On April 20, 2017, Entravision Communications exercised its right to enter into a channel-sharing agreement with a full-power TV station in Washington, D.C. that allowed a UHF facility to relocate from Hagerstown, Md., to Northwest D.C.
This “relocation” came via a Channel-Sharing Agreement forged following the FCC’s incentive auction, with the UHF signal signing off for good on Sept. 30, 2017.
With the move, Entravision asked the FCC to modify this station’s television market. Comcast objected. A ruling from the Media Bureau came on Monday (3/12).
On Nov. 7, 2017, five weeks after WJAL-68 officially began its channel-sharing arrangement with TEGNA-owned WUSA-9 in Washington, Entravision sought a modification of the TV market for WJAL.
Doing so would make WJAL a “must carry” for Comcast and Cox Communications systems in Charles, St. Mary’s, Prince George’s, Montgomery and Calvert Counties in Maryland; and the Virginia counties of Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, Prince William, Stafford and Spotsylvania.
In the Incentive Auction Report and Order, the Commission recognized that “relocations made to implement a channel sharing arrangement may have [impacts] on a station’s MVPD carriage rights.”
In the case of WJAL, Entravision seeks to add communities to its market which it can now reach from its new location; WJAL’s new city of license is Silver Spring, Md.
Comcast opposes Entravision’s petition both on the grounds that the company “failed to demonstrate a nexus with the Comcast communities” and that the petition “represents an
improper use of the incentive auction channel sharing process.”
NCTA filed comments, but they were late-filed and therefore dismissed by the Media Bureau.
Thus, the Media Bureau centered on Comcast’s opposition — and disagreed with the MVPD giant.
“Because Comcast and Cox carry WUSA, along with every other full-power television station in the area, we believe that WJAL would be at a competitive disadvantage if these cable operators did not also carry WJAL in the communities,” the Media Bureau declared.
Since its move to Silver Spring, WJAL is now airing LATV programming, which targets bilingual, bicultural Hispanic consumers.
