§ 76.62 - Manner of carriage.

§ 76.62 Manner of carriage.

(a) Cable operators shall carry the entirety of the program schedule of any television station (including low power television stations) carried by the system unless carriage of specific programming is prohibited, and other programming authorized to be substituted, under § 76.67 or subpart F of part 76, or unless carriage is pursuant to a valid retransmission consent agreement for the entire signal or any portion thereof as provided in § 76.64.

(b) Each digital television broadcast signal carried shall be carried without material degradation. Each analog television broadcast signal carried shall be carried without material degradation and in compliance with technical standards set forth in subpart K of this part.

(c) Each local commercial television station whose signal is carried shall, to the extent technically feasible and consistent with good engineering practice, be provided no less than the same quality of signal processing and carriage provided for carriage of any other type of standard television signal.

(d) Each qualified local noncommercial educational television station whose signal is carried shall be provided with bandwidth and technical capacity equivalent to that provided to commercial television broadcast stations carried.

(e) Each commercial broadcast television station carried pursuant to § 76.56 shall include in its entirety the primary video, accompanying audio, and closed captioning data contained in line 21 of the vertical blanking interval and, to the extent technically feasible, program-related material carried in the vertical blanking interval or on subcarriers. Where appropriate and feasible, operators may delete signal enhancements, such as ghost-canceling, from the broadcast signal and employ such enhancements at the system headend or headends.

(f) Each qualified local NCE television station carried pursuant to § 76.56 shall include in its entirety the primary video, accompanying audio, and closed captioning data contained in line 21 of the vertical blanking interval and, to the extent technically feasible, program-related material carried in the vertical blanking interval or on subcarriers, that may be necessary for receipt of programming by handicapped persons or for educational or language purposes.

(g) With respect to carriage of digital signals, operators are not required to carry ancillary or supplementary transmissions or non-program related video material.

(h) If a digital television broadcast signal is carried in accordance with § 76.62(b) and either (c) or (d), the carriage of that signal in additional formats does not constitute material degradation.

[58 FR 17362, Apr. 2, 1993, as amended at 59 FR 62345, Dec. 5, 1994; 66 FR 16553, Mar. 26, 2001; 73 FR 6054, Feb. 1, 2008]