National Association for Better Broadcasting ("NABB") takes issue with two aspects of the Commission's decision:  (1) the Commission's designation of subscription television and subscription direct broadcast satellite services as not being broadcasting within the meaning of the Act, and (2) the Commission's ruling that an existing licensee's change from conventional broadcasting to subscription operation would not be considered a "major" change under the Act or FCC rules.  For the reasons outlined below, we uphold the decision of the FCC and deny the petition in both respects.

I. STATUTORY AND REGULATORY BACKGROUND

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Title III of the Act establishes a broad grant of authority to the Commission to regulate radio (and television) communications1 including classification of stations, prescription of the nature of services to be rendered, regulation of the apparatuscriteria for determining intent and therefore exclusion from "broadcasting," and the determination that a change from conventional "free" telecasting to subscription services is not a "major" change.  We will discuss these attacks in turn.


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A. The New Criteria for "Broadcasting"


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As indicated above, the Commission in its February 1987 Order abandoned the previous content-based intent determination, finding new indicia of intent relating to the use by the programming services of transmission techniques preventing the reception of the programming by nonsubscribers.  Report and Order at p 40, et seq.    Under the new approach, such signals as STV and DBS, being unreceivable without special antenna converters and/or decoding equipment supplied by the licensee or programmer, are now classified by the Commission as "point to multi-point" services rather