FCC Tentatively Grants HD Exemption Sought by ACA

The FCC has proposed granting the American Cable Association's request for a three-year extension of smaller cable operators' exemption from having to carry TV stations in high definition under the no "material degradation" mandate.

The exemption was to have expired June 12, 2015.

"[W]e tentatively conclude that the public interest would be served by extending the HD carriage exemption for three years, or until June 12, 2018," the FCC said in a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking released Thursday.

For the full story go to Multichannel.com.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.