The federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., today ruled to uphold the FCC’s decision to require cable systems to make the digital signals of local broadcast must-carry stations viewable to all subscribers, including analog subscribers.
The decision was made despite protests from cable programmers, who claimed that the FCC decision adversely affected their First Amendment rights by reducing their capacity to carry their own programming. The court said the claim lacked “standing” and failed to show how cable programmers were injured by the FCC’s regulation.
The National Association of Broadcasters filed a brief in support of the FCC decision, stating that the cable programmers “failed to show how carriage of a handful of must-carry channels would have any impact on cable operators’ programming choices.”
“This decision represents a big win for broadcasters,” Dennis Wharton, executive vice president of the NAB, said in a statement. “We’re pleased the court accepted the FCC’s sensible viewability rules and rejected speculative claims by C-SPAN and other cable programmers that any must-carry requirements violate their First Amendment rights.”