Most Top-30 DMA Pubcasters Want to Hold on to Spectrum

Public TV stations are weighing several options concerning the upcoming broadcast incentive auction, we found after asking all noncommercial educational (NCE) broadcasters in the top 30 designated market areas about their plans. Most don’t wish to relinquish their spectrum, while others haven’t ruled out any options and are still monitoring developments at the FCC, they said. For some stations, channel sharing isn’t feasible, but interest may be piqued if the channel-sharing trial between Los Angeles TV stations KLCS, a public-TV station, and KJLA is successful. The test is backed by CTIA.

The desire to remain on-air and continue the public service mission mandated by Congress is strong among public TV broadcasters, according to respondents to an informal Communications Daily survey. Some local and statewide networks with more than one station are exploring whether the auction presents an opportunity to carry out their mission more efficiently. All public broadcasters expect to be financially affected by the repacking process and are doubtful of the reach of the $1.7 billion relocation fund.

Station executives said the absence of a final framework for the auction makes it hard to pin down a strategy. Some bids may not be accepted, and the possibility of being relocated is worrisome, they said. Stations near the Canadian border also are concerned, not wanting to lose viewers in Canada after the repacking of TV frequencies following the first-of-its-kind incentive auction.

The auction has a lot of unknowns, and that worries some NCE stations, they said. Those broadcasters may not participate unless they know more about what they stand to gain by taking part, respondents said. Commercial broadcasters have similar concerns, they said in response to Communications Daily’s last survey on the incentive auction (CD June 4 p4). “There are no promises,” said Western Reserve Public Media (WRPM) President Trina Cutter. “You don’t know if your bid is going to be accepted and you don’t know if there’s going to be a channel sharing arrangement.” The idea of giving up a station and then moving and increasing power complicates the situation more, she said.

Some May Sell

The top two markets in Ohio have an overlapping coverage area and stations may decide to relinquish some spectrum. Western Reserve, which serves the Cleveland-Akron-Canton market and the Youngstown market in Ohio, may have an opportunity to better use its spectrum, said Cutter. The overlapping coverage area of its two stations -- WEAO Akron and WNEO Youngstown -- “presents an opportunity that maybe not all the public television stations have,” she said. “It’s kind of a unique situation.” There’s a transmitter site located very close to the WRPM administrative offices, she said. “If we combined our station at one location, we could pretty much duplicate the exact same broadcast coverage reach that we do with two stations together.”

Western Reserve believes that maintaining a universal public service is paramount, said Cutter. But “if there was a way to do that and also help out the broadband community and make more efficient use of the spectrum in our area, we'd be happy to try to make that work,” she said. Cutter said the stations are more concerned about using the spectrum to the fullest extent than about financial gain. Having two stations overlapping each other may be the best way to use the spectrum, she said: “If it’s not, there could be a way to use this [auction] as an opportunity to fix that.” There are many unknowns about this auction, she added. “It’s hard to be strategic about it.” As the largest public TV service in Ohio, Western Reserve reaches more than 5 million people and operates on a $5 million annual budget, Cutter said.

Some public stations in areas like Plattsburgh and Buffalo, N.Y., have viewers in Canada who don’t have other public broadcasting stations in their area. Mountain Lake PBS hasn’t made a decision yet, and its WCFE-TV Plattsburgh has viewers in Ontario and Quebec, which must be taken into account, said a spokeswoman. “We have big concerns about it because we're a border station.” If there is any repacking of the spectrum, “our audience on the other side of the border is going to be impacted by that just because so few channels are available to us and to the Canadian broadcasters,” she said. “We haven’t closed off any options.” WCFE covers a very rural area, where a lot of people aren’t able to get cable, she said. “We're really concerned about being able to maintain our on-air broadcasting presence for the public there that doesn’t have another option."

Like WCFE, WNED-TV in Buffalo is a border station with an audience that includes viewers in Ontario. “We are concerned but haven’t made any decisions,” a WNED spokeswoman said.

