FCC
Public TV seeks exemption from FCC translator requirement
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The new requirement is “regulatory make-work” that “does not serve any necessary or legitimate purpose,” PBS and America’s Public Television Stations argued.
Tech
Never-ending winter hampers conversion of TV translators
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Engineers at public TV stations in the Mountain West are still coping with wintry weather as they try to complete their pieces of the national conversion of translators to new channels.
System/Policy
PBS push to preserve translator services awaits FCC decisions
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By the time the FCC’s extended filing deadline passed June 1, operators of 688 translators carrying programming of 55 PBS member stations had applied for new channels.
System/Policy
PBS, T-Mobile collaborate to save TV translators
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The wireless carrier and a team from PBS are working under tight deadlines to find new homes for public TV translators that are being displaced by the FCC’s repack of TV channels.
System/Policy
T-Mobile will foot bill for repacking public TV translators
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The agreement covers equipment, engineering, installation and legal fees.
spectrum auction
FCC turns down special protection for public TV translators in spectrum auction
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Translator operators may not be able to find new channel space after the auction is over.
FCC
Appeal to protect public TV’s translators gets little traction with FCC
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Pubcasters fear that hundreds of translators could be threatened by the spectrum auction planned for next year.
Quick Takes
FCC green-lights rules for TV spectrum auctions
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The FCC formally adopted rules today for the television spectrum auctions slated for mid-2015. Most of the provisions align with what the FCC has said leading up to today’s announcement. The commission formally declined to provide protections to low-power TV stations and TV translators. Neither facility category is eligible for protection under its current rules, the commission’s order said, and shielding them would “unduly constrain flexibility in the repacking process and undermine the likelihood of meeting the objectives for the incentive auction.” The commission will open a special filing window for LPTV and translators that provide “important services” to select new channels, and establish an special process for relocating displaced stations. The report and order also lays out a timetable for participating broadcasters to vacate their channels.
System/Policy
CPB Board hears troubling predictions for spectrum auctions and repacking
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CPB Board members got an ominous preview Monday of the corporation’s upcoming white paper about spectrum issues in public broadcasting. At a meeting at CPB’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., Harry Hawkes of Booz & Co.’s media and technology practice told board members that if the FCC goes ahead with plans to clear 120 MHz of spectrum for use by mobile devices, 110 to 130 pubcasting stations will need to shift due to repacking even if their operators don’t participate in the auction. “That means that one-third of the system could have to change channels,” noted Vincent Curren, CPB’s c.o.o. “This will likely be more disruptive than the digital transition. This will be a major undertaking for our industry over the next several years.”
CPB commissioned the white paper, due out early next year, to inform policy discussions within the system about spectrum issues. The FCC announced last week that spectrum auctions will be conducted in mid-2015; repacking of the remaining bandwidth is expected to occur soon after.