LPTV Broadcasters Want More Flexibility on Station Moves

Low-power TV broadcasters want the FCC to make it easier to switch channels and move markets, and have received indications the agency could show more flexibility toward their service in 2022, said LPTV groups, attorneys and broadcasters in interviews. “The best thing would be to have another LPTV window,” said Advanced Television Broadcasting Alliance Executive Director Lee Miller. “I believe that is something the FCC would like to see happen further down the road.”

The ATBA and the LPTV Broadcasters Association told their members the Media Bureau indicated it could be more open to some LPTV shifts after a Jan. 10 deadline for straggler stations that received extensions of the summer cutoff to construct digital facilities. LPTV industry officials said they’re hopeful for a new LPTV application window or a lift of the freeze on LPTV major modifications but called the timing of such move unclear. The FCC didn’t comment. “Now that we’re through the digital transition, we’re trying to create a more sustainable environment for LPTV,” said Wiley broadcast attorney Ari Meltzer, who represents ATBA.

LPTV broadcasters generally want to change channels or locations to move into markets more favorable to their stations, allowing them to reach a larger audience or to be in the same market as other stations owned by the same entity, said broadcasters and attorneys. “There are many reasons to move,” Miller said. FCC rules currently limit station moves to 30 miles, and channel changes require major modification applications, which are under a freeze for LPTV. “We’ve received a number of requests from members that feel they want to do that. There isn’t any allowance for that at the moment,” said Michael Lee, executive director of the LPTV Broadcasters Association, which was founded by broadcaster Frank Copsidas over the summer.

The agency was seen as clamping down further on LPTVs when, in the fall, it started adding conditions to LPTV construction permits explicitly requiring continuous operation for 12 months “unless the licensee rebuts the presumption that the authorized facilities were temporarily constructed.” LPTV broadcaster Digital Networks-Southeast filed a petition for reconsideration, saying that language was outside the bureau’s authority and violated the Administrative Procedure Act.

The language was intended to combat a practice of LPTV broadcasters constructing temporary facilities and applying for a series of 30-mile moves or “hops” to get around the limits on changing markets, said Miller: “Stations would try to make some hops that were questionable.” Media Bureau officials told ATBA the policy in the condition language isn’t new, and explicitly adding the language to permits brings the Video Division into line with what the Audio Division has long done, Miller said.

Opening a window that would allow new LPTV stations to be built in the markets where broadcasters are trying to “hop” would relieve the pressure that spawned the practice, Miller said. “A lot of the procedures that have been in place for low power were done decades ago and haven’t been updated,” said Lee. “Somebody arbitrarily dreamt up 30 miles.” The LPTV Broadcasters Association wants the move limit increased to 75 miles, Lee said in an email to members.

LPTV broadcasters also see positives for 2022 in proposed legislation to create a Class A window (see 2112210058), said Miller and Lee. Being able to upgrade stations to Class A status is the only way LPTV broadcasters can protect themselves if there's ever another incentive auction for broadcast spectrum, said Cocola Broadcasting CEO Gary Cocola in an interview. The bill is narrow and would likely apply only a few rural LPTV stations, but “it’s a good start,” said Lee. “Permanence for all LPTV, that’s everyone’s dream,” Miller said.