The FCC is gearing up to find another way to determine a TV station's local market for must-carry and other purposes. The move comes after decades of using Nielsen's TV Station Index directory as its local market regulatory bible of sorts.
That is because Nielsen has phased out the report, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel pointed out in outlining the agenda for the commission's July public meeting.
One of those items is billed as "matching media rules with new market realities." The reality of Nielsen's phase-out means the FCC will "vote to begin the process of updating our rules to refer to a new publication for determining market areas."
The FCC needs a consistent TV station designated market reach metric to determine whether a station is or isn't entitled to MVPD carriage in a particular market.
But the FCC is not looking far for a successor.
According to an FCC summary of the July agenda item, the commission has tentatively proposed to transition to Nielsen's monthly Local TV Station Information Report, which supplanted the Nielsen directory.
But it also wants to know whether there is any information in that local report that is necessary for compliance with the FCC's carriage rules. ■
