other valuable consideration in exchange for carriage of the signal of any qualified local noncommercial educational television station carried in fulfillment of the requirements of this section, except that such a station may be required to bear the cost associated with delivering a good quality signal or a baseband video signal to the principal headend of the cable system. ”

“ It is pertinent that the Senate Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce feared even in 1959 that the unrestricted growth of CATV would eliminate local broadcasting, and that, in turn, this would have four undesirable consequences: (1) the local community 'would be left without the local service which is necessary if the public is to receive the maximum benefits from the television medium'; (2) the 'suburban and rural areas surrounding the central community may be deprived not only of local service but of any service at all' ”

“ For example, cable systems in the contiguous states are subject to certain rules and regulations regarding carriage of signals and program exclusivity protection when they transmit television broadcast signals. It is the intent of the committee that cable systems in the non-contiguous states, territories and possessions should be subject to the same rules and regulations. ”

“ It is true that a CATV system plays an 'active' role in making reception possible in a given area, but so do ordinary television sets and antennas. CATV equipment is powerful and sophisticated, but the basic function the equipment serves is little different from that served by the equipment generally furnished by a television viewer. [27] If an individual erected an antenna on a hill, strung a cable to his house, and installed the necessary amplifying equipment, he would not be 'performing' the programs he received on his television set. ”

“ It is argued that cable merely intercepts the signal which has already been broadcast and then carries it to the subscriber’s television receiver. It is argued that cable is merely an extension of the viewer’s antenna. But the copyright owners and the copyright licensees argue that the cable systems are distributing the broadcast signals to a vastly greater audience than the broadcaster could reach and that this constitutes a “performance” and should invoke a copyright liability. ”

“ With computer- supported visual communication integrating digital television, we will dispose of the entire infrastructure for a visually dominated civilization. In the age of Internet, wired or wireless networks become part of the artificial nervous system of advanced societies. Whether in its modem-based variant, or through other advanced schemes for transporting digital information and supporting interaction, the cable system already contributes to the transformation of the nature of many human practical experiences. ”

“ There is no such evidence here, and we therefore hold that the Commission's authority over 'all interstate * * * communication by wire or radio' permits the regulation of CATV systems.
There is no need here to determine in detail the limits of the Commission's authority to regulate CATV. It is enough to emphasize that the authority which we recognize today under § 152 (a) is restricted to that reasonably ancillary to the effective performance of the Commission's various responsibilities for the regulation of television broadcasting. ”

“ FINDINGS— The Congress finds that— ' (1) new and recent models of television receivers and video cassette recorders often contain premium features and functions that are disabled or inhibited because of cable scrambling, encoding, or encryption technologies and devices, including converter boxes and remote control devices required by cable operators to receive programming ”