FCC Freezes Modification Applications for Full-Power, Class A TV
The FCC Media Bureau placed limits on the filing and processing of full-power and Class A TV station modification applications. The bureau’s action is aimed at facilitating analysis of repacking methodologies and assuring that the objectives of the broadcast TV incentive auction aren’t frustrated, it said Friday in a public notice (http://bit.ly/Z6T4yc). The bureau also said the move is warranted by a mandate in the Spectrum Act which requires the commission to “make all reasonable efforts to preserve, as of Feb. 22, 2012, the coverage area and population served of each broadcast television licensee,” it said.
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To avoid frustrating the central goal of repurposing the maximum amount of UHF band spectrum for flexible licensed and unlicensed use, “we believe it is now necessary to limit the filing and processing of modification applications that would expand broadcast television stations’ use of spectrum,” the bureau said. The bureau will process those applications that don’t increase the full-power station’s noise-limited contour or the Class A station’s protected contour in one or more directions beyond the area resulting from the station’s present parameters as represented in its authorizations, it said. The bureau also said it will consider requests for waiver of the filing limitation “when a modification application is necessary or otherwise in the public interest for technical or other reasons to maintain quality service to the public."
In the incentive auction NPRM, the FCC “expressed an intention to protect only those facilities that had been licensed or were subject to a covering license application as of Feb. 22, 2012,” an attorney for TV broadcasters said in a blog post (http://bit.ly/13Yp3rU). However, the commission acknowledged that it had the authority to provide greater protection, “an acknowledgment that gave rise to some hope that the licensed-as-of-Feb. 22 limitation might not be hard and fast,” said Fletcher Heald attorney Daniel Kirkpatrick. The notice suggests that additional protection will not be provided and it cautions construction permit holding stations that “any investment in building out such facilities now could be lost in the (very likely) event that they are not protected in the repacking,” he said.
Broadcasters most likely to be hurt by the freeze are those in more rural areas, “areas that have ample available spectrum for broadcasting and broadband, and which the FCC has said are not really the target of its spectrum incentive auction,” said Scott Flick, a Pillsbury Winthrop broadcast lawyer. Those broadcasters will have to hope the commission “is serious about considering freeze waiver requests,” he said in a blog post (http://bit.ly/14GnEmy). Because there were a number of freezes leading up to and through the DTV transition, a freeze with regard to repacking isn’t surprising, Flick said in an interview. However, the timing of this freeze “is interesting because clearly we are still in the early stages of how the spectrum auction is going to be conducted and the sooner you implement the freeze the more difficult it is for stations that have to deal with it,” he said.
If an applicant has to move to a new transmitter site and can’t get a waiver, then the station can’t move, Flick said: “But if your landlord kicks you off your existing site, now you've got a real problem.” The waiver option is important, but the FCC’s list of reasons for granting waivers is relatively short, Flick added.
The commission will grant waivers on a case-by-case basis, including “when unforeseen events, such as extreme weather events or other extraordinary circumstances, require relocation to a new tower site,” it said.