FCC Looking at New Rules to Help “Orphan” TV Counties

The Federal Communications Commission is working on implementing new rules designed to provide more local channel options for counties who are located in an out-of-state television market, like Stephens County.

Recently, the FCC announced that it had adopted new rules that allowed modification of satellite television markets to help ensure that satellite operators carry the broadcast stations of most interest to the community.

The FCC is creating the rules as part of a law passed by Congress in 2014.

Specifically, the law is looking to address the situation faced by counties such as Stephens County, which is located in Georgia but whose satellite TV customers receive local stations out of the Greenville, South Carolina market.

According to a press release from the FCC, the law allows the FCC to modify, upon the request of a TV station, satellite operator, or county government, a particular station’s local market in order to add or take away communities to better reflect market realities.

FCC officials said that there are five statutory factors that come in to whether to allow market modification.

Among those is consideration of access to television stations that are located in the same state as the community considered for modification.

9th District U.S. Representative Doug Collins said that he is pleased that the issue is still moving forward, but is still watching to see exactly how the FCC implements these rules.

“It is also one of those times where the implementation is something we have to look at,” said Collins.

He said they are going to work with consumers and companies to make sure this has the ability to provide some choice.

“There are two sides in the marketplace, the consumer and the provider, and we are going to be looking at both,” he said.

This announcement from the FCC would not just affect Stephens County, but also Franklin, Hart, and Elbert counties, which also receive South Carolina stations instead of stations from Georgia on satellite TV.

Collins said that he is excited to see something moving forward that can have a tangible benefit on people in the 9th District.

“We made a promise we would always be listening to these concerns and they may be concerns that frankly only effect 4 of my 20 counties, but we have made it a priority in my office to listen to those concerns,” said Collins.

Collins said that as his office gets a better grasp of how the rules will work, he will communicate that along to county governments and others potentially involved in the process for changing those markets.