Stations in Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands Request Accelerated Repacking
Sixteen hurricane-damaged TV stations in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands want the FCC to let them accelerate their post-incentive auction repacking plans, said a letter Tuesday. The stations want to build their new facilities as they rebuild from…
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Maria, rather than have to duplicate construction to rebuild facilities for their pre-auction channel and then switch to the new one. An early switch also would allow the stations to take advantage of repacking reimbursement funds in their rebuilding process, the letter said. Most of the stations are assigned to phase three of the repacking and wouldn’t be able to switch to their reassigned channels until 2019, they said. All the stations are running on generators at reduced power and reduced operating hours, and are likely to do so for months because of the damage to power facilities in the areas affected by the storms, the outlets said. “The conditions are ripe for an early transition while stations are much more flexible, accustomed to or planning on alternate operations.” Because of the geography of the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, an early transition wouldn’t interfere with other stations, though they may also need the agency to be flexible with granting special temporary authority during the process, they said.