[Federal Register Volume 59, Number 133 (Wednesday, July 13, 1994)]
[Unknown Section]
[Page 0]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 94-16879]
[[Page Unknown]]
[Federal Register: July 13, 1994]
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FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
47 CFR Part 74
[MM Docket No. 93-106, FCC 94-147]
Use of the Frequencies in the Instructional Television Fixed
Service
AGENCY: Federal Communications Commission.
ACTION: Final rule.
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SUMMARY: The FCC amended the Instructional Television Fixed Service
(ITFS) rules to permit licensees to utilitize channel loading in
meeting their basic educational programming requirements. Channel
loading is the scheduling, or ``loading,'' of the requisite amount of
ITFS programming onto fewer than the authorized channels in a four-
channel ITFS group. It represents a cost-free means of freeing up ITFS
channels for full-time commercial programming by wireless cable
operators who lease excess capacity from ITFS licensees.
EFFECTIVE DATE: August 12, 1994.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Anne Lucey, Mass Media Bureau, Video Services Division, Distribution
Services Branch, (202) 418-1630.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This is the Commission's Report and Order in
MM Docket No. 93-106, adopted on June 9, 1994 and released on July 6,
1994.
The complete text of this Report and Order is available for
inspection and copying during normal business hours in the FCC
Reference Center, Room 239, at the Federal Communications Commission,
1919 M Street NW., Washington, DC 20554, and may also be purchased from
the Commission's copy contractor, International Transcription Service,
at (202) 857-3800, 2100 M Street NW., suite 140, Washington, DC 20037.
Report and Order
1. Forming the nucleus of the channel-loading rules are the five
elements of an industry-wide agreement reached late last summer by
educators and wireless cable operators, see 58 FR 42522 (August 10,
1993), with some minor modifications designed to provide additional
assurances that the primary educational purpose of ITFS will be
preserved.
2. First, licensees wishing to lease excess capacity must provide
for the continued minimum total of 160 hours per week of ITFS
programming, or 40 hours per channel per week, composed of 80 hours to
be immediately used and the remaining 80 hours to be subject to ready
recapture by the ITFS licensee, in the event it wishes to expand its
educational programming.
3. Second, as agreed to in the compromise, licensees must transmit
the minimum total of 80 hours per week over only their authorized ITFS
channels. Licensees may ``load'' this amount of programming onto fewer
than their four channels. However, the rules will not permit licensees
utilizing channel loading to transmit the reduced amount of 12 hours
per channel per week, an allowance now made for licensees during their
first two years of operation. The Commission views channel loading as
an alternative to the two-year, 12-hour minimum programming option.
4. Third, a licensee may agree to the transmission of its 80 hours
of ready recapture programming over any channel in a market-wide
wireless system, whether it be an ITFS or MMDS channel. The licensee
will have the right to recapture time on up to four channels to air
simultaneously 20 additional hours of educational programming per
channel. This time may be recaptured upon six months' written
notification to the wireless cable operator, rather than the one-year
notice now required. The Commission deemed this shortened notice period
an appropriate trade-off for wireless cable operators, who now will
have the flexibility to transmit the recaptured ITFS programming on any
channel in their systems rather than being limited to leased ITFS
channels, as before.
5. Fourth, an ITFS applicant seeking four channels, proposing 80
hours of programming per week and providing in its lease agreement for
an additional 80 hours of ready recapture is presumed to have
demonstrated its need for those channels. Applicants must continue to
submit programming grids and schedules, but these must now reflect, as
nearly as possible, the nature and timing of educational programming
planned for the first year of operation. This will permit the
Commission to verify that programming aired outside the traditional
school day is in fact directed to legitimate educational needs.
Compliance with the above will be reviewed at renewal time. Moreover,
those applicants proposing to channel load in accordance with the rules
adopted by the Commission will not be disadvantaged for electing to do
so in the comparative selection procedure utilized by the Commission in
selecting a licensee between mutually exclusive applicants.
6. Fifth, the Commission noted that no reallocation of ITFS
spectrum, of either loaded or non-loaded channels, is intended or
effected by the adoption of channel loading. Rather, the Commission
stated that channel loading provides ITFS licensees with an option,
which will enhance the value of leasing arrangements both to ITFS
licensees and wireless cable lessees.
7. Finally the Commission will allow the channel loading rules to
remain in effect until the Commission assesses the impact of digital
compression on the ITFS service, through a future notice and comment
rule making proceeding.
8. The Commission applied the rules and standards adopted for
channel loading to channel mapping. Channel mapping, a complex and
costly switching technology that is functionally equivalent to channel
loading, was recognized by the Commission in 1991 as a legitimate means
of accommodating the joint programming needs of ITFS licensees and
their wireless cable lessees.
9. For further information concerning this Report and Order,
contact Anne Lucey (202-418-1630), Mass Media Bureau, Video Services
Division, Distribution Services Branch, Federal Communications
Commission, Washington, DC 20554.
List of Subjects in 47 CFR Part 74
Radio broadcasting.
Federal Communications Commission.
LaVera F. Marshall,
Acting Secretary.
Rules Changes
Part 74 of title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations is amended
as follows:
PART 74--[AMENDED]
1. The authority citation for Part 74 continues to read as follows:
Authority: Secs. 4, 303, 48 Stat. 1066, as amended, 1062, as
amended; 47 U.S.C. 154, 303, 554.
2. Section 74.902 is amended by redesignating paragraph (d) as
paragraph (d)(1) and adding paragraph (d)(2) to read as follows:
Sec. 74.902 Frequency assignments.
* * * * *
(d) * * *
(2) An applicant leasing excess capacity and proposing a schedule
which complies in all respects with the requirements of Section
74.931(e) will have presumptively demonstrated need, in accordance with
paragraph (d)(1) of this section, for no more than four channels, all
part of the same Group listed in paragraph (a) of this section. This
presumption is rebuttable by demonstrating that the application does
not propose to comport with our educational programming requirements,
that is, to transmit some formal educational programming, as defined in
Section 74.931(a), and to transmit the requisite minimum programming of
Section 74.931(e) for genuinely educational purposes and to receive
sites when students are there.
3. Section 74.931 is amended by revising paragraph (a)(1) and
adding paragraph (e)(9) to read as follows:
Sec. 74.931 Purpose and permissible service.
(a)(1) Instructional television fixed stations are intended
primarily to provide a formal educational and cultural development in
aural and visual form, to students enrolled in accredited public and
private schools, colleges and universities. Authorized instructional
television fixed station channels must be used to transmit formal
educational programming offered for credit to enrolled students of
accredited schools, with limited exceptions as set forth in paragraph
(e)(9) of this section and Secs. 74.990 through 74.992.
* * * * *
(e) * * *
(9) A licensee may shift its requisite ITFS programming onto fewer
than its authorized number of channels, via channel mapping technology
or channel loading, so that it can lease full-time channel capacity to
a wireless cable operator, subject to the condition that it provide a
total average of at least 20 hours per channel per week of ITFS
programming on its authorized channels. The licensee also retains the
unabridgeable right to recapture, subject to six months' written
notification to the wireless cable operator, an average of an
additional 20 hours per channel per week for simultaneous programming
on the number of channels for which it is authorized. The licensee may
agree to the transmission of this recapture time on channels not
authorized to it, but which are included in the wireless system of
which it is a part.
* * * * *
[FR Doc. 94-16879 Filed 7-12-94; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6712-01-M
