Broadcast Signal Carriage - Changes In Designated Market Areas ("DMAs")

The FCC periodically updates the broadcast television market assignments applicable to its must carry and retransmission consent regulations. As part of the current must carry/retransmission consent "election" cycle, the FCC rules require that the 2003-2004 Nielsen DMA assignments replace the old 2000-2001 Nielsen DMA assignments. Although the changes are not dramatic, the updating means that some counties will shift from one television market assignment to another. In these cases, a cable operator may be required to delete broadcast signals historically carried on a cable system (based on the old DMA assignment) and replace them with other broadcast signals (based on the new DMA assignment).

For compulsory copyright purposes, broadcast signals get the benefit of both the old market assignments and the new market assignments. Accordingly, a cable system that shifts from DMA 1 to DMA 2 can continue identifying broadcast signals from DMA 1 as "local" and can also now identify broadcast signals from DMA 2 as "local."

We have attached a list of the relevant DMA changes. If you have any questions, please contact us.