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Media Bureau Freezes Digital Companion Channel Applications, Effective Now

There's an immediate freeze on applications for digital companion channels for low-power television and TV translators, said an FCC Media Bureau public notice Thursday. The move is intended to “facilitate the special window for displaced LPTV and TV translator stations…

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and to protect the opportunity for LPTV and TV translator stations displaced by the repacking of the television bands to obtain a new channel,” the PN said. Pending applications will be processed, and the freeze will be lifted after the displacement window for LPTV and translators is complete, the PN said. “The decision to impose this freeze is procedural in nature, and therefore is not subject to the notice and comment and effective date requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act." The freeze is effective immediately because a delay “would be impractical, unnecessary, and contrary to the public interest because it would undercut the purposes of the freeze,” the PN said.