Brendan Holland

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The Commission’s recent Notice of Proposed Rule Making proposing a framework and time line for the transition of Low Power Television stations to digital operations — which we wrote about last month here — was published in the Federal Register today setting December 17, 2010 as the deadline for Comments and January 18, 2011 as…

Update 10/15/10:  A copy of the Davis Wright Tremaine advisory published on October 13 is now available here and provides further details about the new accessibility Act.

Last week Congress adopted legislation to promote the accessibility of communications and media services. The law, entitled the “Twenty First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010”, is expected to be signed into law by President Obama, possibly as early as today, October 8th. The Act contains a number of changes to improve media accessibility, the most notable of which for broadcasters and cable operators is the reinstatement of the Commission’s defunct Video Description rules. The Act reinstates the FCC’s prior video description rules adopted in 2000 and subsequently struck down by the Court of Appeals in the case of MPAA v. FCC following a challenge to the rules by the Motion Picture Association of America, the National Association of Broadcasters, and the National Cable & Telecommunications Association.  At the time, the Court found that the FCC did not have the authority to adopt  video description rules, but Congress has now eliminated that issue by specifically authorizing the FCC to promulgate such rules and instructing it to reinstate the earlier regulations. 

We are currently in the process of reviewing and summarizing the new legislation and expect to publish shortly a Davis Wright Tremaine advisory with complete details and a time line for implementation. Once that advisory is published, we’ll update this post and provide a link.   In the meantime, some of the highlights and specifics of the Act are detailed below:  

The Act effectively reinstates video description rules adopted in 2000 as 47 CFR § 79.3 and struck down in MPAA v. FCC.  The rules will go into effect within one year after enactment (i.e. by October 2011).  Those rules will initially require that:

  1. Affiliates of the Big 4 Networks (ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC) in the top 25 DMAs will have to provide 50 hrs./quarter of prime time or children’s programming with video description
  2. The top 5 national nonbroadcast (i.e. cable) networks, must provide 50 hrs./quarter of programming with video description;
  3. Broadcast stations and MVPDs with technical capability to do so generally must pass through video descriptions.

Before the rules go into effect, the FCC will conduct a rule making to make certain modifications to the 2000 rules including:

  1. Updating the list of top 25 DMAs and top 5 cable networks, determining the first calendar quarter in which video description compliance will be required, and the phase-in for compliance;
  2. specifying that the rules apply to television programming in digital format only;
  3. specifying that live or near-live programming is not covered;
  4. creating a way for covered programming providers or owners to seek exemptions
  5. allowing FCC to exempt services, programs, and/or equipment (or classes thereof) based on economic burden

After all the above is complete, the rules as modified may be expanded to require a greater number of hours of video-described programming per quarter and to expand the television markets that must comply.  However, such expansion of the rules would only be after the FCC provides Congress with a report on the financial, technical, and operational costs associated with video descriptions, and the availability, use, and benefits of video descriptions.  According to the Act, the Commission may not issue additional regulations unless the Commission determines, at least two years after completing the required reports, that the need and benefit of the rules outweighs the costs of providing additional programming. Continue Reading Video Description Returns to Television, Closed Captioning Expands to the Internet

This afternoon, FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) adopted the new digital message format for the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) standard.  The adoption of this message format is the next step in the implementation of Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS), which expands the traditional Emergency Alert System used by radio and television to…

On Friday, the Commission released a Further Notice of Proposed Rule Making (FNPRM) seeking input on completing the transition of all low power television stations (LPTV) and TV translator stations to digital operations.  Driven by the transition of all full power TV stations last year and the guidance from the National Broadband Plan, which recommended setting a deadline of 2015 for the transition of LPTVs to digital in order to increase efficiency in the TV bands and assist in the reallocation of those bands, the Commission’s rulemaking turns to the remaining analog television operations in the spectrum, i.e. LPTV and TV translator stations.  The Commission, having noted a significant increase in the past year of LPTV stations obtaining authority for, and actually switching to, DTV operations, concludes that "low power television stations should now begin to focus their time and resources on developing and implementing a digital conversion plan." 

In response to the main question of "when?", the Commission suggests a date in 2012 as the hard date by which all LPTVs and TV translators would have to complete the construction of digital facilities and cease analog operations.  While a specific date in 2012 is not offered, the Commission believes that three years after the June 12, 2009 full power transition should be a sufficient time period for completing the transition.  And of course, given that it is now September 2010, that really means that LPTV stations would have between 15 and 27 months from today to complete the transition.  The FNPRM does seek comment on alternative time frames or transition mechanisms, but notes that an adoption of an earlier transition date in 2012 might adversely impact some LPTV stations, which could "transition to digital only to find that their digital channel is no longer available as a result of the spectrum reallocation that is one of the recommendations in the Broadband Plan."  Such stations would then be forced to transition a second time.  Given that the Commission has not yet actually commenced a proceeding to implement the spectrum reallocation recommended in the Broadband Plan, this comment is a bit troubling.  Clearly, if the Commission is actually going to reallocate the spectrum as suggested in the National Broadband Plan, it should do so first before it mandates a DTV transition for LPTVs.  Or at the very least, it shouldn’t mandate such a transition until it can ensure that LPTV stations are transitioning to digital on a channel that won’t subsequently be reclaimed and re-purposed for a competing wireless broadband operation.  In acknowledgment of this, the FNPRM seeks comment on whether the analog termination date should be by the end of 2015 or after the "recommended reallocation of spectrum from the broadcast TV bands". Continue Reading Next Up in the DTV Transition, Low Power Television Stations

