In a filing with the FCC today, the American Cable Association (ACA) asked the commission to exempt small cable systems from dual-carriage rules set to take effect Feb. 17, 2009.

Current FCC rules require all cable providers to carry both the analog and digital broadcast signals of commercial must-carry stations, straining the system capacity and budget of many of ACA's members, which number more than 1,100 small and independent cable providers throughout the country.

ACA said that smaller, independent cable providers particularly do not have the system capacity to comply with this regulation, the resources to devote to technology upgrades, or the subscriber numbers to warrant dual carriage.  The Commission previously said it would "entertain" waiver requests for smaller systems—552 MHz or lower—on an ad hoc basis; however, ACA said, the expense and uncertainty of the waiver process is problematic for many of ACA's members.

"The FCC must-carry waiver process is costly and burdensome for small cable operators and needs to be replaced with outright exemptions," said ACA President-CEO Matthew M. Polka.  "Clearly the FCC understands there is a need for a must-carry exemption for small operators, or they would not have created a waiver process in the first place. Unfortunately, it costs time and a lot of money to qualify for that waiver, both of which these operators do not have. It would save the commission time and significantly reduce the burden on these operators, sometimes serving as few as 100 subscribers, if the FCC cuts the red tape and adopts an exemption."

In today's filing, the ACA specifically requests an exemption from the obligation to provide must-carry signals in digital format for systems serving 5,000 or fewer subscribers, or systems with less than 552 MHz of capacity. ACA cited the significant financial and capacity burdens the dual-carriage requirement would place on systems serving small and rural markets, and the added flexibility that an exemption would offer these cable systems to direct resources and capacity to providing consumers with broadband and other advanced services.