Two draft notices of proposed rulemaking involving low-power television stations have been placed on the agenda for the Commission’s upcoming June Open Meeting, and both the Low Power Television Broadcasters Association and the Advanced Television Broadcasting Alliance believe additional questions should be presented for comment and to solicit feedback from affected licensees.
Doing so, says the LPTVBA, would “ensure the continued vitality of the low power television services.”
Owing to summer recess, the FCC’s June meeting is scheduled for Thursday (6/6), and both MB Docket No. 24-147 — Political Programming and Online Public File Requirements for Low Power Television Stations — and MB Docket No. 24-148, the Amendment of the Commission’s Rules to Advance the Low Power Television, TV Translator and Class A Television Service, are to be discussed.
It is the latter matter that the LPTVBA wants the Commission to seek additional input on.
That’s because, beginning August 20, the FCC’s Media Bureau will lift its current freeze on major modification applications and permit all Class A television, low-power television, and television translator stations to file major change applications in order to change their existing channel — subject to certain limitations.
The current freeze will remain in place until further notice for all other major modifications and applications for new LPTV and TV translator stations. This, for instance, means requests to move a facility greater than 30 miles (or 48km) are not permitted and remain subject to the existing freeze.
Frank Copsidas, President/Founder of the LPTVBA, doesn’t agree with that and is urging the Commission to expand the discussion of the “30-mile rule” to ask whether this remains an appropriate limit.
“As noted in the ATBA Letter, the Commission has never articulated a policy or technical rationale for the current limitation,” Copsidas argues. “Thus, omission of such a discussion in the context of a sweeping rulemaking proceeding designed to reform the Commission’s ‘rules and policies to ensure that LPTV Service continues to flourish and serve the
public interest’ would be a mistake.”
He adds that the LPTVBA further proposes that the Commission ask, should it determine the 30-mile rule is appropriate, under what sets of circumstances might a waiver of such a limit be appropriate.
Copsidas notes that the LPTVBA has discussed with Media Bureau staff “on several occasions” that the public interest would be served by allowing relocations of stations within a Nielsen Designated Market Area irrespective of the physical mileage from one transmitter site to the other.”
The letter, filed in the FCC’s ECFS, also suggests that the Commission to revise the Draft NPRM to ask whether the maximum power levels of 3kw for VHF stations and 15kw for UHF stations remain appropriate.
“These power limits were adopted in the analog era and have not been reevaluated to account for digital operations,” he says. “The Commission should seek comment on whether digital broadcasting and other technological innovations (such as the use of beam tilting) support LPTV power increases.”
