FCC Nightlight DTV Plan Gets Unanimous Backing
The FCC proposal to let stations continue to broadcast analog educational programs about DTV, plus emergency information, for 30 days after the transition (CD Dec 24 p1) drew widespread support. All 16 comments on the agency’s notice supported it or said filers were seeking or likely to seek to run such operations after Feb. 17. (See separate report in this issue.) The NAB and others sought an FCC order to let participants get sponsorship for the programming. Public broadcasters asked for money to support the operations, while state broadcast groups noted that their national organization wants commission funds for phone banks.
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The FCC shouldn’t interpret the congressional legislation allowing nightlight stations as preventing them from striking deals with pay-TV providers, retailers, cities and others to help pay for the $3,500 to $15,000 per station in transmission costs, said the NAB and Association for Maximum Service TV. Maintenance and “oversight costs” could push that figure up to $20,000, predicted a filing from several dozen state broadcaster groups. MSTV and NAB said the regulator “should promote policies that encourage, not preclude or discourage, such marketplace collaboration to ensure each Designated Market Area, where technically feasible” will have a financially-viable service. The FCC’s list of stations deemed able to participate -- in 136 of the 210 TV markets (CD Dec 30 p8) -- can be expanded, they added.
Interference standards should be relaxed so more stations can run educational programming, said the two groups and broadcast engineering consultant Cohen, Dippell and Everist. Using a 170 kilometer separation standard for spacing between stations on the same channel will let more broadcasters take part, along with other changes, said the MSTV and NAB filing. “We recognize that employing this standard may allow more interference to occur than the Commission’s current proposal. Nonetheless, the potential for interference at the outer edges of a station’s service area must be balanced against the need for DTV and emergency information throughout a station’s entire market.” The FCC should accept waiver requests to allow up to 2 percent of new interference to digital operations in “unique circumstances,” Cohen, Dippell said. In all other cases, the agency should permit up to 0.5 percent new interference, versus the proposed 0.1 percent for stations not deemed by the notice as eligible to participate, it added.
Because the nightlight program “places an immense financial burden on stations,” the commission should look at ways to provide money, said the Association of Public TV Stations. It cited an estimate from the Public Broadcasting Service that public TV stations spend $3 million monthly to power analog transmissions. Acknowledging there’s little time to implement the Analog Nightlight Act, the group nonetheless asked the FCC to extend the deadline for replies, due Thursday, by “even a few more days” because of the unusually short 8-day comment period that fell over the New Year holiday: “We are concerned that the Commission may adopt rules without providing for any meaningful comment.”
About a dozen states lack DTV call centers or don’t have one under consideration or planned, often because of limited money, said a filing by broadcast groups from California, Colorado, Massachusetts, New York and others. It noted that those groups, through the National Alliance of State Broadcaster Associations, are working with the NAB, NCTA, TV networks, FCC and transition team of President-elect Barack Obama on efforts to “complement the FCC’s own call center.” The state broadcaster group has asked for FCC funding for phone banks, which cost $15,000 to $40,000 for three months of operation, the filing said. The FCC should extend the hours of its own call center, operating weekdays 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. EST, and open it on the weekend, said Cohen, Dippell. “The United States covers 5 time zones and eastern time is not convenient for most of the country,” it said. Clients have told the firm that there’s “wide spread confusion” among terrestrial TV viewers in “outlying areas,” it added.
The FCC should keep in mind that low-power broadcasters can’t use analog channel spectrum for digital operations until nightlight operations end, said the Community Broadcasters Association. It “urges the Commission not to pressure full power stations that prefer not to participate” to “change their mind and participate, as long as there is at least one full power station in each DMA” slated to provide the service. The Association of Public-Safety Communication Officials said it supported the FCC’s exclusion of channels to be used for public safety radio communications from nightlight operations.