LPTV Advocacy Group Pleads To FCC For DMA to MSA Shift

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With the passage of the Low Power Protection Act, the LPTV Broadcasters Association, led by acting Executive Director Michael Lee and founded by longtime entrepreneur “SuperFrank” Copsidas, was hardly pleased. In its view, the exclusion of dozens and dozens of LPTV facilities resulted from the legislation.


Now, in a somewhat unusual move, the LPTVA is “respectfully requesting” the FCC Media Bureau to implement a change that’s actually quite significant.

It is the belief of the LPTV Broadcasters Association that Designated Market Areas, or DMAs, “should be defined in the same method as cell carriers have for decades from the Office of Management and Budget — MSAs.”

A Metropolitan Statistical Area is delineated by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget  as having at least one urbanized area with a minimum population of 50,000. This differs from a DMA, the geographic area where residents can receive the same local TV and radio stations.

And, it has served as a flashpoint for Copsidas and his group, which on February 27 wrote to the FCC about how it hopes the Media Bureau “will make changes” to the Low Power Protection Act before the rules are released.

With Congressional passage and the signing into law of the Act by President Biden, it is unclear how such changes could occur.

Still, the LPTV Broadcasters Association wants it known that the FCC, in its view, “was given the power by Congress to make this sensible change which is based on real numbers, not Crayons coloring in a map.”

The idea of considering an alternative to a Nielsen-defined DMA at this stage may at least bring the notion to greater attention, thus prompting others to consider such a change.

“MSAs and Rural Service Areas [RSAs] have been utilized by the Commission for more than 30 years in cellular licensing and provide accepted and proven methodology of designating areas by relying on government statistics, not a private company [Nielsen] with an agenda,” the LPTBA asserts.


RBR+TVBR OBSERVATION: Does the LPTV Broadcasters Association present a strong argument to the FCC regarding DMAs vs. MSAs? It’s a novel idea — classifying broadcast TV markets in a manner that in no way takes into account a signal contour. While that would be a big shift for the Commission, and perhaps complicate the entire broadcast TV industry (namely full-power commercial and noncommercial stations, MVPDs and vMVPDs and both satellite-based TV service providers), the key issue here may be timing. The Act was signed into law. What can the Media Bureau do now? It can open a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and start the process of rethinking the language in the law. But, it can’t change what’s been passed. Can it?