ACA, NAB Reach Consensus on HD Carriage Exemption Extension

The American Cable Association and NAB reached agreement on an extension of the HD carriage exemption to which neither organization would object, they said in an FCC filing posted Friday in docket 98-120. The current exemption is set to expire June 12, and while ACA has requested an extension, NAB has argued that granting one would be outside FCC authority. Neither association would object to an FCC order that would make small cable systems that don't offer HD programming exempt from the HD carriage requirement, and redefine small cable systems as those having an activated channel capacity of 552 MHz or less or serving 1,500 or fewer subscribers and not affiliated with a cable operator serving more than 2 percent of all multichannel video programming distributor subscribers, they said. The current exemption defines small as systems having less than 2,500 subscribers and not affiliated with a cable operator serving more than 10 percent of all MVPD subscribers. Cable systems ineligible for the new exemption after June 12 would have until Dec. 12, 2016, to come into compliance, and after then, any system using the exemption that starts offering HD programming would no longer be eligible and would be required to notify all broadcasters in its market, said ACA and NAB.