

[Federal Register: December 13, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 239)]
[Notices]               
[Page 70907-70909]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr13de07-104]                         

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SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

[Release No. 34-56926; File No. SR-OPRA-2007-05]

 
Options Price Reporting Authority; Notice of Filing of Proposed 
Amendment to the Plan for Reporting of Consolidated Options Last Sale 
Reports and Quotation Information To Adopt New Form of Rider to OPRA's 
Vendor Agreement for Use by Television Companies That Wish To 
Disseminate OPRA Data

 December 7, 2007.
    Pursuant to Section 11A of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 
(``Act'') \1\ and Rule 608 thereunder,\2\ notice is hereby given that 
on December 6, 2007, the Options Price Reporting Authority (``OPRA'') 
submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission (``Commission'') an 
amendment to the Plan for Reporting of Consolidated Options Last Sale 
Reports and

[[Page 70908]]

Quotation Information (``OPRA Plan'').\3\ The proposed OPRA Plan 
amendment would adopt a new form of Television Dissemination Rider to 
OPRA's Vendor Agreement for use by television companies that wish to 
disseminate current OPRA Data via a passive scrolling or ticker 
television display. OPRA's Fee Schedule would be modified to 
incorporate the fee that OPRA would charge for the dissemination of 
OPRA Data in the manner discussed below. The Commission is publishing 
this notice to solicit comments from interested persons on the proposed 
OPRA Plan amendment.
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    \1\ 15 U.S.C. 78k-1.
    \2\ 17 CFR 242.608.
    \3\ The OPRA Plan is a national market system plan approved by 
the Commission pursuant to Section 11A of the Act and Rule 608 
thereunder (formerly Rule 11Aa3-2). See Securities Exchange Act 
Release No. 17638 (March 18, 1981), 22 S.E.C. Docket 484 (March 31, 
1981). The full text of the OPRA Plan is available at http://www.opradata.com
.

    The OPRA Plan provides for the collection and dissemination of 
last sale and quotation information on options that are traded on 
the participant exchanges. The six participants to the OPRA Plan are 
the American Stock Exchange LLC, the Boston Stock Exchange, Inc., 
the Chicago Board Options Exchange, Incorporated, the International 
Securities Exchange, LLC, the NYSE Arca, Inc., and the Philadelphia 
Stock Exchange, Inc.
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I. Description and Purpose of the Amendment

    OPRA proposes to amend its national market system plan by adopting 
a new form of Rider to its Vendor Agreement for use by television 
companies that wish to disseminate current OPRA Data from OPRA's Basic 
Service via a passive scrolling or ticker television display. The OPRA 
Fee Schedule would be modified to incorporate the fee that OPRA would 
charge for the dissemination of OPRA Data in the manner discussed 
below.\4\
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    \4\ OPRA has filed two other filings that will affect its Fee 
Schedule upon or following their effectiveness: SR-OPRA-2007-03 
(eliminating the ``FCO Service'' column on the Fee Schedule when all 
currently outstanding physical delivery FCOs are eliminated by 
expiration or by closing transaction, which could be as late as 
March 14, 2008); and SR-OPRA-2007-04 (amending the Fee Schedule to 
specify Professional Subscriber Device-Based Fees commencing as of 
January 1 of 2008, 2009 and 2010). The changes proposed in those 
filings do not affect the changes proposed to the Fee Schedule in 
this filing.
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    A company that disseminates current OPRA Data to third parties is a 
``Vendor'' for OPRA's purposes, and is therefore required to sign 
OPRA's Vendor Agreement. As a general matter, OPRA's Vendor Agreement 
states that any person that receives current OPRA Data from a Vendor is 
a ``Subscriber'' and requires the Vendor to cause each of its 
Subscribers to agree to a Subscriber Agreement, either with the Vendor 
for the benefit of OPRA, or directly with OPRA. The new form of Rider 
states that this requirement does not apply to persons that receive 
OPRA Data in the form of a passive scrolling or ticker television 
display.
    The Vendor Agreement also requires that the Vendor report certain 
information to OPRA to enable OPRA to verify the fees that the Vendor 
is obligated to pay OPRA. The new form of Rider to OPRA's Vendor 
Agreement states that the reporting requirements in the Vendor 
Agreement will not apply to television dissemination of OPRA Data and 
sets out requirements that are intended to elicit only the information 
that OPRA needs to verify the fees paid by a television company for 
television dissemination.
    The OPRA Data feed includes, in addition to options last sale and 
quotation data, the values of various indexes for which OPRA or one of 
the OPRA participant exchanges has permission to disseminate from the 
index owners together with related options market data. Some owners of 
the indexes that OPRA disseminates may not wish to have OPRA grant 
television companies the right to disseminate their indexes separate 
from the dissemination of related options market data. To accommodate 
this possibility, the Rider includes language to give OPRA the ability 
to grant permission to Vendor television companies to display index 
values separately from the dissemination of related options market 
data, and to revoke that permission. OPRA will treat all television 
companies that sign Riders identically with respect to permission to 
display index values. The Rider provides that, if OPRA revokes 
permission to display particular index values separately from the 
dissemination of related options market data, and as a consequence the 
television company Vendor no longer wishes to display OPRA Data values 
and pay fees for doing so, the television company Vendor may terminate 
the Rider and its Vendor Agreement, or only the Rider, effective as of 
the date that the index values cease to be available to the television 
company Vendor.\5\
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    \5\ Any Vendor has the right under paragraph 1(c) of the Rider 
to terminate the Rider, and under paragraph 19(d) of the OPRA form 
of Vendor Agreement to terminate the Vendor Agreement, in each case 
without cause upon thirty days written notice. The termination right 
described in the text essentially provides comfort to a television 
company Vendor that, if an index ceases to be available to the 
Vendor on less than thirty days notice, the Vendor may terminate 
either the Rider alone or the Rider and Vendor Agreement on the date 
the index ceases to be available.
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    Section 2 of the Rider requires a television company Vendor to 
display a legend on its television display at least three times a day. 
The form of the legend is the same as the legend required by the 
Consolidated Tape Association (``CTA'') for its counterpart Network A 
service, and the requirement with respect to the display of the legend 
is the same as the CTA requirement.\6\
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    \6\ See the CTA form of Exhibit C to its form Agreement for 
Receipt and Use of Consolidated Network A Data and NYSE Market Data 
for ``Cable Broadcasts.''
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    OPRA is proposing to charge a fee for the dissemination via 
television of current OPRA Data on the basis of the number of 
``thousands of households reached'' by the Vendor television company's 
programming. \7\ This metric is widely used in the television industry 
and is used by CTA for its counterpart service.
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    \7\ Specifically, OPRA plans to charge a fee of $.50 per 1,000 
households reached. See proposed ``Television Display Fee'' on the 
OPRA Fee Schedule.
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    The text of the proposed amendment to the OPRA Plan and the 
proposed changes to the OPRA Fee Schedule are available at OPRA, the 
Commission's Public Reference Room, and http://opradata.com/pdf/proposed_tv_rider.pdf
.


