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If you need the complete document, download the WordPerfect version or Adobe Acrobat version, if available. ***************************************************************** Before the Federal Communications Commission Washington, D.C. 20554 ) In the Matter of ) Petition for Relief of ) ) DESKTOP VISION HANDCRAFTED INC., ) Petitioner, ) ) vs. ) CSR 4687-L ) MID-SOUTH CABLE TV, INC. ) Respondent, ) MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER Adopted: March 11, 1997 Released: March 14, 1997 By the Chief, Cable Services Bureau: 1. Desktop Vision Handcrafted Inc. (herein "Desktop") filed a petition for relief pursuant to Section 76.975 of the rules of the Federal Communications Commission alleging that Mid-South Cable TV, Inc. (herein "Mid-South") had failed to provide it with prorated rates for part-time leased access service and failed to make a leased access channel available in violation of the Commission's commercial leased access rules. Mid-South filed a response asserting that it had complied with the obligations of the leased access rules by providing Desktop with its rate card for part-time leased access service. Mid-South also requests a waiver of the Commission's leased access rules. 2. In 1984, Congress amended the Communications Act of 1934 by adding, among other things, a commercial leased access requirement, pursuant to which cable operators with 36 or more activated channels must set aside part of their channel capacity for use by programmers that are not affiliated with them. The Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992 (the "1992 Cable Act") revisited the leased access requirement and directed the Commission to establish, among other things, rules for determining maximum reasonable rates for commercial leased access. Pursuant to that Congressional directive, the Commission established regulations, including rate regulations, applicable to leased access channels, in its proceedings in Implementation of Sections of the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992; Rate Regulation, MM Docket 92-266, (the Rate Order), 8 FCC Rcd 5631 (1993), at  531-538. See also Order on Reconsideration of the First Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, MM Docket No. 92-266 & CS Docket No. 96-60, FCC 96-122, Released March 29, 1996, 61 Fed. Reg. 16396 (April 15, 1996), ("Further Notice"). The leased access regulations relevant to this case are found at 47 C.F.R.  76.970, 76.971 and 76.975. 3. The record in this matter shows that Mid-South provided Desktop with the requested rate card for part-time rates for commercial leased access service by a letter dated February 19, 1996, and thus satisfied the petition for relief. Desktop has provided nothing which indicates that any further prosecution of the petition for relief is required. Accordingly, the petition will be dismissed as satisfied. 4. Mid-South also requests a ruling that it qualifies as a "small" cable system for purposes of the Commission's cable rate regulations and is therefore not required to provide leased access service to Desktop at this time. Mid-South's cable system provides a basic tier of twenty one (21) channels and a cable program service (CPS) tier of seventeen (17) channels. Therefore, Mid- South concedes that it is obligated by Section 612 to designate leased access channels. However, Mid-South bases its request for a "small" system exemption on the fact that as of December 1995 it served only 2283 subscribers over approximately 160 miles of plant. 5. Mid-South's request for a ruling that it qualifies as a "small" cable system for purposes of the Commission's cable rate regulations and that it is thus not required to provide leased access service to Desktop will be denied. Section 612 of the Communications Act contains no provision for exemption for cable systems that meet the statutory activated channel threshold that requires the designation of leased access channels for use by unaffiliated producers of video programs. Furthermore, Commission regulations exempting certain "small" cable systems from cable rate regulations purposes apply to subscriber rates for cable services, and not to the provision of leased access channels to producers of video productions. 6. Mid-South also states that it has neither the personnel nor the space within the small building (12' X 15') where its system headend is located to operate and house the additional equipment necessary to provide leased access service. Contending that it has neither a video cassette recorder nor a modulator necessary to provide leased access service, Mid-South states that it would welcome any guidance from the Commission on how to accommodate Desktop's needs and for a waiver of Sections 76.970(a) and 76.971(c) of the Commission's rules. 7. We will deny Mid-South's request for waiver of our rules. First, Mid-South has provided nothing which demonstrates that its headend building, which consists of 225 square feet of floor space, does not have sufficient room to accommodate the additional pieces of equipment necessary to provide leased access services. We recently addressed the matter of the relationship between the cost of providing technical equipment required in support of leased access channels and the maximum reasonable rate for such channels in the Second Report and Order and Second Order on Reconsideration of the First Report and Order, CS Docket No. 96-60, FCC 97-27, released February 4, 1997. There the Commission indicated that, while a cable operator may not impose a separate charge on a leased access programmer for the same kind of technical support that is already provided to non-leased access programmers, a charge may be added to recover the cost of providing a tape recorder or a camera, for instance, if such equipment would be provided to non-leased programmers at the same additional charge. Thus, in the event that Mid-South is not providing other programmers with a tape recorder or camcorder, it may charge Desktop for such equipment. In the alternative, Mid-South may purchase such equipment and lease it to Desktop at a reasonable cost. In this connection, we observe that Mid-South has not shown that Desktop is unwilling or unable to meet the reasonable cost of any additional technical support needed to provide leased access service, consistent with the requirements of Section 76.971(c). 8. For the foregoing reasons, IT IS ORDERED that the petition for relief of Desktop Vision Handcrafted Inc. in File No. CSR 4687-L IS DISMISSED. 9. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the requests of Mid-South Cable TV, Inc. for waiver of Sections 76.970(a) and 76.971(c) and for other relief from the obligations of Section 612 of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, IS DENIED. 10. This action is taken pursuant to authority delegated by Section 0.321 of the Commission's rules, 47 C.F.R.  0.321. FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION Meredith J. Jones Chief, Cable Services Bureau