IN RE REQUEST FOR WAIVER OF COMMISSION RULES CONCERNING A CATV SYSTEM IN WOODLAND, CALIF.

File No. CATV 100-434

FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION

19 F.C.C.2d 7 (1969)

RELEASE-NUMBER: FCC 69-864

AUGUST 13, 1969

ACTION:

REQUEST:

[*7] Re CATV 100-434.

ARTHUR STAMBLER, Esq., 1737 DeSales Street NW., Washington, D.C. 20036

HAROLD R. FARROW, Esq., Latham Square Building, Oakland, Calif. 94612

GENTLEMEN: The Commission has considered your petition for waiver of the Commission's rules for a CATV system in Woodland, Calif., which has proposed a schedule of payments to television broadcast stations and to program suppliers under an arrangement known as the CSI plan.

We believe that the proposal represents an imaginative effort to meet the Commission's concerns with respect to the interrelationship between the operation of CATV systems and television broadcast stations.

While the proposal clearly merits further consideration, under all of the circumstances and particularly the current status of copyright considerations, action on the merits would be premature at this time.

Accordingly, action on this matter is deferred until December 1, 1969.

Commissioner Bartley dissenting and issuing a statement in which Commissioner Johnson joins.

BY DIRECTION OF THE COMMISSION, BEN F. WAPLE, Secretary.

DISSENTING STATEMENT OF COMMISSIONER ROBERT T. BARTLEY IN WHICH COMMISSIONER NICHOLAS JOHNSON JOINS

I dissent.

I do not agree with the holding of the Commission majority that "under all of the circumstances and particularly the current status of copyright considerations, action on the merits would be premature at this time."

I believe that the petitioner is entitled to -- and the courts would require -- a better reasoned opinion that the Commission majority has issued in support of its "premature" holding.

[*8] If copyright were the basic concern here, I suggest that the petitioner's proposed test of its plan in Woodland, Calif., would be helpful to a resolution of the matter by providing the Commission, Congress, and interested parties with valuable data from practical experience in the marketplace. While I have questions about the workability of certain aspects of the plan, I keep an open mind and believe that the plan should be authorized now so that it can be tested in the realities of the marketplace itself and provide meaningful, probative information.