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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 Re Complaint of : ) ) Golden Link TV, Inc. ) CSR 5090-M against Century Communications Corp. ) ) For Carriage of KPST-TV ) MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER Adopted: January 14, 1998 Released: January 16, 1998 By the Chief, Consumer Protection and Competition Division, Cable Services Bureau: INTRODUCTION 1. Golden Link TV, Inc. ("Golden Link"), licensee of full power commercial television station KPST-TV (Channel 66), Vallejo, California, filed a must carry complaint pursuant to 47 C.F.R.  76.7 and 76.61(a) requesting that the Commission order Century Communications Corp. ("Century"), operator of a cable television system serving the communities listed below, to commence carriage KPST- TV. Century filed an opposition to the complaint, and Golden Link filed a reply. BACKGROUND 2. Pursuant to Section 614 of the Communications Act and implementing rules adopted by the Commission in its Report and Order in MM Docket 92-259, commercial television broadcast stations are entitled to assert mandatory carriage rights on cable systems located within the station's market. A station's market for this purpose is its "area of dominant influence," or ADI, as defined by the Arbitron audience research organization. An ADI is a geographic market designation that defines each television market exclusive of others, based on measured viewing. ALLEGATIONS AND ARGUMENT 3. Golden Link contends that Century has refused to carry KPST-TV on its Rohnert Park System in contravention of the mandatory carriage provisions of Section 614 of the Communications Act and requests an order for carriage. Golden Link provided copies of correspondence exchanged with Century in an effort to gain carriage of KPST-TV on the Rohnert Park System, including a letter to Century dated September 27, 1996 in which it elected must carry on the Rohnert Park System, and a letter from Century, dated April 15, 1997, in which Century confirmed that KPST-TV provides an adequate signal to the Rohnert Park System principal headend. Century's April 15 letter further stated that KPST-TV would be carried on channel 32 of the cable system commencing July 1, 1997. This letter also made a request that carriage be deferred until Century completed a planned upgrade of the Rohnert Park System sometime in 1998 that would permit carriage of KPST-TV on the station's assigned channel and without the necessity of deleting another service. Golden Link responded by letter dated April 18, 1997, informing Century that it did not wish to defer carriage and indicating instead that it desired carriage of KPST-TV at the earliest possible time. Golden Link also stated that, based on Century's estimated starting date, it would expect carriage to commence no later than July 1, 1997. Golden Link, after subsequently learning from a program supplier that KPST-TV would not be carried on the Rohnert Park System commencing July 1, 1997, submitted a letter to Century dated July 2, 1997 seeking information about the status of carriage of KPST-TV. After a response to this inquiry was not received, Golden Link filed the must carry complaint with the Commission on August 26, 1997. 4. Century opposes the carriage request on the grounds that the complaint was not timely filed. Century also asserts that the Rohnert Park System should not be required to drop another service in order to carry KPST-TV. Century contends that dropping another channel would cause substantial subscriber dissatisfaction because "KPST-TV, a Home Shopping Network affiliate, is one more shopping channel that cable subscribers simply do not want." Century states further that the rebuild of the Rohnert Park System should be completed in 1998, at which time KPST-TV could be added to the system without deleting an existing service. DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS 5. Golden Link's complaint, which we find to be timely filed, will be granted. We find that Golden Link was justified in relying on Century's letter of April 15, 1997 in which Century committed to commence carrying KPST-TV on July 1, 1997. Although Century also made a request for a deferral of carriage until a planned upgrade of the Rohnert Park System would be completed in 1998, its statement that "we will add KPST-TV to our cable channel 32 effective July 1, 1997 simultaneously to other channel lineup changes" was unqualified. Moreover, as noted above, Golden Link not only accepted this carriage commitment, it also reiterated its earlier must carriage election and rejected Century's request to defer carriage by letters dated April 16 and 18, 1997. The complaint was filed on August 26, 1997, which is within sixty days both of July 1, 1997, the date on which Century committed to commence carriage of KPST-TV, and July 2, 1997, the date on which Golden Link sought confirmation of the status of carriage. On this record, we decline to find this complaint to be untimely filed. 6. We reject Century's argument that the Rohnert Park System should not be required to carry KPST-TV because another service must be dropped. Section 614(b)(1)(B) mandates that cable systems "with 12 or more usable activated channels shall carry the signals of local commercial television stations, up to one-third of the aggregate number of usable activated channels of such system." In the Must Carry Order, the Commission interpreted Section 614(b)(1)(B) as creating a clear statutory right of carriage that is not qualified by the fact that an existing service must be dropped to make room for mandatory carriage of a local station and that the carriage right applies "notwithstanding the existence of prior agreements between cable operators and cable programming services." The Commission also stated that the carriage right applies "notwithstanding the existence of prior agreements between cable operators and cable programming services." The Commission further indicated that neither inconvenience, marketing problems, need for system configuration, or need to make technical changes except for a "compelling technical reason" was sufficient reason to deny a commercial station's "on channel" positioning. We note in this connection that Century does not plead the existence of any prior carriage agreement in conflict with the instant request, only that deletion of an existing service may be an inconvenience to subscribers and that a planned future system upgrade would remove the need for such service deletion. We find that such circumstances do not constitute a "compelling technical reason" for not accommodating mandatory carriage of a qualified local television stations. Golden Link has established on this record that KPST-TV is located in the same television market as Century' Rohnert Park System and delivers an adequate signal to the cable system's headend, and that carriage of the station would not increase the cable system's copyright liability. ORDERING CLAUSES 7. Accordingly, IT IS ORDERED, pursuant to Section 614 of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, 47 U.S.C. 534, that the complaint filed by Golden Link TV, Inc. in File No. CSR 5090-M IS GRANTED, and Century Communications Corp. IS ORDERED to commence carriage of television station KPST-TV within sixty (60) days of the release date of this Order. 8. This action is taken pursuant to authority delegated under 0.321 of the Commission's Rules. FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION Gary Laden Chief, Consumer Protection and Competition Division Cable Services Bureau