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A freeze on technical improvements by full-power TV stations is about to come to an end after more than 15 years. Television stations have been unable to improve their coverage areas by a freeze first instituted in 2004 to allow the FCC to deal with a stable database of television stations during the transition to digital operations.  After that, the freeze was soon reinstated to facilitate the incentive auction and subsequent repacking of the TV band into less spectrum so that TV channels above 37 could be auctioned for use for new wireless communications technologies.  The FCC’s Media Bureau yesterday issued a Public Notice announcing that it will finally lift the filing freeze – that thaw to be effective 15 days after the Public Notice is published in the Federal Register.

Specifically, the Bureau will lift the restrictions on the following types of applications:

  • Petitions for rulemaking to change channels in the DTV Table of Allotments (where a station moves from one channel to another) or petitions to swap channels between two existing stations.
  • Petitions for rulemaking for new DTV allotments which could give broadcasters the opportunity to apply for new TV stations.
  • Petitions for rulemaking to change communities of license.
  • Modification applications that increase a full power or Class A station’s service area beyond an area that is already served.

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Continue Reading FCC to Lift Freeze on TV Station Technical Improvement Applications

Here are some of the FCC regulatory and legal actions of the last week—and congressional action in the coming week—of significance to broadcasters, with links to where you can go to find more information as to how these actions may affect your operations.

  • The Media Bureau reminded broadcasters that July 13, 2021—the hard deadline

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Effective yesterday, May 28, the FCC is accepting applications for television stations to begin to convert to the next generation TV transmission standard – ATSC 3.0 or “NexGen TV.” Last week, the Commission issued a Public Notice announcing that the form (FCC Form 2100) necessary for stations to apply to transition to the new standard is now available for both full-power (Schedule B to Form 2100), low power (Schedule D) and Class A TV stations (Schedule F). Only stations currently sharing channels as part of a Commission-approved channel sharing agreement following the FCC’s incentive auction are not able to apply for the transition at this point, as the FCC Form needs further revisions to its forms to accommodate applications for the transition by these stations. Those forms are expected later this year. In the interim, sharing stations can move forward with 3.0 operations by seeking Special Temporary Authority.

ATSC 3.0 promises to allow broadcasters to transmit more information through their 6 MHz channel – allowing for additional subchannels of programming or more data transmission capabilities that could be sold to those needing to transmit digital information to the wide areas served by TV stations. The transmission standard is far more mobile-friendly than the current standard and also allows for transmissions in an IP format compatible with so many other digital devices receiving information from Internet sources. But the standard is not backward compatible – meaning that to receive the new television signals consumers will need new TV sets with ATSC 3.0 receivers, or converters to provide the signal to existing TV sets. Thus, to ensure that consumers will not lose access to the over-the-air television signals they now receive, the FCC requires that stations converting to the new standard must also simulcast their primary video signal on a station in their market that continues to operate in the current ATSC 1.0 standard. Low power TV stations do not have this simulcasting obligation, meaning they can convert to 3.0 operations and leave the 1.0 standard behind.
Continue Reading FCC Starts Accepting ATSC 3.0 Applications – The Next Generation of TV Transmission