WASHINGTON, D.C. — It was deleted from the list of items scheduled for consideration at the FCC‘s July Open Meeting — its first “open” to journalists and the public since February 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its first to welcome guests at its new headquarters steps north of Union Station and just a 20-minute walk to the Hart Senate Office Building.
Why? The four Commissioners were in unison on an affirmative vote, one that removes “obsolete analog-era provisions” from its “Part 74” rules.
Until late yesterday, it was agenda item No. 5, and was teed up for a vote as whether or not the Commission should adopt an Order and Sixth Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
to amend its “Part 74” rules for low-power television and television translators “to remove
obsolete rules for analog TV operations.”
With the FCC Four all agreeing to approve the Order and sixth NPRM, a comment period will begin upon publication of the Order and NPRM in the Federal Register.
Once that appears in the Federal Government’s journal of record, the comment date will be 30 days after publication; a reply comment date is scheduled for 45 days after publication.
“In the Order, we delete or revise Commission rules that no longer have any practical effect given the completion of the LPTV/translator digital transition, or that are otherwise obsolete or irrelevant,” the FCC declared.
The Order and sixth NPRM also makes “certain ministerial changes, for example, to delete analog rules that were found in Part 74, and add definitions and other information previously adopted in rulemaking proceedings but inadvertently omitted through oversight.”
In the NPRM, the FCC seeks comment on additional amendments, including proposing to adopt rules previously applicable to analog operations for digital operations, updating geographic coordinates to the current North American Datum (NAD) standard, modifying station identification requirements, requiring LPTV stations to transmit with a virtual channel that avoids conflicts with other stations, updating the process for filing
applications with the Commission, and making certain technical modifications.
With Gray Television significantly investing in low-power TV properties, and The E.W. Scripps Co. also purchasing some LPTVs in recent months, the biggest broadcast TV companies in the U.S. now have an interest in this regulatory matter, as do members of the recently created LPTV Broadcasters Association.
The Order and Sixth NPRM can be viewed in full here: FCC-22-58A1