Stations in the Boston, Cleveland, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh DMAs haven’t firmed up any decisions yet, their spokesmen said. WGBH Boston is “in the process of gathering and analyzing information and weighing all the considerations,” a spokeswoman said. PBS SoCal also is tracking the developments closely and weighing carefully the options and implications for the communities served by its KOCE-TV Huntington Beach, which serves Los Angeles; KLCS, taking part in the channel-sharing pilot; and KCVR San Bernardino, a spokeswoman said. KLCS will host KJLA’s content, and the stations’ primary and multicast content will be combined (CD Jan 29 p4).

Won’t Participate

Public TV stations in New York and Seattle don’t intend to participate. It’s very unlikely that the New York Public Media stations -- WNET-TV Newark N.J., and WLIW Garden City, N.Y., -- will decide to go dark, said General Counsel Bob Feinberg. “For WNET or WLIW to make a decision to literally go dark is something that is very, very unlikely.” There are competing interests and “we haven’t made any determinations yet,” he said. Like many stations, WNET and WLIW want to stay true to their mission of maintaining the public service through operations, he said. “Anything that would involve our voluntarily relinquishing even a portion of our spectrum is something that we need to take quite seriously.”

There are lots of different potential ways any spectrum sale might work out, even though there are no plans to divest WNET or WLIW of their spectrum, Feinberg said. “We're always vigilant about our economics, but there’s no pressing need or impetus for us to pursue such an extreme option.” It’s possible that by participating in these auctions, some stations could reap significant financial benefits, “and when you're a noncommercial broadcaster and you depend upon philanthropic contributions, and funding … that is subject to sequestration, the possibility of generating significant income is also something that you need to take very seriously,” he said.

The basic mission of Maryland Public Television is to get an over-the-air signal virtually statewide, said President Larry Unger. MPT has six stations and includes viewers in Baltimore, Annapolis and Hagerstown. “While we're not going to discount anything, it would have to be kind of overwhelming for us to get around that” commitment, said Unger. But “that doesn’t mean we're not going to look at offers,” he said. “We're here to get that signal out so if we sell our bandwidth that could be a problem for us."

MPT is interested in the channel-sharing experiment between KLCS and KJLA, Unger said. “But I don’t know whether that would really work for MPT.” With six stations, “do you have to find six different partners to make that work?” he asked. Engineering difficulties go along with the option of moving to a VHF channel, he said. Getting the signal out to various parts of the state is “critical,” he said: “We feel it’s our signal that binds all of Maryland together.”

KCTS-TV Seattle doesn’t intend to participate, a spokeswoman said.

Relocation Worries

The NCE executives said they're bracing themselves for more information on the repacking of stations and the impact of that process on their stations. Located in the upper end of the TV spectrum at channels 45 and 49, the Western Reserve Public Media stations are in a prime spot, Cutter said. “If the auction goes through, we're pretty sure we're at risk to be repacked.” It’s going to be hard enough to repack one station, she said. “But repacking two stations at the same time just seems … very overwhelming."

If the FCC finalizes its plans for repacking, there may be an impact on the facilities and transmitters of WNET and WLIW, Feinberg said. WLIW has a tower in Plainview, N.Y., and WNET shares an antenna atop the Empire State Building, he said. Changes that may occur are meant to be transparent to the viewer, he said. “The good news for the viewer is you're not going to have to find your public television station all over again, but I think it may well have a significant financial impact on the stations,” he said. Hopefully, the $1.75 billion relocation fund will be sufficient to cover the costs incurred by the repacking, he added.

Although MPT doesn’t have any translators, it expects to be affected by the repacking process, Unger said. “It will probably mean the replacement of certain antennas.” Unger is concerned about the reach of the relocation fund and the timing of the entire auction and post-auction process, he said. The Association of Public Television Stations has said a $3 billion fund would be more efficient for commercial and NCE stations (CD March 8/12 p7).

MPT, WNET and other networks have been working with the FCC, APTS and other groups to help in their planning and decisionmaking, the executives said. The Public Broadcasting Service is working closely with APTS, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and member stations to inform the auction rulemaking process, a PBS spokeswoman said. “Public broadcasters are advocating for the protection of TV translators, the prevention of any new unserved areas through the auction and full advance payment for all station costs incurred in channel relocations.”