The companies led by low-power TV entrepreneur Frank Copsidas have filed an ex-parte with the FCC in support of an “expert filing” from major low-power TV licensee HC2 Broadcasting about the ownership group’s meeting with members of Chairman Brendan Carr’s staff.
The topic of discussion: 5G Broadcast capabilities and realities for LPTV stations.
A Media Bureau docket (No. 25-168) is presently allowing the Commission to consider the authorization of permissive use of 5G Broadcast as a transmission standard for low-power television stations. For Copsidas and others in the LPTV space, a transition to ATSC 3.0 technology is too costly and disadvantageous for such properties. Alternatively, 5G Broadcast offers public safety benefits and technological upgrades that are best-served by community-focused “local power” outlets championed by Copsidas and the LPTV Broadcasters Association, of which he is the founder.
In an ex parte filing submitted Saturday to the Commission, Copsidas in his role as CEO of XGN Global LLC and X1 Mobile LLC, and as Managing Member/CEO of Tyche Media LLC, formally supported the August 25 ex parte presentation filed by counsel for HC2 Broadcasting Holdings Inc.
This allowed Copsidas to again urge the Commission to issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking authorizing the 5G Broadcast transmission standard for LPTV stations on a voluntary basis.
For Copsidas, there’s money in a ruling, as Tyche’s WCRD-LD in Boston is under special experimental authority from the FCC to broadcast in 5G Broadcast in order to field test the broadcast core, receivers, and first-responder offerings associated with the technological leap.
While the pleading cycle in the MB Docket associated with the HC2-drafted proposal for 5G Broadcast closed on July 1, 2025, the Commission has not progressed on a possible Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on the matter. Thus, Copsidas wants one — now.
“The record is sufficient to proceed,” he argues. “Remaining implementation details belong in a NPRM, not in further delay on the petition.”
And, to ease the process, he asks the Commission to address both HC2’s petition and his petition in a single NPRM that “addresses and satisfies the objections the National Association of Broadcasters raised to HC2’s request.”
While stations such as WCRD-LD and HC2’s WODP-LD in Fort Wayne, Ind., are operating experimental 5G Broadcast operations minus any interference complaints, Copsidas notes that X1 Mobile LLC will release a CPE receiver box at the upcoming 2026 IBC Show in Amsterdam on September 11. This is capable of receiving 5G Broadcast in the United States.
Furthermore, he says a United States handset will become available in the first quarter of 2027. “An NPRM in 2026 would align the rules with that device cycle so LPTV stations may lawfully feed receivers the public will actually use,” he says. “The argument that there is no receive ecosystem is stale.”
LPTV stations would choose ATSC 1.0, ATSC 3.0, or 5G Broadcast, Copsidas emphasizes.