As the media has reported extensively this week (for example here and here) the FCC is poised to tap into the television spectrum to allow the use of that spectrum on an unlicensed basis, potentially leading to a wave of innovative unlicensed devices, including potentially turbo-charged Wi-Fi.  On the tentative agenda released recently for the next open Commission meeting, to be held next Thursday, September 23rd, the Commission has included an item entitled:  "TV White Spaces Second MO&O:  A Second Memorandum Opinion and Order that will create opportunities for investment and innovation in advanced Wi-Fi technologies and a variety of broadband services by finalizing provisions for unlicensed wireless devices to operate in unused parts of TV spectrum." 

As watchers of the TV white spaces issue will recall, the Commission adopted an Order in late 2008 to permit the operation of unlicensed devices in the so-called "TV white spaces", which is the spectrum in the TV band that is not actively occupied by a television station in a particular geographic area.  (An earlier advisory by Davis Wright Tremaine summarizing the Commission’s 2008 Order can be found here.)  Following the adoption of that Order, over a dozen parties sought reconsideration of the Commission’s decision; those petitions remain pending.  It is not clear whether the proposed Order would be an Order on Reconsideration, but presumably it will address the issues raised by these petitioners.  In addition, the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) and others filed an appeal in the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit seeking to challenge the FCC’s white spaces Order.  That appeal is on hold pending the Commission’s resolution of the Petitions for Reconsideration.  Despite the unresolved objections, in late 2009, the FCC moved forward with putting a spectrum management structure in place that would establish a privately maintained database that would permit coordination in order to locate unused spectrum in the TV band in a particular area.  We summarized this step in an earlier blog entry here.  In early 2010, nine parties submitted proposals to be designated TV Band Device Database Managers, but to date the matter remains pending. Continue Reading FCC Ready to Tap Returned TV Spectrum with New White Spaces Order

Interested in a brand new full power digital television station in Atlantic City, New Jersey, or Seaford, Delaware?  Then the FCC has just what you’re looking for, provided that you’re ready, willing, and able to build the station from the ground up and don’t mind a low VHF channel.   The Commission today issued the first auction…

Continuing its implementation of STELA (a.k.a. the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act of 2010), the Commission last week released an Order granting the application of satellite television provider DISH Network, LLC, and allowing DISH to once again import distant, out-of-market broadcast television signals.  In its Order approving DISH’s application, the Commission agreed that the…

The FCC has issued another in a series of Notice of Proposed Rule Makings aimed at implementing changes to the satellite television rules brought about by the recently enacted Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act of 2010 or "STELA".  In particular, by its NPRM issued last week, the Commission proposes a predictive model to provide presumptive determinations as to whether a household is considered unserved by a local network-affiliated digital station.  The model proposed is a point-to-point predictive model that will allow parties to determine whether a particular location has the ability to receive an over-the-air digital television broadcast signal at the intensity level necessary for service.  The predictive model proposed by the Commission is based on the current model used for predicting reception of analog signals, which uses Longley-Rice to predict signal propagation. 

In proposing this predictive model, the Commission tentatively concludes that the current standard for an outdoor antenna should continue be used in predicting digital television signal strengths at individual locations.  Although STELA revised the definition of an "unserved" household by changing the previous statutory reference to a "conventional, stationary outdoor rooftop antenna" to refer simply to the use of an "antenna" (as we mentioned in our earlier blog), the Commission’s recent NPRM finds that the Act’s specification of the DTV standard incorporated in the FCC’s rules implies the use of an outdoor antenna to receive service.  Therefore, the predictive model the Commission proposes in its NPRM for determining reception of over-the-air digital television signals will continue to include the outdoor antenna standard (with some adjustments for height).  That said, and as the Commission itself notes, given that both of the satellite television providers are moving towards providing local-into-local service in most markets, the need for making determinations as to which households are "unserved" (and hence eligible to receive distant signals), is diminishing, although there are still a number of markets where such local-into-local service has yet to be implemented. 

Although STELA also narrowed the unserved standard to focus just on the reception of signals from an in-market affiliate (rather than simply any affiliate) and to address the notion of multicast digital streams, these changes do not impact the Commission’s adoption of a predictive model, and thus were not explicitly addressed by the NPRM.  However, the Commission does include a Further Notice of Proposed Rule Making to address issues regarding on-site measurements in the event that a subscriber requests an on-site signal strength test following application of the predictive model.  Here again, the Commission proposes to limit measurements to outdoor antennas.  Comments on the Commission’s proposed rule changes will be due 20 days after publication of the NPRM in the Federal Register, which, as of this writing, has not yet occurred. Continue Reading FCC Begins Proceedings to Implement Changes to Satellite Television Rules as a Result of STELA

The FCC’s Annual Regulatory Fee web site, available at  www.fccfees.com, is now active and indicates that the Reg Fees are due by 11:59 PM EDT on August 31, 2010.  A further public notice, which will include detailed instructions on how to access the FCC’s Fee Filer database and remit the payment of the…