Initially, the FCC’s spectrum analysis in preparation for the television incentive auction had more of a role for low-power television stations post-auction. At least one LPTV owner is wondering what changed.
LPTV was indeed given a lot of attention and careful consideration, including, being recommended to be part of any incentive auction, says Mike Gravino, director of the LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition. He’s now asking what happened between 2010 and 2011 when LPTV was removed from auction plans and later “demoted” to secondary status. {lock}
“The auction is not over yet” and LPTV and translator licensees and permittees have their Right of Displacement, he tells readers in a research note.
“They have the right to go find another channel they would like to provide EAS services for, and then pay only small fees, and get to air in most cases almost anything they want, as much or as little as they want,” he states.
The Spectrum Analysis looked at how 7,000 LPTV and translator licenses and permits could be part of the auction, repack, channel sharing, and flexible use. Now, with over 9,400 licenses and permits, the LPTV industry is in a good place, according to Gravino.
“The prices for spectrum are going up all around us, so at some point it will be our turn to cash out so that a major player can monetize the spectrum. But for now, we just got to figure out how to pay for our potential displacement moves, and for those spiffy new and expensive ATSC 3.0 production and transmission chains.”
