[Federal Register Volume 59, Number 133 (Wednesday, July 13, 1994)]
[Unknown Section]
[Page 0]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 94-16879]


[[Page Unknown]]

[Federal Register: July 13, 1994]


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FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
47 CFR Part 74

[MM Docket No. 93-106, FCC 94-147]

 

Use of the Frequencies in the Instructional Television Fixed 
Service

AGENCY: Federal Communications Commission.

ACTION: Final rule.

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SUMMARY: The FCC amended the Instructional Television Fixed Service 
(ITFS) rules to permit licensees to utilitize channel loading in 
meeting their basic educational programming requirements. Channel 
loading is the scheduling, or ``loading,'' of the requisite amount of 
ITFS programming onto fewer than the authorized channels in a four-
channel ITFS group. It represents a cost-free means of freeing up ITFS 
channels for full-time commercial programming by wireless cable 
operators who lease excess capacity from ITFS licensees.

EFFECTIVE DATE: August 12, 1994.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Anne Lucey, Mass Media Bureau, Video Services Division, Distribution 
Services Branch, (202) 418-1630.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This is the Commission's Report and Order in 
MM Docket No. 93-106, adopted on June 9, 1994 and released on July 6, 
1994.
    The complete text of this Report and Order is available for 
inspection and copying during normal business hours in the FCC 
Reference Center, Room 239, at the Federal Communications Commission, 
1919 M Street NW., Washington, DC 20554, and may also be purchased from 
the Commission's copy contractor, International Transcription Service, 
at (202) 857-3800, 2100 M Street NW., suite 140, Washington, DC 20037.

Report and Order

    1. Forming the nucleus of the channel-loading rules are the five 
elements of an industry-wide agreement reached late last summer by 
educators and wireless cable operators, see 58 FR 42522 (August 10, 
1993), with some minor modifications designed to provide additional 
assurances that the primary educational purpose of ITFS will be 
preserved.
    2. First, licensees wishing to lease excess capacity must provide 
for the continued minimum total of 160 hours per week of ITFS 
programming, or 40 hours per channel per week, composed of 80 hours to 
be immediately used and the remaining 80 hours to be subject to ready 
recapture by the ITFS licensee, in the event it wishes to expand its 
educational programming.
    3. Second, as agreed to in the compromise, licensees must transmit 
the minimum total of 80 hours per week over only their authorized ITFS 
channels. Licensees may ``load'' this amount of programming onto fewer 
than their four channels. However, the rules will not permit licensees 
utilizing channel loading to transmit the reduced amount of 12 hours 
per channel per week, an allowance now made for licensees during their 
first two years of operation. The Commission views channel loading as 
an alternative to the two-year, 12-hour minimum programming option.
    4. Third, a licensee may agree to the transmission of its 80 hours 
of ready recapture programming over any channel in a market-wide 
wireless system, whether it be an ITFS or MMDS channel. The licensee 
will have the right to recapture time on up to four channels to air 
simultaneously 20 additional hours of educational programming per 
channel. This time may be recaptured upon six months' written 
notification to the wireless cable operator, rather than the one-year 
notice now required. The Commission deemed this shortened notice period 
an appropriate trade-off for wireless cable operators, who now will 
have the flexibility to transmit the recaptured ITFS programming on any 
channel in their systems rather than being limited to leased ITFS 
channels, as before.
    5. Fourth, an ITFS applicant seeking four channels, proposing 80 
hours of programming per week and providing in its lease agreement for 
an additional 80 hours of ready recapture is presumed to have 
demonstrated its need for those channels. Applicants must continue to 
submit programming grids and schedules, but these must now reflect, as 
nearly as possible, the nature and timing of educational programming 
planned for the first year of operation. This will permit the 
Commission to verify that programming aired outside the traditional 
school day is in fact directed to legitimate educational needs. 
Compliance with the above will be reviewed at renewal time. Moreover, 
those applicants proposing to channel load in accordance with the rules 
adopted by the Commission will not be disadvantaged for electing to do 
so in the comparative selection procedure utilized by the Commission in 
selecting a licensee between mutually exclusive applicants.
    6. Fifth, the Commission noted that no reallocation of ITFS 
spectrum, of either loaded or non-loaded channels, is intended or 
effected by the adoption of channel loading. Rather, the Commission 
stated that channel loading provides ITFS licensees with an option, 
which will enhance the value of leasing arrangements both to ITFS 
licensees and wireless cable lessees.
    7. Finally the Commission will allow the channel loading rules to 
remain in effect until the Commission assesses the impact of digital 
compression on the ITFS service, through a future notice and comment 
rule making proceeding.
    8. The Commission applied the rules and standards adopted for 
channel loading to channel mapping. Channel mapping, a complex and 
costly switching technology that is functionally equivalent to channel 
loading, was recognized by the Commission in 1991 as a legitimate means 
of accommodating the joint programming needs of ITFS licensees and 
their wireless cable lessees.
    9. For further information concerning this Report and Order, 
contact Anne Lucey (202-418-1630), Mass Media Bureau, Video Services 
Division, Distribution Services Branch, Federal Communications 
Commission, Washington, DC 20554.

