LPTV Facing ‘Spectrum Fights’ During DTV Transition

LAS VEGAS -- Low-power TV (LPTV) broadcasters face “spectrum fights down the road” because they use “beach front property” spectrum coveted by wireless, fixed wireless and unlicensed spectrum industries, warned Keith Larson, FCC Media Bureau chief engineer, on Mon. Speaking at the Community Bcstrs. Assn. (CBA) convention here, Larson said at least some LPTV stations were disappointed that they won’t be able to “flash cut” to DTV soon.

LPTV is threatened particularly by demands for wireless spectrum after the DTV transition, Larson said, because LPTV stations -- unlike full-power broadcasters -- aren’t guaranteed a channel allocation or freedom from interference. “If wireless companies take all the channels surrendered [by broadcasters after the transition] you are in a very bleak position,” warned Larson, who was to be inducted into the CBA Hall of Fame Tues. evening: “You have to be in there pitching” in Washington.

One possibility may be allowing more LPTV stations to upgrade to Class A status, as some have already done, Larson said. Class A status keeps the stations at low power but guarantees them a channel allocation and protection from interference. But Larson warned that may again require LPTV broadcasters to convince Congress to act.

LPTV already did relatively well in the FCC’s LPTV ruling on DTV, largely because of the industry’s lobbying at the FCC, said CBA Pres. Warren Trumbly. He said LPTV got “80 percent” of what it wanted, including heading off a requirement that LPTV quickly “flash cut” to DTV service, which would mean turning off analog signals entirely and converting to DTV. Trumbly said that would be “suicidal” for LPTV, since it would lose most of its analog audience. LPTV also headed off a hard deadline for LPTV to convert to DTV in the text of the rulemaking (MB 03-185), which was released Sept. 30.

LPTV still didn’t get cable must-carry, which LPTV stations consider to be possibly more crucial for them than for many full-power broadcasters, which often get carriage without must-carry. “That’s something we'll have to continue working on,” Trumbly said.

Despite the threat of lost audience, several LPTV broadcasters expressed interest in flash cutting to DTV but were disappointed to hear that they can’t even apply to do that at least for months. Larson said he believes it will be “far sooner” than a full year before the applications can be filed at the FCC, but refused to provide a more-specific timetable. He did say that flash cut applications can be handled as a relatively simple minor change application, without even a filing fee.

The FCC decided against a proposal that flash cuts be automatically approved if LPTV stations cut power, as is typical for DTV. Larson said the FCC believes it would be “risky” to just accept the power cuts as guarantees against additional interference: “We need to check the applications to assure the interference rules aren’t violated. We are in uncharted waters.”

The DTV transition means LPTV faces “challenges we've never faced before,” Trumbly said. Because of the new competition that’s emerging, he said “we can’t continue doing what we did before.”

LPTV will have many new opportunities after the DTV transition, including multicasting, interactive TV and data services, said Jay Gonzalez, CTO of equipment vendor Technical Innovations. Among other things, all broadcasters will have to “deal with” an “IT-centric paradigm shift,” in which all program production and other processes shift to an IT base.

The good news is that this is “a very reasonable time” for LPTV to shift to digital, Gonzalez said. Although all the cost figures weren’t available, he said that an LPTV station could acquire the equipment to shift to DTV for as little as about $100,000. That’s down from estimates as high as $30 million for full-power stations to convert in the early days of DTV.

Even $100,000 would be a major stretch for many LPTV stations because of their small audiences and revenue base, Gonzalez said: “There are still probably only a few markets with enough DTV sets to justify DTV for LPTV.”