Updated at 5:25pm Eastern
As more Americans gain knowledge of NEXTGEN TV, the new digital broadcast TV standard powered by ATSC 3.0, two advantages for the consumer are coming in to play. First, and foremost, are “low-cost and high-quality” content sources. Second, and perhaps lesser known, are the data services tied to the new standard.
Edge Spectrum had been gathering low-power TV stations over the last three years in anticipation of NEXTGEN TV’s coming riches for the industry. Now, its Chairman/CEO — who also heads ARK Multicasting — is handing two more LPTVs to a different licensee, making it three in a week’s time.
We now know why it’s happening.
Vern Fotheringham, through licensee “CTB Spectrum Services Four,” is transferring control of K34QV-D in Junction, Tex., and K24OI-D in Balmorhea, Tex., to Spectrum Evolution.
Junction is the Kimble County seat, and is on the western edge of Texas Hill Country, to the northwest of San Antonio. Travel 250 miles to the west via I-10, and you’ll reach the small town of Balmorhea.
Given the power of ATSC 3.0 on the “Internet of Things,” these LPTVs could some day bring data-driven communication to devices in these remote locales of Texas. And, with the FCC’s approval, they’ll be licensed to an entity led by North Texas-based Greg Herman.
Herman for the last nine years has made it a point that, in his view, “Broadcasters are Broadband.” In fact, that’s the name of a 2011 clinic Spectrum Evolution brought to light in the years before the now-concluded spectrum repack.
The terms of the deal initially suggested financial concerns on the part of the Fotheringham-led seller. With no written agreement, the FCC Form 345 filing posted Monday (8/24) says the transfer is happening “in partial satisfaction of a $1 million debt of the current permittee to the proposed assignee.”
However, RBR+TVBR later confirmed from Fotheringham that “these sales are between and among affiliated and collaborating licensees who are cooperating in our efforts to create a truly nationwide ‘broadcast internet’ network leveraging ATSC 3.0 technology and LPTV licenses.”
The transfer of control request for the Texas properties is dated August 20, a day after RBR+TVBR reported on the divestment of W24DX-D, licensed to the small town of Iowa, La., due east of Lake Charles by Fotheringham-led “CTB Spectrum Services Two LLC.”
That LPTV sold for $35,000.
Fotheringham is a panelist on a Sept. 1 webinar focused on enabling the broadcast internet hosted by Sinclair Broadcast Group’s ONE Media 3.0.
