Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 106 Part 2.djvu/607

 PUBLIC LAW 102-385—OCT. 5, 1992 106 STAT. 1487 franchised cable service, in any portion of the franchise area served by that cable operator's cable system. The Commission— "(A) shall waive the requirements of this paragraph for all existing multichannel multipoint distribution services and satelUte master antenna television services which are owned by a cable operator on the date of enactment of this paragraph; and "(B) may waive the requirements of this paragraph to the extent the Commission determines is necessary to ensure that all significant portions of a franchise area are able to obtain video programming.". (b) CLARIFICATION OF LOCAL AUTHORITY TO REGULATE OWNER- SHIP. —Section 613(d) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 533(d)) is amended— (1) by stnking "any media" and inserting "any other media"; and (2) by adding at the end thereof the following: "Nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent any State or franchising authority from prohibiting the ownership or control of a cable system in a jiuisdiction by any person (1) because of such person's ownership or control of any other cable system in such jurisdiction; or (2) in circumstances in which the State or franchising authority determines that the acquisition of such a cable system may eliminate or reduce competition in the delivery of cable service in such jurisdiction.". (c) COMMISSION REGULATIONS.— Section 613 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 533) is amended— (1) by redesignating subsections (f) and (g) as subsections (g) and (h), respectively; and (2) by inserting after subsection (e) the following new subsection: "(f)(1) In order to enhance effective competition, the Commission shall, within one year after the date of enactment of the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992, conduct a proceeding— "(A) to prescribe rules and regulations estabhshing reasonable limits on the number of cable subscribers a person is authorized to reach through cable systems owned by such person, or in which such person has an attributable interest; "(B) to prescribe rules and regulations establishing reasonable limits on the number of channels on a cable system that can be occupied by a video programmer in which a cable operator has an attributable interest; and "(C) to consider the necessity and appropriateness of imposing limitations on the degree to which multichannel video programming distributors may engage in the creation or production of video programming. "(2) In prescribing rules and regulations under paragraph (1), the Commission shall, among other public interest objectives— "(A) ensure that no cable operator or group of cable operators can unfairly impede, either because of the size of any individual operator or because of joint actions by a group of operators of sufficient size, the flow of video programming from the video programmer to the consumer; "(B) ensure that cable operators affiliated with video programmers do not favor such programmers in determining carriage on their cable systems or do not unreasonably restrict

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