Implementation of the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992 and the Development of Competition and Diversity in Video Programming Distribution: Section 628(c)(5) of the Communications Act-Sunset of Exclusive Contract Prohibition

The Commission, through this document, retains for five years, until October 5, 2007, the prohibition on exclusive contracts contained in section 628(c)(2)(D) of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended. Section 628(c)(2)(D) generally prohibits, in areas served by a cable operator, exclusive contracts for satellite cable programming or satellite broadcast programming between vertically integrated programming vendors and cable operators. Under section 628(c)(5), the prohibition on exclusive programming contracts contained in section 628(c)(2)(D) would cease to be effective on October 5, 2002, ten years after its enactment through the 1992 Cable Act, unless the Commission found that such prohibition continues to be necessary to preserve and protect competition and diversity in the distribution of video programming. To comply with section 628, the Commission conducted a proceeding in order to determine whether the exclusive contract prohibition should sunset. As a result of conducting its proceeding, the Commission found in this document that while the landscape of the market for the distribution of multichannel video programming changed for the better since 1992, the prohibition continues to be necessary to preserve and protect competition and diversity in the distribution of video programming.