must-carry rules

In the United States, FCC rules that require CATV providers to provide channels for all commercial and public local television broadcasters within a 50-mile radius of the cable companies' service area.The CATV providers are not required to support multiple stations with redundant programming. The broadcast stations are allowed a choice of being carried under the must-carry rules or under more recent regulations that require cable companies to obtain retransmission consent prior to carrying a broadcast signal.The latter rules afford the broadcasters more freedom to negotiate favorable terms of carriage. See also broadcast TV, CATV, and FCC.