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 Federal  Communications  Commission  FCC  04-  176 
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 DISSENTING  STATEMENT  OF  COMMISSIONER  KEVIN  J.  MARTIN 
 Re:  TCI  Cablevision  of  New  Mexico,  Inc.,  Memorandum  Opinion  and  Order  (CSR  5654-  A);  TCI  Cablevision  of  New  Mexico,  Inc.,  Memorandum  Opinion  and  Order  (CSR  5623-  A,  CSR  5598-  M);  and 
 Comcast  Cablevision  of  New  Mexico,  Inc.,  Memorandum  Opinion  and  Order  (CSR  5508-  A,  CSR  5486-  M) 


 Each  of  these  cases  involves  a  cable  operator’s  effort  to  take  a  religious  broadcasting  station,  Prime  Time  Christian  Broadcasting,  “out”  of  its  market  so  that  it  does  not  need  to  carry  the  religious 
 programming  pursuant  to  the  statutory  and  regulatory  must  carry  regime.  In  each  case,  the  PTCB  station  at  issue  is  in  the  same  DMA  as  the  cable  operator,  which  ordinarily  would  guarantee  it  must  carry  rights 
 on  the  cable  system. 
 Congress  provided  a  mechanism  for  adjusting  a  given  market  to  “better  effectuate  the  purposes”  of  the  must  carry  regime.  1  The  statute  instructs  the  FCC  to  focus  on  “the  value  of  localism”  in  making  the 
 market-  adjustment  decisions,  including  whether  the  station  provides  “local  service”  to  the  community  at  issue.  2  In  each  of  these  cases,  PTCB  provides  an  important  local  service  to  its  community  that  these 
 Orders  refuse  to  recognize,  and  thus  I  dissent  to  each.  I  view  televising  local  church  services,  for  example,  or  providing  the  only  Spanish-  language  religious  broadcasting  to  the  significant  Spanish-speaking 
 population,  or  creating  a  highly  popular  religious  talk  show  hosted  by  a  local  citizen  as  providing  a  significant  local  service  to  the  community  that  the  Commission  should  value  greatly  when 
 deciding  whether  to  deny  cable  carriage  to  a  local  station. 


 1  47  U.  S.  C.  §534(  h)(  1)(  C). 
 2  Id. 
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