The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) this week issued an unusual reversal of a decision made earlier by its own Media Bureau involving a dispute over must-carry status for an Alabama television station.
In its decision, the FCC granted an Application for Review filed by Echostar’s Dish Network challenging a ruling issued two years ago by the Media Bureau concerning WHOT (Channel 66), a station licensed to CNZ Communications.
The dispute largely centers on the unusual position of WHOT, which sits between two television markets. The station transmits to Opelika, Alabama, which falls within the Columbus media market, though Nielsen has designated WHOT as belonging to the Atlanta market.
As such, WHOT was requesting Dish carry the station in both markets, while Dish maintains it is only legally obligated to offer WHOT to satellite subscribers in one market under the FCC’s existing must-carry rules.
Those rules say TV broadcasters can set aside demands for retransmission consent fees — money charged to cable and satellite providers for the privilege of selling their stations to cable and satellite customers — if they want to force cable and satellite companies to carry their channels instead.
Typically, must-carry status only extends to a market where a station is available. Congress has leaned on Nielsen’s market designations as the ultimate authority in deciding what cities a broadcaster covers.
Two years ago, the Media Bureau said stations can demand must-carry status in the Nielsen designated market and the immediate community where the station is licensed, even if the two areas are not the same.
But this month, the full FCC board reversed that decision, saying the Media Bureau’s order didn’t comply with Congressional intent when lawmakers established Nielsen’s designated markets as the legal authority on the matter.
To that end, the FCC board said WHOT can demand must-carry status in Atlanta, but can’t extend that same request to the community where it is licensed, even though they’re separate regions under Nielsen’s designated market rules.
It wasn’t clear if WHOT planned to appeal the matter in court.
WHOT carries programming from “Hot 97 TV,” a network established in New York, where a radio station with the same branding is located.
