Allen Media CBS affiliate KIMT/3.1 (Mason City-Rochester) has filed a petition with the FCC seeking to have CBS programming from Minneapolis owned-and-operated affiliate WCCO-TV/4.1 removed from the Rochester cable system.
Rochester is about 75 miles away from WCCO-TV’s transmitter and is not in the Minneapolis market. However, the Charter/Spectrum cable system in the city has been allowed to carry WCCO because it is on the FCC’s list of “significantly viewed” stations for Rochester and many surrounding communities.
The “significantly viewed” list was first created in the early 1970s when WCCO broadcast on a VHF Low channel that could be received with a rooftop antenna in Rochester. Now, it broadcasts on a UHF channel that would be far more difficult to receive in Rochester using a typical residential antenna system.
KIMT’s petition argues that WCCO’s over-the-air viewership has fallen below the levels required to qualify as “significantly viewed” in Rochester. The petition seeks a waiver of the significantly-viewed rule to allow KIMT to exert its network non-duplication and syndicated exclusivity rights.
The Rochester area makes up about half of the households in the Rochester-Austin-Mason City market, which also includes Gray TV NBC affiliate KTTC, Gray-operated FOX affiliate KXLT, and Hubbard ABC affiliate KAAL. Besides WCCO, the Minneapolis ABC and FOX affiliates are also carried on the Rochester cable system, though the ABC affiliate (KSTP) is subject to potential programming deletions.
If the FCC grants the waiver to KIMT, Spectrum would still theoretically be allowed to carry WCCO’s newscasts but would have to block CBS programming and some syndicated shows.
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