Media Bureau to Recommend Rulemaking on Effect of Incentive Auction on LPTV, Lake Tells NAB

NAB CEO Gordon Smith meanwhile criticized the FCC for recent decisions against broadcasters. The government has treated broadcasters like “dinosaurs” Smith said at NAB, using a similar phrase as the head of Gannett’s broadcasting business used Friday (CD April 7 p5). In the wake of recent FCC decisions on joint sales agreements and the UHF discount, broadcasters can no longer be sure the FCC won’t reverse its own decisions, Smith said. “We don’t know how to close this trust gap,” Smith said, suggesting that what he sees as the trust problem could keep broadcasters from participating in its voluntary spectrum auction. The FCC must “work collaboratively with broadcasters” to make sure their channels will still be accessible after the auction, and should refrain from intervening in retrans negotiations, Smith said. FCC stands for the “Friendly to Cable Commission,” said Univision Chairman Haim Saban. The FCC didn’t comment.

Meanwhile, Lake told LPTV operators that the bureau will also recommend that the commission hold an open window for LPTV stations that have been displaced by the auction to file for displacement, Lake said to applause from the LPTV operators, who had earlier been half-jokingly warned not to throw tomatoes at him. Since LPTV operators had believed they would have to wait until 40 months after the auction to file for displacement, Lake’s announcement is a victory, said LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition President Mike Gravino. An NPRM on the auction might have been helpful for LP broadcasters if it were issued before the auction order, said Fletcher Heald attorney Peter Tannenwald, who represents LPTV operators. However, waiting until after the auction order will allow the bureau to take the specifics of the auction into account, which is likely to make the rulemaking more useful, he conceded. “It’s encouraging."

The proposed NPRM would ask whether the FCC should extend the 2015 deadline for low-power stations to transition to digital, and discuss possibly “harmonizing” open construction permits issued for the DTV transition with the auction, Lake said. Low-power stations still in the midst of upgrading to digital are currently at risk of having their upgrade efforts invalidated if they are displaced during the incentive auction, Gravino said. By extending the deadline and harmonizing the permits, the bureau would give LP stations time to see how the auction will affect them before completing a costly upgrade.

The proposed NPRM would specifically allow LPTV stations to channel-share on a voluntary basis, Lake said. There’s already a proposal in the auction proceeding to allow full-power stations to channel share, and the LPTV NPRM would authorize those stations to do so as well after the auction, “indefinitely,” he said. Despite Lake’s emphasis that the sharing would be voluntary, the FCC is expected to “pressure” many LPTV operators into sharing after the auction, said Tannenwald.

Broadcasters need to consider moving to a new ATSC 3.0 standard (see separate report below in this issue) or risk getting left behind by digital media, said Smith and Univision’s Saban at the opening session of the show. “It’s not an option,” said Saban of moving to the new standard. Smith also asked the FCC to create a National Broadcasting Plan, analogous to the National Broadband Plan and designed to encourage investment in broadcasting.

Digital replacement translators are intended to fill the gaps in full-power coverage that might be created through the repacking process, Lake said. The NPRM would propose creating them for full-power broadcasters only, Lake said. A similar method was used during the digital transition to fill gaps created by the shift from analog, he said. Letting LPTV operators use the same software to find new channels that full-power stations will use in the repacking will help “ease the effects of displacement,” Lake said. The software will allow the displaced to find the best new channel for their station, where that is feasible, Lake said.

Lake also clarified the bureau’s view on when LP stations displaced by the auction will have to cease operating on their old spectrum. LPTV stations can stay on their old signal until they “get word” that a wireless company or TV station that has newly acquired it is about to begin operations that the LP signal would interfere with, Lake said. LP operators in the guard band can stay until a wireless operator starts using an adjacent band, or until 39 months after the close of the auction, whichever is first, Lake said.

Low-power TV station owners at the session said much of what Lake said was good news, but lamented that he hadn’t provided more info. “He told us what he could tell us,” said Ron Bruno, owner of several Pittsburgh-area LPTV stations. Bruno said he wasn’t surprised that Lake, as FCC staff, had to be careful about what specifics he could reveal. More information important to LPTV operators should become available when the auction order is released in the spring, said Tannenwald.