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 Federal  Communications  Commission  DA  02-  441 
 Before  the  Federal  Communications  Commission 
 Washington,  D.  C.  20554 


 In  the  Matter  of: 
 Paxson  Communications  Corporation 
 v. 
 DirecTV 
 Motion  for  Modification  of  Must  Carry’  Order 


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 CSR-  5731-  M 


 MEMORANDUM  OPINION  AND  ORDER 
 Adopted:  February  22,  2002  Released:  February  27,  2002 
 By  the  Deputy  Chief,  Cable  Services  Bureau: 
 I.  INTRODUCTION 
 1.  Paxson  Communications  Corporation  (“  Paxson”)  and  DirecTV,  Inc.  (“  DirecTV”)  have  filed  a  joint  request  1  asking  that  the  Cable  Services  Bureau’s  recent  decision  in  Paxson  Communications 


 Corp.  v.  DirecTV  be  modified  to  facilitate  on-  going  negotiations  between  the  parties.  2  The  Order  requires  DirecTV  to  carry  certain  Paxson  television  station  within  sixty  days  of  the  release  of  the  Order  (by  March 
 15,  2002).  Subsequent  to  the  release  of  the  Order,  DirecTV  filed  an  Application  for  Review  of  the  Bureau’s  decision  and  a  Motion  for  Stay. 


 2.  The  parties  ask  that  the  Bureau  modify  its  Order  to  allow  for  a  possible  negotiated  resolution  of  this  matter.  In  this  regard,  they  ask  that  the  Order’s  filing  date  for  Paxson’s  opposition  to 
 DirecTV’s  “Petition  for  Review”  be  extended  by  thirty  days  to  Monday,  March  25,  2002,  and  that  DirecTV’s  current  obligation  to  carry  certain  Paxson  stations  be  extended  thirty  days  to  Monday,  April 
 15,  2002.  In  addition,  DirecTV  also  asks  that  its  “Motion  for  Stay”  be  withdrawn  without  prejudice  to  its  reinstatement  should  the  parties’  negotiations  fail  to  achieve  resolution  of  this  matter. 


 3.  We  will  grant  the  parties’  requests  for  modification  and  DirecTV’s  request  that  its  “Motion  for  Stay”  be  dismissed  without  prejudice.  We  believe  that  carriage  disputes,  in  general,  are  best 
 left  for  the  parties  to  resolve.  Furthermore,  in  view  of  the  short  duration  of  the  request,  we  do  not  believe  that  the  public  interest  will  be  harmed  by  our  action  today. 


 1  See  letter  dated  February  13,  2002. 
 2  DA  02-  102  (released  January  14,  2002)(“  Order”). 
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 Federal  Communications  Commission  DA  02-  441 
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 II.  ORDERING  CLAUSES 
 4.  Accordingly,  IT  IS  ORDERED,  pursuant  to  Section  338  of  the  Communications  Act  of  1934,  as  amended  (47  U.  S.  C.  §338),  the  joint  request  for  modification  described  above  IS  GRANTED. 


 5.  IT  IS  FURTHER  ORDERED  that  the  request  of  DirecTV  to  withdraw  its  “Motion  for  Stay”  IS  GRANTED  without  prejudice. 
 6.  This  action  is  taken  pursuant  to  authority  delegated  by  Section  0.321  of  the  Commission’s  rules.  3 
 FEDERAL  COMMUNICATIONS  COMMISSION 


 William  H.  Johnson,  Deputy  Chief  Cable  Services  Bureau 


 3  47  C.  F.  R.  §0.321. 
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