Local Cable and breaking into shows w/ local ads. Ok?

Factual Questions
1

My local cable company broke into the airing of the MTV Movie Awards tonight to air some local ads, so I missed whatever “witty” banter there may have been around 10:30pm or so. This has become a bit of a habit for my local cable company, as they also have been airing local ads during other first-run shows on MTV this week.

So, it got me to wondering…

Does the cable company have the right to air any local ads they sell at any time during the broadcast day?

I wonder what kind of agreement they have with the various cable networks as to the selling of local ads. It’s not too unusual for the network ads to be replaced with local ads, this happens all the time, though i don’t know how that makes national advertisers feel.

But this new trend of actually replacing the program content in order to sell even more ads, seems a bit much to me.

DOes anyone know what kind of rights and agreements local acble companies make with the cable networks, as it relates to the selling of airtime for local ads?

2

Yes they can. Off the top of my head, IIRC, there are no regulations per se, except for those that regulate content. However, the cable channels’ and networks’ contracts usually spell out what the local end can do within the programs. Something like "OK, you MUST air these commercials (list provided) at this time, when they go over our feed, but the others (list provided) you may air, or air local commercials.