During the first of last week's FCC LEARN session webinars about the Incentive Spectrum Auction, the Coalition asked a question about LPTV channel sharing post-auction.  We asked if a non-com station with must-carry status (PBS affiliate) could channel share on a paid leased channel basis with an LPTV station and still maintain their must-carry status.  The FCC staff (Media Bureau Chief William Lake, Task Force Chair Gary Epstein, and Vice Chair Howard Symons) agreed that it was possible.  There was a channel sharing rule making done back right after the auction legislation was passed, but it deferred the LPTV part until a later rule making, which is suppose to happen this summer and fall.  As has been the case recently, a question by the Coalition opens the door to an advanced early look into what the FCC is thinking of proposing. 

The trade press was quick to pick on this issue and last week the Coalition had four major press mentions about it.  When the LPTV channel sharing order is finally discussed we will be making sure that not just PBS and non-com's can utilize LPTV for paid carriage which maintains their must-carry status, but that any station and channels currently qualified can participate. This could be a huge new market for LPTV stations all over the country.  Just imagine that local PBS station paying for three of your channels in a multi-year contract!

During last week's Incentive Spectrum Auction webinars, the FCC released a new auction timeline which lays out in better detail than before, the targeted time frames for specific actions, rule makings, and deadlines.  Here are some LPTV specifics:

Q1-2015 - 90 day notice issued for qualified Class-A stations to have built their digital transmission plant completed in order to qualify. So still analog CA's have until about the beginning of Q2-2015 to build their digital facilities out.

Q3-2014 - FCC opens proceeding to examine how to mitigate the potential impact of the Incentive Auction and the repacking process on LPTV and TV translator stations.

1H-2015 - FCC issues orders in the LPTV/TV Translator proceedings.  This means we will not know everything until Jan-Jun of 2015. Coalition wanted an end of calendar 2014 for this information to be known so that LPTV businesses could plan better for 2015. 

>  Any channel-sharing contracts must be completed prior to the auction starting.

>  In order to qualify for the LPTV repacking, stations must be built by a date to be determined before the auction starts

Late-2015 - About 6 months after auction ends, the stations which have filed construction permit applications for their new
facilities will have to complete their process. The Media Bureau will then announce a limited window for operating LPTV and TV translator stations to submit displacement applications.

2016++ - Construction permits not built before the auction will have a to-be-determined extension. This will include both the remaining Analog to Digital conversions and the unbuilt 2009 rural filing window CPs.

On June 2, 2014, the FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology, the International, Media, and Wireless Telecommunications Bureaus, and the Incentive Auction Task Force ("Task Force") released a Public Notice summarizing a staff analysis designed to determine the potential for new aggregate interference to television stations under the Commission's adopted approach for preserving population served based upon pairwise interference limits.

 

For purposes of the analysis, the FCC staff performed 100 simulations (of each of the 210 TV DMAs) using three different approaches to creating simulated sets of station's to be repacked.  NAB asked for these to be released and they are now available.  The Coalition is conducting an analysis of this data and has until July 22 to submit comments into the record. There is no specific support for LPTV information, so the Coalition is fronting the costs of doing our own analysis.  If you want to help our efforts we would appreciate it, and will get you your own DMA analysis to see what could happen. Previous study supporters will get their new studies when we are done - thanks

FCC Report  -  TVNewsCheck Article

We reported last week about our lobbying related to STELA, the Satellite Television Reauthorization Act, in both of its House and Senate versions, as they work their way through Congress this summer.  It has to be passed by the end of the year, so there is a lot of action around it.  So far the broadcasters have fought back on the use of it for retransmission reform, but it still might be a vehicle for some sort of LPTV relief. We submitted a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee about three key things which LPTV needed in the bill.  

What happened was that the "Durbin Amendment" was adopted by unanimous consent.  This is a technical amendment from Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) that permits cable companies to retransmit content, royalty free, from low-powered TV stations across a broader audience area. 

Last week FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler posted a blog entry on his FCC page which promoted the Incentive Spectrum Auction webinars which were being conducted.  The Coalition used the comments section of the blog post to share with the Chairman just how bad the data is in the FCC Consolidated Database system.  Now to be somewhat fair here, many LPTV licensees have not kept up with entering their proper contact information.  

But the FCC seems to not do any quality control or follow-up on the contact info either.  So the situation is that the actual data used to contact licensees is totally out of date for about 75% of them.  The Coalition also sent an email to the Media Bureau about this and was obligated to post it within the auction rule making proceedings. Learn More

By now you all have heard the the Aereo Supreme Court case was decided last week against them. This page has some good links to a wide variety of stories.  The LPTV community was part of this as a few of the larger LPTV operators filed comments in the process in support of Aereo. Would someone tell Barry Diller to call me, I know of about 3000 new construction permits he can build out for a lot less than what he spent on Aereo!  Learn More

There certainly are a lot of networks now airing on LPTV digital channels across the country, and keeping track of them all would be a real hassle if it was not for RabbitEars.info.  Check them out and see what you could be airing if you want!

The Advanced Television Broadcasting Alliance which says it has full power, LPTV, and industry partners (they do not disclose who their members are), may be in trouble according to insider members we have talked with.  Seems that when the Incentive Spectrum Auction Report and Order came out, one of the footnotes in it had to do with a denial of Sinclair Broadcasting's request to have a company-wide waiver for the deployment of flexible-use transmission systems.  The auction legislation only allows for this for those stations who do not enter the auction, are actually displaced, and do not accept channel relocation funding.  And this is exactly what the FCC authorized, just those stations which are displaced and do not take the funding. The Alliance is now restricting its' conference calls to just those who pay them a membership fee, so unless they publicly speak out about what is going on I guess we all will wait for their next public announcement.  

Good news from Comark, an equipment manufacturer many of you have obtained equipment from.. Learn More

For those current Coalition members we really appreciate you working with us during this past year.  While we have not yet won the war to completely protect our spectrum usage rights, we have certainly had a positive impact on the process.  And we are now prepared to help craft our own rule making.  And for those of your who are new to this effort we welcome you to join and help the LPTV bring a huge collective voice to the policy debates which dictate and shape how we run our businesses.  If you have any comments or question please let us know and we will try to get them answered for you.

Sincerely,