Public TV Associations, NAB Worry About Post-Auction Order on Repacking, Uninterrupted Service
The Association of Public Television Stations (APTS), the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Public Broadcasting Service are analyzing what steps to pursue at the FCC to address its decision not to restrict incentive auction bids based on potential loss of TV service, said an APTS executive. APTS, CPB and PBS bemoaned the FCC’s rejection of the proposed restriction in its order outlining the framework of the auction. NAB also argued that the order doesn’t ensure that commercial and public TV stations won’t have to pay out of pocket for forced relocations. The order was released last week (CD June 3 p1).
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The public TV organizations expressed “profound disappointment” in a news release Friday (http://bit.ly/TnA2Yk) that the FCC rejected their request “that no community find itself without free access” to public TV service after the auction. The commission’s rejection of the policy “is a grievous error that risks breaking faith with the nation’s commitment to universal service for noncommercial educational television,” they said.
The FCC will offer a license relinquishment bid option “regardless of whether it may lead to a loss of service,” the order said. “We disagree that we should reject a bid if it would leave a DMA unserved by any NCE stations eligible to receive a community service grant from the CPB."
The public TV groups want to prevent “worst possible scenarios,” said Lonna Thompson, APTS general counsel. Some public TV stations in the top-30 designated market areas may participate in the auction, despite having one public TV station in that market, she said. APTS asked the FCC not to accept bids from the last remaining public station in a market, she said. “We'd hate for a bid to be accepted by one of those stations that would cause that market to go dark.” The public TV organizations claimed that having an algorithm or measure in the auction designed to ensure continued service in all markets would be a simple process for the FCC, she said.
Some noncommercial education stations probably will participate in the auction, but none of them will be critical to the maintenance of universal service, said an attorney who represents some NCEs. Those stations will most likely be smaller, weaker stations that are experiencing financial difficulty, the attorney said. The attorney also expressed disappointment that the FCC declined the request to restrict bids in markets with one public station. The commission “just brushed those considerations aside,” the attorney said.
NAB stressed the need for the commission to properly use the $1.75 billion reimbursement fund for repacking, said Executive Vice President Rick Kaplan. The FCC “should do everything in its power to limit repacking to that fund, and if it exceeds the fund, the new licensees should be responsible for any excess costs,” he said in an email. Other flaws in the framework pervert the balance between freeing up spectrum and protecting broadcasters that don’t participate in the auction, he said. The agency’s “bizarre” commitment to its TVStudy methodology “makes no sense and has created additional mistrust between the FCC and broadcasters,” he said. NAB President Gordon Smith urged the commission to hold nonparticipants harmless (CD June 6 p14).
The repacking process remains a big concern, the NCE attorney said. The big concern is whether a station will end up on a channel that replicates its coverage area and viewership, the attorney said. It’s also unclear whether the federal government will “pay all of the costs of whatever has to happen to make the channel change happen,” and whether the FCC is giving enough time for these changes to take place, the attorney added.
APTS, CPB and PBS commended the FCC for complying with other requests for advance payments for 90 percent of public TV stations’ repacking, allowing translators to continue operation, and other provisions. But if some areas do go dark, “we don’t know how to reverse that,” APTS’ Thompson said.