Blue Ridge Cable Technologies asked the FCC to...
Blue Ridge Cable Technologies asked the FCC to modify WACP-Atlantic City’s market so the cable operator isn’t required to carry the station in the Pennsylvania counties of Berks, Lehigh and Northampton, said a petition filed with the Media Bureau Tuesday…
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(http://bit.ly/17iFugB). Blue Ridge’s filing said WACP has never been carried in those counties, which are roughly 100 miles from Atlantic City. However, under the commission’s current mandatory carriage rules and definition of WACP’s market, Blue Ridge is required to carry WACP. Along with the physical distance, Blue Ridge argued that the market modification is warranted because WACP doesn’t carry local programming directed at the counties or share economic ties with them. “A station is not guaranteed the right to carriage throughout its DMA, and thus the Commission may conclude that a cable community is so far removed from the station that it cannot be deemed to be part of the station’s market,” said Blue Ridge’s petition.