Media Bureau Denies LPTV Carriage Complaint Against DirecTV, Dish
WVUX-LD Fairmont, West Virginia, misunderstands the law with its petition for a declaratory ruling regarding mandatory satellite carriage of a qualified low-power TV station and its demand for carriage against Dish Network and AT&T's DirecTV, the FCC Media Bureau said…
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Thursday, denying both. An LPTV station isn't entitled to mandatory carriage on direct broadcast satellite under the Communications Act, and Congress explicitly excluded LPTV stations from a satellite carrier’s mandatory carriage obligation, it said. Since there's no genuine controversy or uncertainty about that, the FCC can't declare that exclusion doesn't apply to qualified LPTV stations, as WVUX asked, the bureau said. WVUX outside counsel didn't comment.