Regional Coordinators to Facilitate Post-Auction Transition for Broadcast Stations
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PUBLIC NOTICE Federal Communications Commission th News Media Information: 202-418-0500 445 12 St., S.W. Internet: www.fcc.gov Washington, D.C. 20554 TTY: 888-835-5322 DA No. 17-376 Released: April 20, 2017 INCENTIVE AUCTION TASK FORCE AND MEDIA BUREAU ANNOUNCE REGIONAL COORDINATORS TO FACILITATE POST-AUCTION TRANSITION FOR BROADCAST STATIONS MB Docket No. 16-306 GN Docket No. 12-268 The Incentive Auction Task Force and Media Bureau (the Bureau) announce the assignment of Regional Coordinators to support broadcast television stations moving to new channel assignments in the post-incentive auction transition period. The Bureau is committed to ensuring a smooth and efficient post-auction transition. To enhance its ability to closely monitor the progress of the repack and to facilitate coordination among stations, each station that will transition to a new channel has been grouped into one of 10 geographically-based regions.1 Each region has a dedicated Bureau staff member as a Regional Coordinator.2 Regional Coordinators will act as a first point of contact at the Commission for stations and, with the support of other Bureau staff and other Commission bureaus and offices, will assist in resolving issues and challenges that stations in the region encounter as a result of the transition. This Public Notice announces that in the coming days, the Regional Coordinators will contact the stations in their assigned regions by email to introduce themselves, and begin the process of coordination with stations in the region. Regional Coordinators will communicate throughout the transition period with stations regarding process, will respond to inquiries from, and otherwise work closely with stations to help facilitate the phased transition schedule and aid stations in satisfying their construction permit deadlines. As described in the recent Closing and Channel Reassignment Public Notice, 987 television stations across the country will transition to new channel assignments.3 The release of that Public Notice initiated a 39-month post-auction transition period that will end on July 13, 2020. During this period, transitioning television stations will, among other things, enter into 1 See Appendix B. The information in Appendix B is current as of the release of the Closing and Channel Reassignment PN. Incentive Auction Closing and Channel Reassignment Public Notice; Incentive Auction Closes; Reverse Auction and Forward Auction Results Announced; Final Television Band Channel Assignments Announced; Post-Auction Deadlines Announced, MB Docket No. 16-306, GN Docket No. 12-268, Public Notice, DA 17-314 (WTB Apr. 13, 2017) (Closing and Channel Reassignment Public Notice). 2 See Appendix A. 3Closing and Channel Reassignment Public Notice at 19, para. 56. Publicly available data regarding channel assignments and on the Commission’s website (https://data.fcc.gov/download/incentive-auctions/Transition_Files). Federal Communications Commission DA 17-376 contracts for the purchase and installation of new transmitting equipment, file appropriate applications for construction and operating authority, complete construction of new facilities, provide required notifications regarding the station’s termination of service on the pre-auction channel, and make the switch to broadcasting on their new channels by the applicable deadline. In most cases, eligible stations will also prepare and submit detailed estimates and invoices for reimbursement of their reasonably incurred expenses for relocating to new channels.4 On January 27, 2017, the Bureau issued a public notice5 outlining procedures for transitioning stations, including guidance on applications for relief from transition requirements that will aid stations to ensure they can continue to operate throughout the transition period.6 In order to facilitate a managed transition process, the Closing and Channel Reassignment Public Notice, provides assignments for all full power and Class A television stations transitioning to new channels to one of 10 transition phases that satisfy a set of objectives and constraints adopted in the Transition Scheduling Adoption Public Notice.7 The deadlines for each transition phase reflect an average of the estimated time required for all stations in each phase to complete their transition.8 The resulting schedule, among other things, accounts for stations with interference relationships or dependencies, facilitates the efficient use of limited construction resources, minimizes the disruption to viewers by limiting the need to rescan, and weighs the relative complexity of individual stations. Distinct from the transition phase assignments described above, stations are assigned to regions in order to better facilitate coordination. The objectives when creating regions are to make the regions geographically continuous, to group linked sets in the same region, and to have a similar number of stations in each region. One way we achieved geographically continuous regions is all stations in the same Designated Market Area (DMA) are assigned to the same region. Significantly, however, the