The FCC‘s Media Bureau says, flatly, that LPTVs have no must-carry rights to satellite TV carriage.
Full power TVs have limited must-carry rights–if a satellite carrier carries any station subject to the compulsory license, it must carry all. Some LPTVs have must-carry rights on cable. But no LPTV has any must carry rights on Dish or DirecTV.
That was the Media Institute’s message Thursday in denying both an LPTV request for carriage and for a declaratory ruling that LPTVs that qualify for carriage on cable should get similar carriage on satellite in the interests of parity.
Michael Karr, owner/operator of LPTV WVUX-LD Fairmont, W. Va., filed the petition and carriage request on Dish and DirecTV, pointing out the station had qualified for cable carriage, meeting the FCC’s “very narrow circumstances” for such carriage, saying “there is no legitimate reason that cable providers and satellite carriers should be treated differently with respect to their carriage obligations.”
