JUNE 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 FCC Proposes to Eliminate FM Translator Filing Main Studio Rule Window Will Be The FCC has proposed to eliminate the “main studio rule” in a July 26 – August 2 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in Docket 17-106. The Commission implemented this rule nearly 80 years ago to facilitate communica - The FCC has announced that the first promised fil - tion between members of the local public and broadcast stations, ing window for AM stations to file applications for new and to encourage broadcaster participation in community activities. fill-in FM translator stations will open on July 26 and The Commission has tentatively concluded that with today’s wide - close on August 2. This will be an auction filing window spread availability of electronic communications, these contacts can limited to the licensees and permittees of Class C and be maintained without the physical presence of a local broadcast Class D AM stations that did not participate in the two studio in the community. 2016 filing windows for AM stations to request extraor - Another function of the main studio has been to serve as the dinary modifications for FM translators to reposition required site for the station’s public inspection file, providing a local them to qualify as fill-in translator stations. venue for community members to review the contents of the public After the filing window closes, mutually exclusive file. However, the relevance of this convenience factor for the pub - applicants will have an opportunity to resolve their con - lic is also diminishing with the Commission’s establishment of an flicts via settlements or technical amendments. Shortly Internet website for public files so that they can be viewed online thereafter, the Commission will open a second filing anywhere there is an Internet connection. Television stations and window in which all AM stations that did not partici - larger major market radio stations presently are required to main - pate in the first window or the 2016 windows will be eli - tain their public files on the FCC-hosted website, and all other radio gible to file applications for fill-in translator stations. stations will also be required to do so as of March 1, 2018. This window will also be followed by a period for Section 73.1125(a) of the Commission’s rules presently requires resolving conflicts by way of settlements or technical each AM, FM, full power television and Class A TV station to main - amendments. Applications from both windows that tain a facility identified as its “main studio.” The main studio must remain in conflict with other applications after the sec ond be located (1) within the station’s community of license, (2) within continued on page 3 the principal community contour of any AM, FM or TV broadcast station licensed to the station’s community of license, or (3) within IN THIS ISSUE continued on page 3 Media Rules Reviewed for Repacking LPTV...................................... 2 Modernization Non-Reimbursable Stations..................... 3 Deadlines To Watch............................ 4-5 The FCC has initiated a general review of its regulations 2017 Regulatory Fees.............................. 6 applicable to media entities, including broadcasters and multi- No Rebroadcast Consent........................ 8 channel video programming distributors. The announced objective of this proceeding is to eliminate or modify regula - For more information about or help with any of tions that are outdated, unnecessary or unduly burdensome. The Commission invites public comment as to what rules the items reported in ANTENNA , please contact: should be modified or repealed. The agency is especially interested to learn about how to provide regulatory relief to small businesses. Commenters are asked to specifically iden - tify the rules that they believe should be modified or eliminat - 1200 Seventeenth St. NW ed and explain why. Washington, DC 20036 The Public Notice launching this proceeding included a Tel: 202.663.8167 comprehensive list of the parts of the FCC’s rules open to Fax: 202.663.8007 review. It appears to include most of the rules that affect E-mail: [email protected] broadcasting. The list includes the following Parts of Title 47 of continued on page 2 Displacement Procedures Set for LPTV During Repack The FCC’s Incentive Auction Taskforce and the Media day filing window will open for any other reassigned or Bureau have released a Public Notice to announce the proce - band changing full power or Class A station to file a modifi - dures governing the displacement of low power television cation application. and television translator stations (collectively in this article, Upon the close of that second filing window, the televi - “LPTV”) during the post-auction transition and repacking of sion band database should be stable enough to permit dis - stations in the reduced television band – channels 2 through placed LPTV stations to find safe open channels for their use 36. LPTV stations that are displaced by new wireless servic - and to apply for them. The Commission will publish a list of es on channels 38 through 51 or by the repacking of full such available channels and announce the dates for a 30-day power and Class A stations on channels 2 through 36 will Special Displacement Filing Window for displaced LPTV sta - have a special filing window for submitting their displace - tions to submit their applications at least 60 days before the ment applications after full power and Class A stations have window opens. The Taskforce estimates that this had an opportunity to apply for their preferred post-auction Displacement Window Public Notice will be released approx - facilities. This filing window will probably occur sometime imately seven to eight months after April 13 – the release date next winter. of the Public Notice about the closing of the auction. That On April 13, 2017, the Commission officially announced would put the Displacement Window Public Notice in the closing of the Incentive Auction and released the new November or December, and the opening of the Special allotment plan for full power and Class A television stations Displacement Filing Window in January or February 2018. that will remain on the air. LPTV stations presently on chan - To be eligible for the Special Displacement Filing nels 2-36 can refer to this plan to determine whether they Window, an LPTV station must be both “operating” and have been displaced by it. It can be accessed online at “displaced.” “Operating” LPTV stations are those that had http://data.fcc.gov/download/incentive-auctions/ a license or an application for a license on file with the FCC Transition_Files/. as of April 13, 2017. To be “displaced,” an LPTV station Full power and Class A stations that have been reas - must be licensed on the spectrum that is being allocated signed to new channels must file construction permit appli - away from television broadcasting on channels 38-51, or be cations by July 12, 2017. Shortly thereafter, the Media Bureau subject to displacement by a full power or Class A station will announce the schedules for two 30-day filing windows repacked on channels 2-36. Stations that do not qualify to for full power and Class A stations to seek alternate channels participate in this filing window may file applications after and/or expanded facilities. The first of these will be a win - the window closes. dow for certain groups of stations with “priority.” Shortly Displaced LPTV stations that intend to share a channel after the close of the priority filing window, the second 30- continued on page 7 Media Rules Reviewed for Modernization continued from page 1 the Code of Federal Regulations: 2010. Notably absent from this list – without reference or Part 1: Practice and Procedure explanation – is Part 11 (Emergency Alert System). Part 15: Radio Frequency Devices Commissioner Mignon Clyburn dissented from the Part 17: Construction, Marking and Lighting of Antenna adoption of this Public Notice and issued a separate state - Structures ment. She said that she supports the concept of objective review of the agency’s rules to ensure that they continue to Part 25: Satellite Communications serve the public interest. She cited a provision of the Part 73: Radio [and Television] Broadcast Services Communications Act that instructs the FCC to “determine Part 74: Experimental Radio, Auxiliary, Special Broadcast whether any such regulation is no longer necessary in the and Other Program Distributional Services public interest, as the result of meaningful economic com - Part 76: Multichannel Video and Cable Television Service petition between providers of such service.” She asserted Part 78: Cable Television Relay Service. that this Public Notice turns that mandate “on its head, by ignoring the basic question of whether the regulations sub - The Commission explained that because it is required ject to this review remain in the public interest.” She by statute to review its media ownership rules (Sections observed instead that an underlying premise of this pro - 73.3555 and 73.658) every four years, those regulations are ceeding seems to be a preconception, without in-depth excluded from consideration in this proceeding. Part 79 review, that many of the existing rules should be modified (Accessibility of Video Programming) is also excluded from or eliminated. She sees the word “modernization” in the this proceeding because many of those rules were recently title of this proceeding as a code word for “deregulation.” adopted under complex requirements of the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of Comments are due in this proceeding, Docket 17-105, by July 5.