Cable TV Regulation

The Communications Act of 1934 was enacted June 19, 1934 and codified as Chapter 5 of Title 47 of the United States Code. The Act replaced the Federal Radio Commission with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and empowered the FCC to regulate telecommunications.   In March 1966, the FCC established rules for all cable systems. The FCC’s authority of cable TV was affirmed by the Supreme Court in United States v. Southwestern Cable Co., 392 U.S. 157 (1968).

Title 47 of the United States Code was further amended by the Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984, Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992 and Telecommunications Act of 1996, which represented the first major overhaul of US telecommunication policy since the Communications Act of 1934. 

The telecommunications regulations issues by the FCC appear in Title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). The CFR is the codification of the rules and regulations (administrative law) by the executive departments and agencies responsible for interpreting and implementing statutes in the United States Code. Cable TV is regulated by Part 76 of Title 47 CFR (PDF version).  The FCC has the authority to set rules for local cable franchising.

Since the first cable systems appeared in the early 1950s, Cable TV operators have been required to obtain local franchise agreements from local municipalities to build systems using public rights-of-way.  Franchise agreements generally impose various requirements on the Cable TV operator, including channel capacity, services offered, programming offered, product pricing, construction standards, build-out requirements, customer service standard as well as Public, Educational, and Governmental (PEG) access channel requirements.  Franchisees also are usually required to pay fees to the local franchising authority for the use of the public rights of way.  More recently, a number of states have enacted legislation which regulates cable franchising at a state rather than local level  

 

Information regarding Cable TV regulation for colleges and universities