LPTV displacement window

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LPTV and TV translator licensees and applicants saw two notices from the FCC yesterday dealing with fall-out from the FCC’s incentive auction and the subsequent repacking of TV stations into a smaller part of the broadcast spectrum.  The first notice announced a settlement window that runs through July 31 for applicants for new or modified LPTV stations or translators that had filed for new channels or new technical facilities because use of their old channels were preempted by the repacking – either because those channels were no longer part of the TV band or because the channels were to be used by some full-power station that was itself repacked.  These applications have been pending since an LPTV/TV translator filing window in 2009, and were allowed to amend their applications to address issues caused by the repacking earlier this year.  As, in some cases, more than one applicant applied for the same new channel in the same area, those applicants whose displacement applications ended up being mutually exclusive can file to make engineering changes to their applications (including, if no other solutions are possible, changing channels yet again) or to reach other settlements (including channel sharing) to resolve their conflicts.  So if your displacement application was on the list of mutually exclusive applications, look to see if you can resolve your issues and file for the necessary FCC approvals by the July 31 deadline.

In addition, LPTV stations and TV translators using channels 38, 44, 45 and 46 were reminded by the FCC in another Public Notice that they need to vacate these channels by July 13.  The FCC notes that this is a hard deadline that cannot be waived – so stations operating on these channels must either move to a new channel (getting FCC approval for such a move if they have not already received such approval) or cease operations (and ask for authority to remain silent until they have been able to move to another channel) by the July 31 deadline so that the spectrum is freed up as part of its being repurposed for wireless uses.
Continue Reading LPTV and TV Translators – Settlement Window for Mutually Exclusive Applications and Reminder on Deadline for Vacating Certain Channels

The FCC on Tuesday released a Public Notice announcing a settlement window for mutually exclusive applicants in the Special Displacement Window (about which we wrote here and here) where LPTV stations and TV translators displaced by the incentive auction (either because they operated on channels above 37 that will no longer be used for television in the compacted TV band, or because some full-power or Class A TV station that had to move to accommodate the smaller TV band was put onto a channel that interferes with their current operations). When two or more applicants filed in the displacement window for channels that cannot co-exist without causing each other destructive interference, they are considered to be mutually exclusive, and are covered by this window.  Appendix A of the public notice lists displacement applications that are mutually exclusive.

The public notice advises that parties with mutually exclusive applications may resolve their mutual exclusivity by an engineering amendment to resolve the mutual exclusivity or through a legal settlement filed between October 30, 2018 and 11:59 pm EST on January 10, 2019.  Absent settlement, the mutually exclusive displacement applications will go to auction after the close of the settlement period.
Continue Reading FCC Opens Settlement Window for Mutually Exclusive LPTV and TV Translator Applications from the Special Displacement Window

In Monday’s Federal Register, publication is scheduled for the FCC’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on reimbursing LPTV stations, TV translators and FM radio stations (both full-power and FM translator stations) for costs they incur because of the TV incentive auction and the resulting repacking of the TV spectrum. The publication in the Federal Register means that comments on the FCC proposals are due September 26, and reply comments on October 26.

The FCC’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking proposes reimbursing the costs of LPTV stations and TV translators (including Digital Replacement Translators) for moving to new channels. These channel moves were required either because of the contraction of the TV band after the auction (requiring that TV channels above 37 be cleared of TV users so that the upper channels can be repurposed for wireless users) or because these secondary stations operate on channels on which full power stations were relocated as the FCC shuffled channels to fit all remaining full-power and Class A stations into the smaller TV band. Radio stations operations may be disrupted by the repacking principally when those stations operate on a tower used by TV stations. Radio stations either may have to relocate their antennas, either permanently or temporarily, to another tower (or elsewhere on the existing tower) to accommodate the installation of a new TV antenna or other work on the TV stations on the tower. What does the FCC propose?
Continue Reading Comments Due September 26 on FCC Proposals for LPTV, TV Translator and FM Reimbursement of Costs Incurred By Incentive Auction Repacking – What Are the Issues to be Addressed?

