Use of the Frequencies in the Instructional Television Fixed Service

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