LPTV Groups, NAB at Odds on Class A Bill

An NAB-backed Senate bill to open a window to allow low-power television stations to upgrade to better-protected Class A status is opposed by some LPTV groups, but lawmakers are looking to move it this year, said legislators and LPTV industry officials in interviews.

Low Power Protection Act (S-3405) lead sponsors Sens. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., remain committed to passing the measure this year but are short on specifics on the path forward. “I hope” to pass it this year, perhaps as part of a larger legislative vehicle, said Blunt, who’s retiring at the end of this Congress. “My staff’s working on” options for advancing the measure, he said in a brief interview. Wyden likewise “hopes to push the bill over the finish line this year,” an aide said.

The bill’s eligibility requirements and market size limits will keep it from applying to all but the most rural LPTV stations, said Jack Mills, president of the National Television Association (formerly the National Translator Association). “If you consider markets of no more than 95K households, the number of stations that could qualify are very low,” said Mills. “We’re a member, but we’re not always aligned” with NAB, said Frank Copsidas, president of the Low Power Television Association (LPTVA).

The Low Power Protection Act would require the FCC to open a new filing window to allow LPTV stations in markets of 95,000 households or fewer to apply to become Class A stations, as long as they also carry three hours per week of locally produced programming. Class A stations enjoy many of the interference protections of full-power stations -- unlike a standard LPTV station, they aren’t considered a secondary service and aren’t automatically displaced by full-power TV stations. That’s important to LPTV owners looking to protect their investment in their stations, said Copsidas.

The eligibility requirements and market limits will prevent the legislation from benefiting most stations, Copsidas and Mills said. The LPTVA told the Senate Commerce Committee the bill would benefit fewer than 100 stations out of the over 2,000 in the U.S. “We don’t think there should be a stipulation on market size,” Mills said. Copsidas said the bill is primarily intended to benefit the stations owned by the St. Joseph, Missouri-based broadcaster News Press & Gazette (NPG). “It’s private legislation,” said Copsidas. NPG didn’t comment. The bill “would afford some low power television stations, particularly ones operating in small markets and rural communities, the opportunity to enjoy overdue interference protections that support their long-term future,” NAB said.

Copsidas also opposes the bill’s use of Nielsen-determined designated market areas to define what a station’s market is. Though DMAs have long been used in various FCC rules, Copsidas said the agency should instead use a metric from the OMB metropolitan and micropolitan statistical (MSA) areas. “The Nielsen Designated Market Area designations have little to do with reality,” said the LPTVA’s letter to Senate Commerce.

LPTV stations are more valuable than they've ever been because they’re necessary to provide the spectrum coverage that ATSC 3.0 broadcasters need to offer their spectrum for applications like datacasting, said Lee Miller, president of the Advanced Television Broadcasting Alliance, which supports the LPTV Protection Act. The bill is “an important first step” toward recognizing the “significant contributions” of LPTV stations, Miller said. As currently written, the bill will hurt the religious programming and diverse broadcasting that are dependent on LPTV, said Copsidas: “The stuff the full powers wouldn’t touch for anything.”