Posts Tagged ‘Cable’
Court Upholds FCC’s Extension of Program Access Rule to Terrestrial Programming
Posted on June 15, 2011The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has upheld the FCC’s decision to extend its program access rules to programming that is delivered by terrestrial networks. Such programming includes highly-valued regional sports networks that, in some cases, were originally distributed by satellite but were switched to terrestrial distribution in order to avoid the program exclusivity prohibitions and other obligations imposed by the program access provisions of the Communications Act and implementing FCC rules.
In its decision, the court reaffirmed that the Communications Act broadly bars unfair practices “the purpose or effect of which is to hinder significantly or prevent any multichannel video programming distributor from providing satellite programming . . . to subcribers or customers.” The court found that the Commission’s decision to apply the program access rules to terrestrially-distributed programming was well within its statutory authority and did not violate the First Amendment rights of programmers or program distributors. However, the Commission did vacate and remand one portion of the Commission’s decision that treated certain acts withholding terrestrially-delivered programming as categorically unfair simply because Congress had determined such acts to be unfair when applied to satellite-delivered programming. The court found this to be an unproven assumption, although it left to it to the Commission to determine in the first instance what types of conduct should be prohibited in the context of terrestrial program distribution.
Cable Statement of Account, SA1-2 Short Form or SA3 Long Form
Posted on August 29, 2010Cable systems are given 60 days after the close of each accounting period in which to file their statements of account and royalty fees. The following are the two filing dates you must observe each year:
- For the January–June accounting period: File between July 1 and August 29, inclusive;
- For the July–December accounting period: File between January 1 and March 1, inclusive.
If August 29 or March 1 falls on a weekend or federal holiday, statements of account and royalty fees may be filed on the next succeeding business day.
Copyright Filing Deadline Extended
Posted on August 25, 2010The U.S. Copyright Office has extended the filing deadline for the 2010/1 cable television Statements of Account to September 29, 2010. Normally, the Statements would be due on August 29. In extending the deadline, the Copyright Office indicated that the passage of the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act of 2010 (STELA) required the Office to revise the cable Statement of Account forms to bring them into conformity with STELA’s amendments to the Copyright Act. The Copyright Office found that the time it took to revise the forms impaired the timely availability of the on-line forms cable operators use to pay their royalty fees and justified an extension of the filing deadline.
FILING REMINDER: STATEMENT OF ACCOUNT FORMS DUE TO BE FILED WITH U.S. COPYRIGHT OFFICE NO LATER THAN AUGUST 30, 2010
Posted on July 28, 2010PAYMENT PROCEDURES
BY ELECTRONIC FUNDS TRANSFER
REQUIRED
Cable system operators (including those using video DSL technology) and wireless cable system operators are required to file Statement of Account forms (SA 1-2 or SA 3) along with the appropriate copyright royalty payments with the U.S. Copyright Office twice a year. Monday, August 30, 2010[1] is the deadline for submitting the forms and payments for the accounting period that runs from January 1 to June 30, 2010.
Operators must ensure they calculate and submit their payments on the current version of the Statement of Account form. The SA 1-2 Short Form is to be filed by operators with semi-annual gross revenues below $527,600. The SA 3 Long Form is to be filed by operators earning $527,600 or more in semi-annual gross revenues. Operators with semi-annual gross revenues at or below $137,100 pay a flat fee of $52.00. Operators with semi-annual gross revenues above $137,100 must compute the amount owed in accordance with the copyright royalty formula.
You should have already received your Statement of Account forms from the Copyright Office for this accounting period. If you have not yet received your forms, please contact us and we will provide you with copies of the forms. Upon completing the forms, we suggest that you send them to us for filing with the U.S. Copyright Office. We will ensure that you receive a date-stamped copy as proof of filing.
Please be reminded that effective October 1, 2006, the Copyright Office requires that all copyright fee payments be in the form of an electronic funds transfer (EFT). The Copyright Office will no longer accept certified checks, cashiers’ checks and postal money orders unless the submitting entity requests and obtains a waiver from the Office based on a showing of infeasibility or financial hardship. There are three methods of EFT: wire transfer, automated clearing house (ACH) credit, and ACH debit through the U.S. Department of Treasury at http://www.pay.gov/.
Please note that all three options require that a remittance advice form be both faxed or e-mailed to the appropriate division of the Copyright Office AND attached to the Statement of Account form that is submitted to the Copyright Office. Regardless of which EFT method is chosen, the remittance advice form must contain the following information:
(i) Remitter’s name and address;
(ii) Name of a contact person, telephone number and extension, and e-mail address;
(iii) The actual or anticipated date that the EFT will be transmitted;
(iv) Type of royalty payment (i.e. cable);
(v) Total amount submitted via the EFT;
(vi) Total amount to be paid by year and period;
(vii) Number of Statements of Account that the EFT covers;
(viii) ID numbers assigned by the Licensing Division;
(ix) Legal name of the owner for each Statement of Account; and
(x) Identification of the first community served (city and state).
Should you have any questions regarding these requirements or require assistance in completing the forms, please contact Howard Shapiro at hshapiro@bennetlaw.com.
[1] When the August 29th deadline falls on a weekend, filings may be made on the next business day.
FCC To Hold Public Forum On Comcast/NBC Merger
Posted on July 8, 2010The FCC’s Media Bureau has announced the agenda for its public forum to discuss the pending Comcast/NBC merger. The forum will be held from 1:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on July 13, 2010 at Northwestern University Law School campus. The forum will be carried live over the Internet at http://reboot.fcc.gov/live. The audience will be given an opportunity to participate via an “open microphone” between 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. Questions from the Internet audience can be submitted throughout the event via e-mail to livequestions@fcc.gov and via Twitter using the hash tag, #fccNBC. The first of two panels will discuss Online Video Distribution considerations posed by the proposed merger. The second panel will focus on Multichannel Video Programming Distributor considerations.
NCTC’s Membership Processes Challenged
Posted on June 17, 2010The City-Parish of Lafayette, Louisiana, acting through its municipally-owned utility Lafayette UtilitySystem (LUS), has filed a program access complaint against the National Cable Television Cooperative (NCTC) after being denied membership in the cooperative. LUS provides cable television and broadband services to the public and sought NCTC membership in order to obtain access to cable programming at cooperative rates, which are alleged to be 15-20% lower than the rates that can be obtained through individual negotiations. LUS claims that by excluding municipally owned cable systems, NCTC is using the membership application process to stifle competition with the larger private cable operators that control NCTC’s board.