regions do not alter or in any way impact the phase assignments or transition deadlines set forth in the Closing and Channel Reassignment PN. The regional groupings are intended to be a tool to facilitate coordination among stations facing similar localized challenges, and to enable stations in those regional groups to have access to a coordinator at the Commission who is familiar with the localized challenges. For example, the Regional Coordinator will help facilitate cooperation among neighboring stations that may confront similar challenges such as terrain or unique weather events. The regional coordination will also allow stations within a region to benefit from lessons learned by other stations transitioning in that region, including among stations within a region that are assigned to different transition phases. The Regional Coordinators will also serve as a point of contact for 4 See Closing and Channel Reassignment Public Notice at 29, paras. 84-85. 5 See Incentive Auction Task Force and Media Bureau Announces Procedures for the Post-Incentive Auction Broadcast Transition, Public Notice, 32 FCC Rcd 858 (MB 2017) (Broadcast Transition Procedures Public Notice). 6 Broadcast Transition Procedures Public Notice, 32 FCC Rcd 858, paras. 73-74; see also Incentive Auction Task Force and Media Bureau Adopt Post-Incentive Auction Transition Scheduling Plan, Public Notice, 32 FCC Rcd 890, 911-17, paras. 46-59 (MB 2017) (Transition Scheduling Adoption Public Notice). 7 See Closing and Channel Reassignment Public Notice at 20, para. 61; see also Transition Scheduling Adoption Public Notice, 32 FCC Rcd 895-902, paras. 10-28. 8 See Closing and Channel Reassignment Public Notice at 20, para. 62. 2 Federal Communications Commission DA 17-376 multichannel video programming distributors as they modify their systems to continue to carry stations in a region on new channel assignments. Figure 1 below illustrates the 10 regions. In addition, Appendix A provides the names and contact information of the Media Bureau staff who will serve as the Regional Coordinator for each region, as well the names and contact information for those Television Translators and Low Power Television (LPTV) Stations that may have questions about the post-auction transition process and the impact of this process on their station. Appendix B lists the stations in each region. Additional information can be found on the Commission’s website at www.fcc.gov/incentiveauctions/regions.9 Figure 1: U.S. Region Map For additional information regarding implementation of the regional coordination or for inquiries about the post-auction transition process (including inquiries by non-transitioning stations) contact Barbara Kreisman at 202-418-1605 or Kevin Harding at 202-418-7077. 9 Additional information available online includes a Tableau file that provides an interactive map of the regions, and a sortable csv file that lists each station’s DMA, facility id, call sign, pre-auction channel, post-auction channel, phase assignment, and linked-station set id number, if relevant. 3 Federal Communications Commission DA 17-376 APPENDIX A Regional Coordinators Regions Media Bureau Staff Representative Contact Information Central Plains Sonia Greenaway [email protected] (202) 418-1419 Florida Peninsula Kenneth Lewis [email protected] (202) 418-2622 HI/PR/USVI Nancy Murphy [email protected] (202) 418-1043 Mid-Atlantic Joyce Bernstein [email protected] (202) 418-1647 Midwest Katie Costello [email protected] (202) 418-2233 Northeast Raphael Sznajder [email protected] (202) 418-1648 Northwest Shaun Maher [email protected] (202) 418-2324 Ohio River Valley David Roberts [email protected] (202) 418-1618 Southeast Jeremy Miller [email protected] (202) 418-1507 Southwest Gary Schonman [email protected] (202) 418-1795 LPTV/TELEVISION TRANSLATOR CONTACTS: Hossein Hashemzadeh [email protected] (202) 418-1658 Melvin Collins [email protected] (202) 418-1622 GENERAL CONTACTS: Barbara Kreisman [email protected] (202) 418-1605 Kevin Harding [email protected] (202) 418-7077 Federal Communications Commission DA 17-376 APPENDIX B Regional Assignments Region Name: Point of Contact: Phone Number: 202-418-1419 Central Plains Sonia Greenaway Email: [email protected] Pre- Post- LSS DMA FacId Call Sign Auction Auction Phase ID Channel Channel Alexandria, LA 16539 WNTZ-TV 49 15 2 - Alexandria, LA 16940 KBCA 41 26 2 10 Alexandria, LA 38590 KLPA-TV 26 33 2 10 Beaumont-Port Arthur, TX 12896 KITU-TV 33 29 1 1 Beaumont-Port Arthur, TX 22589 KFDM 25 15 1 5 Beaumont-Port Arthur, TX 61214 KBTV-TV 40 27 1 - Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX 5319 KUVN-CD 47 22 3 25 Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX 16930 KLEG-CD 44 28 3 26 Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX 17037 KDFI 36 27 3 28 Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX 17433 KAZD 39 31 3 - Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX 35841 KUVN-DT 23 33 3 25 Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX 35994 KXTX-TV 40 36 3 28 Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX 42359 KTXD-TV 46 23 3 25 Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX 49326 KDTN 43 29 3 26 Dallas-Ft.