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February 22, 1994
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS REGARDING CABLE TELEVISION
REGULATIONS
The Federal Communications Commission has adopted a number of
rules regarding cable television as required by the Cable Television
Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992 (the "Cable
Act"). The following information answers some frequently asked
questions about cable television regulation. Q: Does the FCC regulate all
cable television rates? A: No. This authority is shared between the FCC
and your local franchising authority, which is the local city, county, or
other government organization that regulates your cable television
service. The name of your local franchising authority should be on your
cable bill. If it is not, contact your cable company or your local
government. In most cases, your local franchising authority is responsible
for regulating rates for basic cable tv descrambler service, equipment used to receive
basic cable service, and installation and service charges related to basic
service. "Basic service" is the lowest level of cable service
you can buy, and is the program package that includes signals from local
television stations (such as ABC, NBC and CBS affiliates and independent
television stations) and public, educational and governmental access
channels. Your cable company may use different terms to describe this
service. If your local franchising authority chooses not to regulate basic
cable service, your cable operator may charge what it chooses for basic
cable service, associated equipment, and installation and service charges,
including additional outlets. The FCC is responsible for regulating rates
for cable programming services. This term includes all program channels on
your cable system not included in basic service and not separately offered
as pay-per-channel programming (for example, HBO or Showtime) or pay-
per-program services (such as pay-per-view sports events). In general,
cable programming services are the packages of channels you can buy once
you have purchased basic service. Under the Cable Act, rates for
pay-per-channel programming digital cable descrambler and pay-per-program services are not regulated
by either local governments or the FCC. This means that your cable company
can charge what it chooses for these services. Q: I thought that all
cable rates would go down under the Cable Act. Why hasn't my rate changed?
A: There could be a number of reasons why an individual subscriber's rates
have not gone down. First, operators may have added services and service
options for which they are entitled to charge a reasonable rate as defined
in the FCC's regulations. Second, some operators, instead of reducing
rates as required under the FCC's benchmark approach to cable rate
regulation, may have elected to try to justify rates based on costs.
Pending review by regulators of the operators' cost showing, operators may
maintain current rates. Third, operators are only required to reduce rates
if they become regulated by local franchising authorities or if the FCC
receives a complaint. Subscribers to services offered by systems that are
not regulated may not see rate reductions until the systems become
regulated. FCC regulations limit future rate increases by regulated
systems. Systems may generally increase rates only by inflation, plus
external costs and other costs related to additional programming or system
upgrades your cable company may choose to provide (cable tv descrambler).
As a result, the FCC's
regulations will keep cable bills of regulated cable operators from
increasing as rapidly as they may have in past years. Q: How can I tell if
my cable company's rates are reasonable? A: Your local franchising
authority is responsible for determining if your cable system's rates for
basic cable service are unreasonable. You should contact your local
franchising authority to determine if it has done so. The FCC is
responsible for determining if the rates for cable programming services
are too high. This determination is made only in response to complaints
filed by consumers. If you want to find out if a complaint has already
been filed against your cable system for cable programming services rates,
you should call (202) 416-0919.cabletv descramblers
Q: How can I file a complaint against my
cable system's rates? A: If you want to complain about rates for either
basic cable service, or equipment, installation and service charges
related to basic service, contact your local franchising authority. Your
local franchising authority will inform you of any procedures you must
follow. If you want to complain about cable programming service rates, you
must file a cable programming service complaint form with the FCC. To
request this simple form, call the FCC at (202) 416-0919, or write to the
Federal Communications Commission, Cable Form Request 329, P.O. Box 18238,
Washington, D.C. 20036. Generally, you have 45 days after you receive the
first bill reflecting the rate increase to file a complaint. There is one
exception to this rule -- complaints regarding cable rates in effect on
September 1, 1993, must be received at the Commission by February 28,
1994. Complaints about rates for pay-per-programming services and
pay-per-view programs should be directed to your cable company, as neither
the FCC nor your local franchising authority has the authority to regulate
these rates. Q: Some cable operators are including an "FCC mandated
adjustment" on cable bills, or are claiming that the FCC has required
rate increases. Has the FCC required any cable companies to raise their
rates? A: The FCC has not mandated any particular new charges nor has it
required any cable companies to raise their rates. Q: My bill shows a
"franchise fee." What is this? A: A franchise fee is a fee paid
by the cable system to the local franchising authority for the right to
provide cable service to subscribers in your community. The money
collected goes to the franchising authority and not the FCC. If you have
complaints regarding franchise fees, you should contact your local
franchising authority. Q: My cable company charges a fee for late payment
of bills. Are late fees regulated by the FCC? A: No. Late fees are
regulated by your local franchising authority. Complaints about late fees
should be directed to your local franchising authority. Q: I have
complaints about my cable company's customer service and about its billing
practices. Who should I contact? A: The FCC has developed general
guidelines for customer service that deal with, for example, how quickly a
cable operator must answer its phone or respond to requests for service,
and how a cable bill should be written. It is up to your local franchising
authority to enforce the guidelines in your community. Therefore,
complaints about customer service and billing disputes should be directed
to your local franchising authority. Q: My cable company says that the FCC
has eliminated discounted rates to groups such as senior citizens. Is this
true? A: No. FCC regulations specifically allow operators to provide
discounts to senior citizens and members of economically disadvantaged
groups (that is, individuals who receive federal, state or local welfare
assistance). For further information regarding such discounts, you should
contact your local cable company or your local franchising authority.
