§ 76.109   Requirements for invocation of protection.

   For a station licensee to be eligible to invoke the provisions of § 76.101,
   it must have a contract or other written indicia that it holds syndicated
   exclusivity rights for the exhibition of the program in question. Contracts
   entered on or after August 18, 1988, must contain the following words: “the
   licensee [or substitute name] shall, by the terms of this contract, be
   entitled  to  invoke the protection against duplication of programming
   imported under the Compulsory Copyright License, as provided in § 76.101 of
   the  FCC  rules  [or  ‘as provided in the FCC's syndicated exclusivity
   rules’].” Contracts entered into prior to August 18, 1988, must contain
   either the foregoing language or a clear and specific reference to the
   licensee's authority to exercise exclusivity rights as to the specific
   programming against cable television broadcast signal carriage by the cable
   system  in question upon the contingency that the government reimposed
   syndicated  exclusivity  protection. In the absence of such a specific
   reference in contracts entered into prior to August 18, 1988, the provisions
   of these rules may be invoked only if the contract is amended to include the
   specific  language  referenced  in  this section or a specific written
   acknowledgment is obtained from the party from whom the broadcast exhibition
   rights were obtained that the existing contract was intended, or should now
   be construed by agreement of the parties, to include such rights. A general
   acknowledgment by a supplier of exhibition rights that specific contract
   language was intended to convey rights under these rules will be accepted
   with respect to all contracts containing that specific language. Nothing in
   this  section  shall  be construed as a grant of exclusive rights to a
   broadcaster where such rights are not agreed to by the parties.

   return arrow Back to Top