February 2017
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FEBRUARY 2017 AAntenna TM A N U P D A T E O N C O M M U N I C A T I O N S L A W & I S S U E S Plan Adopted for Correspondence From Post-Auction Transition Public No Longer Schedule Required in Public File The FCC’s Media Bureau has adopted a plan to govern the The FCC has voted to eliminate the requirement schedule for repacking stations during the post-Incentive for commercial broadcasters to keep copies of letters Auction transition in the television band. The transition is set to and emails from the public in their local public inspec - happen over a 39-month period following the conclusion of tion files. This amendment to the agency’s rules was Auction 1000 in which the spectrum presently allocated for tele - adopted in a Report and Order in Docket 16-161. vision channels 38 through 51 is being sold to the providers of wireless services. Television stations on those channels that will Section 73.3526(e)(9) of the Commission’s rules remain on the air will, in most cases, be required to relocate to a currently mandates that commercial stations must new frequency below channel 37. Many stations currently on retain in their public files “[a]ll written comments and channels 2 to 36 may also need to modify their facilities in order suggestions received from the public regarding opera - to accommodate the stations moving down from the higher tion of the station unless the letter writer has request - channels. The Bureau proposed the plan and released it for pub - ed that the letter not be made public or the licensee lic comment last September. The plan establishes a methodolo - believes the letter should be excluded from public gy with priorities and objectives for conducting the modification inspection because of the nature of its content.” This of a majority of the stations in the country over three years’ time obligation was first imposed on broadcasters in 1973 in what the Commission hopes will be as smooth a transition as under the theory that it would help members of the possible. The Bureau adopted the plan essentially as proposed, community to determine the nature of feedback being with some minor clarifications. received by the station and assess whether their own continued on page 6 views were shared by the public at large. Application Procedures for The Commission has concluded that changes in TV Repack Announced continued on page 3 IN THIS ISSUE The FCC’s Media Bureau has announced the procedures for applications that television stations must file to participate in the post-Incentive Auction repacking of the television band. As of this writing, the forward auction portion of Stage 4 of the KIdvid on Multicast Channel................... 3 Incentive Auction continues. However, bidding has already Deadlines To Watch............................ 4-5 produced enough anticipated revenue to satisfy the Rule Elimination..................................... 5 Commission’s minimum requirements for selling the spec - LPTV Companion Channels.................... 7 trum. This benchmark was achieved on January 18. This Current Legislation................................ 8 means that the final stage rule has been satisfied and that the auction will conclude when the bidding ends in this stage. For more information about or help with any of In due course, the Bureau will release a Public Notice announcing that the auction has closed and setting out the the items reported in ANTENNA , please contact: new national assignment table for television stations (the “Closing Public Notice”). Stations reassigned to new channels and band changing stations (that is, stations moving to the high or low VHF bands) will have 90 days from the release 1200 Seventeenth St. NW date of the Closing Public Notice in which to file construction Washington, DC 20036 permit applications for the new facilities assigned to them. Tel: 202.663.8167 Stations filing applications during the 90-day window will Fax: 202.663.8007 be permitted to apply to expand their coverage contours E-mail: [email protected] beyond those in the facilities assigned to them in the Closing continued on page 2 Application Procedures for TV Repack Announced continued from page 1 Public Notice. A reassigned station may propose to extend displaced. All other reassigned and band changing sta - its coverage contour if the proposed facilities: tions may file applications in the second window. (1) are necessary to achieve the coverage contour spec - Applications for expanded facilities must meet the ified in the Closing Public Notice or to address loss of cov - standard criteria to be minor-change applications. erage area resulting from its post-auction channel assign - Applications for alternate channels will be considered ment; major-change applications. Band changing stations may (2) will not extend a full power station’s noise limited not apply for channels outside of their post-auction bands. contour or a Class A station’s protected contour by more Applications filed in either of the priority windows than one percent in any direction; and will be deemed as having been filed on the last day of the (3) will not cause new interference beyond 0.5 percent window and will not be protected from applications filed to the technical parameters assigned to any other station in later in the same window. Mutually exclusive applicants the Closing Public Notice. will be given a 90-day period in which to resolve the con - flict, either by technical solution or by settlement. A band changing station may propose facilities with a larger contour as long as it will not cause new interference Reassigned stations and band changing stations may beyond the 0.5 percent threshold to any other station. request one extension of the construction permit for post- These stations are not limited to the one-percent contour auction facilities for up to 180 days. This request is to be increase restriction imposed on other stations. filed not less than 90 days before the construction deadline and must demonstrate that the delay is due to circum - Applicants hoping for expedited service in processing stances that were unforeseeable or beyond the station’s their applications can expect results within 10 business control. Regardless of the status of a station’s post-auction days if the application: facilities, it will not be permitted to operate on its pre-auction (1) does not propose to expand the station’s coverage channel beyond the phase completion date for the phase to beyond that assigned in the Closing Public Notice; which it has been assigned, absent a Special Temporary (2) proposes facilities that would serve at least 95% of Authorization (“STA”). If this results in a gap in the sta - the population that would be served by the facilities tion’s operations, it may be able to rely on the use of an assigned in the Closing Public Notice; and STA on a temporary channel or auxiliary facilities. All such requests will be evaluated in terms of their potential (3) is timely filed within the 90-day filing window. impact on the overall transition process. In any event, no Reassigned stations and band changing stations that station will be allowed to operate on its pre-auction chan - determine they are unable to construct facilities consistent nel after the end of the 39-month transaction period. with the technical parameters specified in the Closing Stations in transition to a new channel will be required Public Notice, including within the permissible variations to inform their viewers of the changes. During the last 30 described above, or for other reasons are unable to file their days of operation on the pre-auction channel, stations must applications within the 90-day filing window may request air either 60 seconds of on-air consumer education PSAs or a waiver of the filing deadline. The Bureau says that such 60 seconds of crawls per day. Certification of compliance requests are more likely to succeed if they include a with this requirement must be placed in the station’s demonstration that there are extraordinary technical or online public file. Stations changing channels must also legal obstacles beyond the station’s control that necessitate provide notice to all multichannel video programming dis - the extension. Even if an extension of the filing deadline is tributors that carry the station and that will continue to be granted, the station will be expected to complete construc - obligated to carry it. tion on time in its assigned phase. (See the accompanying story about the Transition Schedule for an explanation of Stations that are relinquishing their spectrum rights construction phases.) completely must also notify their viewers by way of at least one PSA and one crawl in every quarter of every day for 30 Following the processing of the applications submitted days prior to the date on which operations cease. during the 90-day filing window, the Bureau will open two more 30-day filing windows for stations to apply for alter - A station that plans to share spectrum with a host sta - nate channels or expanded facilities. The first of these tion must file a construction permit application no later “priority” windows will be open for applications from (1) than 60 days prior to its deadline to cease operating on its reassigned stations and band changing stations that are pre-auction channel – which will be no later than 120 days unable to construct the facilities specified for them in the after receiving its share of auction proceeds. The sharee’s Closing Public Notice; (2) any reassigned station, band application must specify the same facilities as authorized changing station, or non-reassigned station entitled to pro - for the sharer station.