For radio and television stations with 5 or more full-time employees located in Arizona, Idaho, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming, and the District of Columbia, June 1 brings the requirement that you upload to your online inspection file your Annual EEO Public Inspection File Report detailing your employment outreach efforts for job openings filled in the last year, as well as the supplemental efforts you have made to educate the community about broadcast employment or the training efforts undertaken to advance your employees skills. For TV stations that are part of Employment Units with five or more full-time employees and located in Arizona, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming, you also need to submit your EEO Form 397 Mid-Term Report. See our article here on the Mid-Term Report, and another here on an FCC proposal that could lead to the elimination of the filing of the form.

June 1 should also serve as a reminder to radio stations in Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia that your license renewal will be filed a year from now, on or before June 1, 2019. So, if you have not done so already, you should be reviewing your online public inspection file to make sure that it is complete, and otherwise review your station operations in anticipation of that filing. We wrote about some of the issues of concern for the upcoming license renewal cycle in our article here. TV stations in those same states will start the TV renewal cycle two years from now.
Continue Reading June Regulatory Dates for Broadcasters – EEO, Translators, Political Rules and Earth Stations

May is one of those months where there are neither deadlines for EEO Public File Reports nor for any of the quarterly filings of issues/programs lists and children’s television reports. But the lack of these routine filing deadlines does not mean that there are no dates of interest in the coming month to broadcasters and other media companies. As seemingly is the case every month, there are never times when Washington is ignoring legal issues potentially affecting the industry.

May 10 brings an FCC meeting where two items of interest to broadcasters will be considered. One is a proposal to abolish the requirement for posting licenses and other operating authorizations at a broadcaster’s control point and to eliminate the requirement that FM translators post information about the station’s licensee and a contact phone number at their transmitter sites (see our post here for more details). The second is a proposal to modify the processing of complaints about new or modified FM translators causing interference to existing stations. See our summary of that proposal here. If adopted at the May 10 meeting, these proposals will be available for public comment after they are published in the Federal Register.
Continue Reading May Regulatory Dates for Broadcasters – FCC Meeting, FM Translator and LPTV Filing Windows, Political Windows and More Consideration of Music Reforms

The FCC yesterday released a Public Notice announcing an extension in the application filing deadline in the window for LPTV stations and TV translators that are displaced by the TV repacking following the incentive auction. In this window, displaced stations can file applications for new channels or new facilities that remove their conflicts with repacked…

April brings with it a milestone – as it is the end of the first quarter since all radio stations have had to have their online public inspection file “live” so that anyone, anywhere, can view a station’s compliance with rules that previously could only be judged by going to the station and reviewing the paper public file. April 10, in particular, is important, as it is when Quarterly Issues Programs Lists, summarizing the most important issues facing the community which the broadcaster serves and the programs that the broadcaster aired to address those issues, must be in the online public file for all full-power radio and TV stations. We wrote about the importance of these sometimes overlooked documents here, as these are the only FCC-mandated documents that reflect how a station has served the needs and interests of its community. We have also noted that, in the past license renewal cycle, missing Quarterly Issues Programs lists were the source of the most fines issued to broadcasters. Now that compliance can be judged at any time by the FCC, their importance is only magnified. So be sure that you get these documents into your online public file by April 10.

EEO Public Inspection File Reports, summarizing a station’s employment record for the prior year, are also to be uploaded to a station’s online public file. For radio and TV stations in Delaware, Indiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Texas, these reports need to be completed and included in the public file by April 1 by all stations that are part of employment units with 5 or more full-time (30 hours per week) employees. In addition, radio stations in employment units with 11 or more full-time employees in Delaware and Pennsylvania, and TV stations in Texas with 5 or more full-time employees, also need to file EEO Mid-Term Reports, commonly referred to as FCC Form 397 applications. While the FCC is considering the abolition of the Mid-Term Report (see our article here), the obligation is still in place so, for now, stations must comply.
Continue Reading April Regulatory Dates for Broadcasters – First Quarterly Issues Programs Lists in Online Public File for All Radio Stations and Other Important Dates

The FCC on Friday issued a Public Notice announcing that LPTV stations and TV translators displaced by the Incentive auction and repacking of the TV band will have an opportunity to file for replacement channels for the ones on which they currently operate in a window that will run from April 10 through May 15…

The FCC yesterday issued a Public Notice announcing the immediate freeze on the filing of minor change applications for LPTV and TV translator stations. This is to stabilize the FCC’s database so that applicants in the upcoming window for the filing of displacement applications by LPTV and TV Translator stations displaced by the incentive…