FCC Grants Small Systems Dual-Carriage Exemption

Last week, the Federal Communications Commission approved a waiver to its must-carry rules for certain smaller cable operators, under which those operators will not be required to retransmit digital broadcast signals for three years after next February's transition by full-power TV stations to all-digital broadcasts, according to the American Cable Association. The new rules, supported by FCC chairman Kevin Martin, apply to all cable systems regardless of channel capacity that have 2,500 subscribers or fewer and are not owned by Comcast or Time Warner.