Low-Power TV Faces Challenges in Seeking Government Help
The low-power TV industry, with a station shutting down almost daily, renewed a push to seek government help (CD March 3/08 p1) to make the digital transition and gain cable distribution, Community Broadcasters Association officials said. Meeting recently with all FCC members to present a survey showing most of the U.S.’s 2,822 low-power stations are minority and/or women-owned, they sought to revive a scuttled rulemaking and get action on a 2001 petition. Commissioners told us they want to try to help, but full- power broadcast executives said the low-power industry faces challenges in getting what it seeks.
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“It is dire right now,” said Greg Herman, CBA vice president of technology. The federal government “left us hanging” because the industry lacks money to go digital as all full-power stations will do by June 12, he said: “We are caught in this strange place between analog and digital.” The industry is “still here despite all the obstacles,” said Executive Director Amy Brown. Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein told her that the FCC and NTIA hurt the industry by not coordinating earlier on ensuring all digital converter boxes pass through analog signals. “They have verbally said that they screwed up,” she said. The “debacle” hurt her industry, Brown said.
Brown drew some optimism from commitments by all FCC members, made in late February meetings, to examine a 2001 petition for expedited rulemaking seeking similar program exclusivity rights as full-power outlets. The petition from Venture Technologies sought network non-duplication and syndicated exclusivity rules for low-power stations, as the agency said in 1988 was warranted. Such rules would mean cable operators and others would have to carry the 59 percent of low-power stations affiliated with a network in their markets instead of importing signals from full-power stations with the same affiliations, Brown and Herman said.
Acting Chairman Michael Copps agreed to discuss with his colleagues whether and how to proceed with a rulemaking that would pave the way for the 554 Class A stations to demand cable carriage, Brown said. “They never had that opportunity under Chairman Martin.” The item stalled in 2008 when all FCC members besides then-Chairman Kevin Martin voted to make it a notice of inquiry, leading to the last-minute cancellation of a vote on it at the monthly meeting in Nashville and in part for Martin to not travel there (CD Oct 15 p1). “We just asked Chairman Copps if you can grease the wheels during your tenure” for the item, Brown said.
Copps is “meeting with them and talking with them” to see “if we can help,” he said Thursday, declining to elaborate. For Commissioner Robert McDowell, “their issues will be something I will be discussing with my colleagues in the near future,” he said last week. “Where we go from here will really depend on our conversations with each other.” Adelstein couldn’t be reached to comment.
CBA also wrote President Barack Obama and Julius Genachowski, his choice for permanent FCC chairman, saying results of the group’s recent survey show any efforts to help low-power broadcasters will aid women, minorities and small businesses. “Our stations have been sadly neglected by all branches of the federal government,” wrote CBA President Kyle Reeves. “Stations have repeatedly been suppressed by regulators who have been unduly influenced by well-financed lobbying that our industry can never hope to match.”
Regardless of others’ lobbying, low-power stations face hurdles in getting the DTV money and FCC rules they seek, said several lawyers and executives. “They have a severely steep mountain to climb” to get money for the digital transition, because there’s no legislation on tap that could be used to do that, said a lobbyist. At the FCC, Copps seems unlikely to move on many controversial items while he deals with the full-power DTV transition and waits for Genachowski to take over, said several lawyers. “There’s plenty of work for them to do to get rid of things that are more run of the mill” than what the CBA seeks, said an attorney. “I think Copps’ instinct is to not resolve major policy issues during his tenure but to leave that to Julius,” although what’s defined as a major policy issue isn’t entirely clear, the lawyer added.
Low-power broadcasters ought to focus on switching to DTV before June 12 and not “look around for parties to blame,” said a CEA spokesman. “Industry has bent over backwards really to assist consumers who are served by low- power TV stations” after several “11th hour” requests from them for more passthrough box models and for full-power stations to tell their viewers that LPTV wasn’t switching, he added. The NCTA continues to oppose the extension of must- carry rights to low-power stations, said a spokesman. He declined to comment on the other things sought by the CBA. The NAB continues to take no stance on that carriage issue, said a spokesman, declining further comment.
Low-power stations already have the ability to “flash- cut” to DTV by ceasing analog operations and starting digital transmissions on the same channel, said Allbritton Communications General Counsel Jerald Fritz. It owns full- power stations, a low-power station and a translator. “Whether they're going to get some money, it’s up in the air -- it’s another unintended byproduct of this massive shift” to DTV, he said of CBA’s bid for financial assistance. To get in-market network exclusivity, low-power stations might want to try to look at their affiliation agreements, since they often deal with such rights, said Fritz. “I just don’t see that that’s a big industry-wide issue, but a case-by-case issue that the commission may want to deal with.”