Turner, Ion and Meredith Oppose PMCM PSIP Proposal
Ion, Meredith Corp. and Turner Broadcasting oppose broadcaster PMCM’s plan to occupy the same program and system information protocol (PSIP) channel as Meredith‘s WFSB Hartford, Connecticut, while using a virtual channel number that PMCM’s opponents say should be associated with WFSB (see 1409160043). WFSB uses RF Channel 33, while PMCM’s WJLP Middletown, New Jersey, uses RF 3. The stations’ signals overlap, and WJLP is broadcasting on virtual channel 3.10, while WFSB has long used channel 3.1 and its associated subchannels, Meredith said in comments on its request for a declaratory ruling in FCC docket 14-150 (http://bit.ly/ZLWbCz). Though PMCM has the New Jersey Broadcasters Association's support (http://bit.ly/1FsKa5B) and said in its own comments that it has found hundreds of situations in which overlapping stations occupy the same PSIP, Meredith said the request is without precedent. PMCM hasn’t shown any examples where the FCC “subdivided a major channel number to assign separate chunks of the channel to separately owned stations for concurrent use in the same area," Meredith said.
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PMCM’s request is highly unusual, said a broadcast attorney experienced in such matters but uninvolved in this proceeding. Viewers watching channel 3.10 are likely to assume that Meredith is providing its content, as it does the content on the adjacent channels starting with 3, the attorney said. Fletcher Heald broadcast attorney Donald Evans, who represents PMCM, told us the company’s request is routine, but the other broadcast attorney disagreed. Broadcasters are understood to have ownership of the subchannels fronted by their major channel number, the attorney said. "The notion that a television station has some cognizable right to be free from overlap from another station using the same major channel number would give rise to serious regulatory difficulties,” said PMCM's comments. It’s likely that most broadcasters in Meredith’s position would have challenged PMCM, said a broadcast attorney unconnected with the matter.
Since WJLP is “a new entrant” to the New York designated market area (DMA), it shouldn’t be allowed to shake up channel assignments that have been in place for years, said Turner Broadcasting (http://bit.ly/1FsKpxJ). WJLP, formerly KVNV, relocated to New Jersey from Nevada (see 1212170043). PMCM said its channel placement gives it must-carry rights to be carried on cable Channel 3 in its coverage area, the channel that TNT occupies, Turner said: “A station’s channel number is not its over-the-air radio broadcast frequency, but instead its virtual channel number.” If WJLP isn’t assigned virtual channel number 3, it won’t be able to require cable systems in the New York DMA to “disturb the programming currently carried on that channel,” Turner said. The Media Bureau authorized cable systems in the area not to carry WJLP until it rules on whether PMCM can use 3.10. That order, under appeal by PMCM, should be rescinded, said the NJBA. By keeping WJLP from being carried over cable, the bureau is denying New Jersey residents access to one of their few local TV stations, NJBA said. The FCC “should be appropriately reluctant to upset the settled expectations of hundreds of thousands of consumers by compelling TWC and other New York cable systems to terminate their long-standing carriage of TNT,” Turner said.
Advanced Television Systems Committee standards and FCC rules require WJLP to use major channel 33 rather than 3, said Ion and Meredith. The bureau at least should not assign WJLP a PSIP channel of 3, to "effectuate the clear purpose of the standard to avoid confusing PSIP overlaps,” Ion said (http://bit.ly/1ro33MM). ATSC rules guarantee only that overlapping stations won’t occupy the same major channel number and the same virtual channel number, countered PMCM. By using 3.10, WJLP is in compliance with the rules, PMCM said. It also identified “more than a hundred situations” where overlapping stations are violating the ATSC rules by occupying the same major channel number and the same virtual channel number, Evans told us. “That fact establishes that the commission has routinely tolerated such overlap, without adverse consequence for years,” PMCM said.
Allowing PMCM to broadcast from 3.10 could trigger a host of copycat filings from stations looking to improve their channel position, Meredith said. More than a branding issue could result if WJLP is allowed to keep the channel, suggested a broadcast attorney not associated with the proceeding. If viewers think 3.10 is Meredith, then complaints filed against the station could inadvertently affect the wrong licensee, the attorney said.