According to the LPTV Spectrum Rights Organization, the existence of an LPTV item on the FCC’s October Open Meeting agenda will be a good thing no matter what happens.
The benefit: Certainty.
It will signal the ability to begin forming business plans. It will signal the ability to begin legal proceedings.
The Coalition stated, “This is good news for LPTV no matter what the decision will be simply because it will give certainty for those who have invested into the 3500 outstanding construction permits, and not knowing what to do because of the auction process. It will also give the industry time to legally respond to what it does not like about the Public Notice. The FCC, by using the words ‘mitigate the potential impact,’ ‘suspending expiration dates and construction deadlines,’ opens up the door for much needed breathing room to develop business plans for both pre and post auction. Don’t forget folks, as it currently is known, only built facilities which are displaced from 51-38 or displaced by primary stations moving into 2-36 will get to apply for a new channel. CP’s will not. But we will know more about this when the actual LPTV rule making comes out.”
The Coalition stated its dismay with FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, for lauding rural TV translators while ignoring urban LPTVs, and for ignoring the ownership diversity in the LPTV community.
According to the Commission, the low power community is being targeted for 16K mHZ of spectrum with no allowance for compensation or moving expenses. It says 1,272 up and running LPTVs are impacted, along with 535 translators, 793 LPTV/LD CPs and 50 translator CPs.
