Little Broadcaster Analog Cutoff Hardship Seen by FCC Officials
Industry gripes on expanded DTV education rules for many affiliates of ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC that are stopping analog service between April 16 and June 11 (CD March 19 p8) are belied because few sought FCC exemptions, said agency officials and public interest groups. Broadcast lawyers and officials called onerous mandates that the affiliates open help centers, staff phone lines and take other steps if they want to stop analog early and no other Big Four affiliate will serve 90 percent of their analog viewers. Seeking approval for early termination because of “exigent circumstances” are KXMB-TV Bismarck, N.D., KTVE El Dorado, Ark., KARD West Monroe, La., and KAUZ-TV Wichita Falls, Texas, said an FCC spokesman.
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The waivers would let the stations stop analog service in the coming months without following the expanded rules laid out in a Friday commission order called burdensome by many in the broadcast industry. The order called for waiver seekers to “demonstrate extreme technical or financial difficulties by filing a showing of extraordinary exigency circumstances.” It’s letting 127 noncommercial stations and affiliates of networks other than ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC stop analog broadcasts before the June 12 nationwide full-power analog cutoff, said the spokesman. The agency is reviewing requests of 31 Big Four affiliates seeking to stop service before June 12 but to follow the stepped-up education rules, he said.
Another 524 Big Four affiliates will wait until June 12 to go all-digital, our research found. That day, a total of 125 public stations have said they'll stop analog service, or 37 percent of the total, according to a spokeswoman for the Association of Public Television Stations. Another 58 outlets, 17 percent of all public stations, have indicated to the FCC they intend to go all-digital between March 27 and June 11, she said.
“If there was an economic hardship to complying with those rules, we made accommodations,” said Commissioner Robert McDowell. “We left the door open for stations to apply for waivers” and only several did, he added. “The general rule is that those who needed or wanted to go early were able to go early.” The FCC gave broadcasters seeking to stop analog service early the chance to do so Feb. 17, when Congress previously required all full-power stations go digital, and 36 percent of full-power outlets did so, McDowell added.
“We tried to strike a balance between flexibility for the stations and to make sure consumers weren’t left in the dark without news and information” in analog, said the commission spokesman. “Obviously stations were able to manage it before” by taking similar steps Feb. 17, he added. Those working to educate consumers about DTV agreed the burden isn’t onerous.
“The fact that such a low number of broadcasters have tried to opt out of their obligations show that these are reasonable obligations and good for all the broadcasters,” said Joel Kelsey, an analyst at Consumers Union. “Asking broadcasters that plan to transition early to fulfill a number of public obligations is perfectly reasonable.” The increased education efforts that the FCC requires of some Big Four stations is “a small quid pro quo” for their use of broadcast spectrum, Benton Foundation Chairman Charles Benton, a member of a committee advising the commission on the DTV transition, said. “If only four are asking for waivers, stop complaining already and just do it.”
Friday’s order was the last major one from the FCC on carrying out the DTV Delay Act, commission and industry officials said. Though the Big Four affiliates’ requests to stop analog service before June 12 are pending at the FCC, the stations should follow the DTV education conditions, the commission spokesman said. They'll hear from the commission only if the requests are rejected, he said.