Q: My cable operator tells me that now I have to use equipment which
I didn't need before, such as a converter box or a remote control, and
they want to charge me for the use of this equipment. Do I have to use
their equipment and do I have to pay for it? A: Cable operators may
require their subscribers to use specific equipment, such as converters,
to receive the basic service tier. They may include a separate charge on
your bill to lease this equipment descramblerto you on a monthly basis. This monthly
rate must be based on the operator's actual costs of providing the
equipment to you. Operators may also sell equipment to you, with or
without a service contract. If an operator provides a choice between
selling and leasing the equipment, the monthly leasing rate will be
regulated but the sales price will be unregulated. If an operator only
sells equipment and does not also lease equipment, then the sales
price cable tv descrambler
must be the actual cost of the equipment plus a reasonable profit, and any
service contract should be based on the estimated cost to service the
equipment. If the customer buys the equipment but does not purchase a
service contract, the customer can be charged for repairs and maintenance.
Cable operators may not prevent customers from using their own equipment
if such equipment is technically compatible with the cable system. The
rules require that charges for converters, remote controls, connections
for additional televisions, and cable home wiring be listed separately on
your bill. If you have a question about the rates your cable operator is
charging for equipment, you should contact your local franchising
authority. Q: Can the cable company charge for additional outlets? A:
Operators may charge you a monthly fee to recover the cost of the wiring
and parts installed and the estimated cost to maintain the outlet. This
monthly fee generally will be quite low. Operators may also charge you the
actual cost of installing additional digital cable tv descrambler outlets in your home. This charge is
designed to recover, for example, the labor costs for installing the
second outlet. The installation charge may be a one-time payment or it may
be spread out over a number of months. If you terminate your cable
service, the operator must allow you to purchase the additional outlet
wiring, as well as any other home wiring the system installed, at the
actual cost of the wiring in your home. If a subscriber requests or
installs additional outlets that exceed network design capabilities and
that require additional customer premises equipment to receive a good
quality signal, the operator may recover the costs of the additional
equipment. Q: The channel line-up on my cable descrambler system has changed,
some stations are on different channel numbers, some stations have been
dropped and some stations have been added. The cable company says that the
changes are due to FCC regulations. What are these regulations? A: The
1992 Cable Act created new rights for television broadcast stations and
new responsibilities for cable operators. As a result, the new FCC
regulations require a cable operator to get permission from the broadcast
station to put the station on cable. A local broadcast station may give
permission by choosing mandatory carriage (must-carry) on the cable
system, or by negotiating an agreement for carriage of its signal by the
cable company (retransmission consent). A broadcast station which chooses
retransmission consent may request some form of payment for the use of its
broadcast signal on the cable system, and must negotiate for both its
carriage on that system and its channel position. A broadcast station
choosing must-carry can generally select (from a set of limited options)
its channel position. A cable operator must set aside up to a maximum of
one-third of its channel capacity for local commercial television
stations. A cable operator is not required to carry stations that show
mostly the same programming. Therefore, many stations which were not
carried previously suddenly may have become eligible for carriage on your
cable system, and many stations which had previously been carried may no
longer be available. If a particular station was dropped by your cable
system, it may be due to one of the following reasons: the station did not
deliver a good quality signal; the station and cable operator failed to
reach agreement on a payment to the station to permit the cable company to
carry the station; the cable system may have chosen not to pay copyright
royalties for the station; or the station was dropped to provide room for
other services which the cable operator decided to offer. If you are
dissatisfied with the channels being provided by your cable system, you
should contact the cable company. Q: I used to receive FM radio stations
over my cable system but now I cannot. Why? A: The new law requires cable
operators to receive permission to carry all broadcast stations. The law
does not limit this provision to TV stations. The new FCC rules require
cable operators to negotiate the same type of retransmission consent
agreements with radio stations (AM or FM) that they are required to have
with TV stations. Many cable operators have not yet secured such
permission. The FCC, however, is currently considering rule changes to
make it easier for cable operators to get such permission from radio
stations. Q: Sometimes the television screen is black with a message
that the program has been "blacked out" because of FCC rules.
What are these rules? A: A broadcast network (such as ABC, CBS, or NBC)
may prohibit a cable operator from carrying more than one network signal
if the network affiliate nearest to that cable system has exclusive
program rights. If the cable operator carries a second network affiliate,
the network may require the cable operator to "black out"
network programming from the second affiliate. In addition, some
television stations purchase exclusive rights to their syndicated programs
within a specific market. These programs then may not be aired by anyone
else in that market and therefore, such programs may be blacked out from
other stations on the cable system. Q: How can I obtain copies of the
FCC's cable regulations? A: Due to budgetary considerations, the FCC does
not supply free copies of its regulations. FCC decisions are published in
the FCC Record, which is available in some large public libraries and
legal libraries, including law school libraries. Summaries of decisions
are published in the Federal Register, which is available in many public
libraries. You can purchase copies of the FCC's decisions and regulations
by calling International Transcription Service at (202) 857-3800. When you
call ITS, ask for cable regulations and specify whether you want
information regarding rates or other areas. If you wish to purchase copies
of the new Cable Act, the entire Communications Act, or FCC rules and
regulations, call the Government Printing Office at (202) 783-3238. This
material is also available for review in many public libraries.
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