The item was approved unanimously Tuesday night by the agency's five commissioners after last-minute negotiations delayed the vote by 11 hours. Without this action, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said in written remarks, "some broadcast stations would have become unwatchable" on 120 million cable TV sets.

Under the approach, cable operators would carry each broadcaster's primary signal in analog and digital for three years following the Feb. 17, 2009, digital transition. The FCC has pledged to consider extending the regulations, which are set to expire in 2012.

During a telephone briefing Wednesday, National Cable and Telecommunications Association President and Chief Executive Officer Kyle McSlarrow said the restrictions would be good for cable customers. He expressed that view despite the fact that NCTA originally argued that no mandates were necessary.

"Yesterday's ruling is an important step in protecting analog cable subscribers from losing access to some of the most diverse programming on television, including religious and Spanish-language programming," Dennis Wharton, a spokesman for the National Association of Broadcasters, said in a statement.

But not everyone is happy. "If forced to comply with this order, small operators will have less capital to invest in [high-speed Internet access] because they need to purchase costly equipment" to meet the requirements, Matthew Polka, president and chief executive officer of the American Cable Association, warned in a statement. The FCC did not provide an exemption for small systems but invited them to request waivers.

FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, one of two Democrats on the panel, dissented on that portion of the item. "While I am pleased that the order provides for waivers," he complained in his opening statement, "it is not fair to ask these tiny rural systems to engage lawyers in Washington when a simple exemption would have sufficed."

In a related development, the FCC extended for five years a ban on exclusive video-programming contracts and initiated a new proceeding to examine the practice of programmers "tying" the availability of popular channels to less-viewed ones. Some analysts think the real goal of the new proceeding is to make it easier for the FCC to require cable systems to offer per-channel pricing, known as a la carte, a model that cable strongly opposes.

McSlarrow sought to downplay that theory. "The FCC has very limited authority in this arena," he said, expressing confidence that his industry would "make the case that the system we have today works very well for customers."

In other developments, the FCC took steps to ensure that emergency dispatchers can better pinpoint the locations of wireless callers using "enhanced 911" services that carry phone traffic over the Internet.

And Qwest Communications withdrew a "forbearance" petition seeking relief from federal regulations granting telecom competitors access to its networks at heavily discounted rates. The company could not be immediately reached for comment. In a bulletin to investors, Medley Global Advisors said Qwest dropped the petition because it didn't have the votes for passage.