List of Subjects in 47 CFR Part 74

    Radio broadcasting.

Federal Communications Commission.
LaVera F. Marshall,
Acting Secretary.

Rules Changes

    Part 74 of title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations is amended 
as follows:

PART 74--[AMENDED]

    1. The authority citation for Part 74 continues to read as follows:

    Authority: Secs. 4, 303, 48 Stat. 1066, as amended, 1062, as 
amended; 47 U.S.C. 154, 303, 554.

    2. Section 74.902 is amended by redesignating paragraph (d) as 
paragraph (d)(1) and adding paragraph (d)(2) to read as follows:


Sec. 74.902  Frequency assignments.

* * * * *
    (d) * * *
    (2) An applicant leasing excess capacity and proposing a schedule 
which complies in all respects with the requirements of Section 
74.931(e) will have presumptively demonstrated need, in accordance with 
paragraph (d)(1) of this section, for no more than four channels, all 
part of the same Group listed in paragraph (a) of this section. This 
presumption is rebuttable by demonstrating that the application does 
not propose to comport with our educational programming requirements, 
that is, to transmit some formal educational programming, as defined in 
Section 74.931(a), and to transmit the requisite minimum programming of 
Section 74.931(e) for genuinely educational purposes and to receive 
sites when students are there.
    3. Section 74.931 is amended by revising paragraph (a)(1) and 
adding paragraph (e)(9) to read as follows:


Sec. 74.931  Purpose and permissible service.

    (a)(1) Instructional television fixed stations are intended 
primarily to provide a formal educational and cultural development in 
aural and visual form, to students enrolled in accredited public and 
private schools, colleges and universities. Authorized instructional 
television fixed station channels must be used to transmit formal 
educational programming offered for credit to enrolled students of 
accredited schools, with limited exceptions as set forth in paragraph 
(e)(9) of this section and Secs. 74.990 through 74.992.
* * * * *
    (e) * * *
    (9) A licensee may shift its requisite ITFS programming onto fewer 
than its authorized number of channels, via channel mapping technology 
or channel loading, so that it can lease full-time channel capacity to 
a wireless cable operator, subject to the condition that it provide a 
total average of at least 20 hours per channel per week of ITFS 
programming on its authorized channels. The licensee also retains the 
unabridgeable right to recapture, subject to six months' written 
notification to the wireless cable operator, an average of an 
additional 20 hours per channel per week for simultaneous programming 
on the number of channels for which it is authorized. The licensee may 
agree to the transmission of this recapture time on channels not 
authorized to it, but which are included in the wireless system of 
which it is a part.
* * * * *
[FR Doc. 94-16879 Filed 7-12-94; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6712-01-M