II. Implementation of the OPRA Plan Amendment

    OPRA will begin to use the proposed form Television Dissemination 
Rider to its Vendor Agreement upon its approval by the Commission 
pursuant to Section 11A of the Act \8\ and Rule 608(b)(1) thereunder. 
\9\
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    \8\ 15 U.S.C. 78k-1.
    \9\ 17 CFR 242.608(b)(1).
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III. Solicitation of Comments

    Interested persons are invited to submit written data, views, and 
arguments concerning the foregoing, including whether the proposed OPRA 
Plan amendment is consistent with the Act. Comments may be submitted by 
any of the following methods:

Electronic Comments

     Use the Commission's Internet comment form (http://www.sec.gov/rules/sro.shtml.
); or     Send an e-mail to rule-comments@sec.gov. Please include 

File No. SR-OPRA-2007-05 on the subject line.

Paper Comments

     Send paper comments in triplicate to Nancy M. Morris, 
Secretary, Securities and Exchange Commission, 100 F Street, NE., 
Washington, DC 20549-1090.


[[Page 70909]]


All submissions should refer to File Number SR-OPRA-2007-05. This file 
number should be included on the subject line if e-mail is used. To 
help the Commission process and review your comments more efficiently, 
please use only one method. The Commission will post all comments on 
the Commission's Internet Web site (http://www.sec.gov/rules/sro.shtml
). Copies of the submission, all subsequent amendments, all 

written statements with respect to the proposed plan amendment that are 
filed with the Commission, and all written communications relating to 
the proposed plan amendment between the Commission and any person, 
other than those that may be withheld from the public in accordance 
with the provisions of 5 U.S.C. 552, will be available for inspection 
and copying in the Commission's Public Reference Room, 100 F Street, 
NE., Washington, DC 20549, on official business days between the hours 
of 10 am and 3 pm. Copies of such filing also will be available for 
inspection and copying at the principal office of OPRA. All comments 
received will be posted without change; the Commission does not edit 
personal identifying information from submissions. You should submit 
only information that you wish to make available publicly. All 
submissions should refer to File Number SR-OPRA-2007-05 and should be 
submitted on or before January 3, 2008.

    For the Commission, by the Division of Trading and Markets, 
pursuant to delegated authority.\10\
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    \10\ 17 CFR 200.30-3(a)(20).
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Florence E. Harmon,
Deputy Secretary.
[FR Doc. E7-24121 Filed 12-12-07; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 8011-01-P
