FCC Record, Volume 26, No. 7, Pages 4843 to 5761, March 28 - April 08, 2011 Page: 4,903
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2. The Second Part
5. The second part of the competing provider test requires that the number of households
subscribing to MVPDs, other than the largest MVPD, exceed 15 percent of the households in a franchise
area. Comcast asserts that it is the largest MVPD in eight of the Attachment A Communities, and that in
the other three it and the DBS providers combined each have a household share over 15 percent.'8 The
Commission has recognized that in those conditions, whichever MVPD is the largest, the remaining
competitors have subscribership of over 15 percent.9
6. The competing provider test thus required Comcast to calculate a ratio the numerator of
which was the number of DBS subscribers in each Attachment A Community and the denominator of
which was the number of households there. Comcast obtained from the Satellite Broadcasting and
Communications Association a subscriber tracking report that stated the number of DBS subscribers in
each five-digit zip code that lay wholly or partly within one of the Attachment A Communities.20 Some
of those zip codes lay entirely within a Community, but most of them partly inside a Community and
partly outside it. For the latter, so-called "partial," zip codes, Comcast obtained from Media Business
Corporation ("MBC") an allocation percentage stating how many DBS subscribers were inside a
Community and how many were outside it.21 Finally, the Company added all the DBS subscribers in zip
codes lying entirely within each Community and the subscribers allocated to the parts of each partial zip
code that lay within the Community. The sum of these numbers for each Attachment A Community is
Comcast's estimate of DBS subscribers there, the numerator of its ratio. For the denominator of its ratios,
Comcast took the household number for each Attachment A Community from the 2000 Census.22 The
resulting ratios, if accepted, show DBS subscribership in each Attachment A Community exceeding 15
percent and satisfying the second part of the competing provider test.
a. The City of Jackson's Contentions
7. For Jackson, Mississippi, Comcast estimated 1 1,570 DBS subscribers. This, when placed
over the 2000 Census count of 67,841 households there, yields a competing provider subscribership of
17.05 percent.23 We have repeatedly held that such evidence sustains the cable operator's initial burden
of proof. We will accept this showing unless the local franchise authority disproves the cable operator's
numbers or makes its own showing that supports a contrary conclusion.24
8. The City objects on several grounds to Comcast's estimate of the number of DBS
a" See Petition at 5-6. The latter 3 Attachment A Communities are Bolton Town, Edwards Town, and Iinds County.
'9 If Comcast is the largest MVPD, then MVPDs other than the largest one are the DBS providers, which have a
combined share of over 15%. On the other hand, if one of the DBS providers is the largest MVPD, then Comcast
(which alone has over 15%) and the other DBS provider combined have over 15%. See, e.g., Time Warner Cable,
Inc., Memorandum Opinion & Order DA 11-351 at 1 5 (rel. Feb. 28, 2011); Time Warner-Advance/Newhouse
Partnership, 17 FCC Red 23587, 23589, 6 (2002).
*2 Petition at Exh. 5.
21 Petition at 6-7 & Exh. 6, col. H.
2 Petition at Exh. 7.
23 Comcast states the subscribership as being higher, at 17.06%. This probably reflects a fractional DBS subscriber.
We disregard such subscribers. See, e.g., Time Warner Cable, Inc., supra note 19 at Att. A.
24See. e.g., Cox Commnlw. Kansas, LLC. Memorandum Opinion & Order DA 11-350 at 1 12 (rel. Feb. 24, 2011),
available at 2011 WL 682266; Time Warner Cable Inc., 25 FCC Red 5457, 5464, T 21 (2010), application for
review pending; Comcast Cable Commun., LLC, 24 FCC Red 1780, 1783-84, 13 (2009), application for review
pending.4903
Federal Communications Commission
DA 11-557
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United States. Federal Communications Commission. FCC Record, Volume 26, No. 7, Pages 4843 to 5761, March 28 - April 08, 2011, book, April 2011; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc52169/m1/75/?rotate=0: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.