FCC Members Consider Approving Waivers for Truck-Stop TV
A proposed digital TV service to operate at more than 200 truck stops is becoming closer to reality, as FCC members may consider afresh approving a batch of waivers to allow for the service, agency and industry officials said Tuesday. Action on the waivers had been stalled in past months after they were circulated by Kevin Martin on his last workday as chairman (CD Jan 27 p4). In recent weeks commissioners are thought to have been eyeing the waivers and may eventually decide to approve them, said agency and industry officials. The service would deliver via low-power microwave TV transmitters local programming, weather reports and news at the rest stops.
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The waivers would let the Flying J chain of truck stops offer the service, to be sold by subsidiary Clarity Media. Commissioner Robert McDowell supports the concept, and has for some time, said agency officials. It may be among the items approved on acting Chairman Michael Copps’ so-called consensus agenda, one official said. The item hasn’t been approved and it’s not clear if a vote will be held soon, officials said. An FCC spokesman declined to comment.
The item will take into account broadcasters’ concerns about the potential for the video service to interfere with TV stations’ electronic newsgathering operations, said an agency official. That may not satisfy the industry, the person said. The waivers circulated by Martin would let Clarity Media use the broadcast auxiliary service or spectrum near it.
Broadcaster officials said the industry continues to be concerned about the item. “We reiterate once more our concerns over the interference potential over this proposal and reinforce our opposition,” said an NAB spokesman. Wireless company MetroPCS said in a Friday letter to the regulator it too still is worried about interference from “harmful out-of-band emissions” from Clarity’s operations. MetroPCS paid more than $1.4 billion for advanced wireless spectrum in a 2006 FCC auction and said “the public interest will not be served if harmful interference occurs to AWS-1 operations as a result of a grant of Clarity’s waiver.”
The FCC should wait until it has five members to consider the waivers, which should only be granted through a rulemaking, said David Donovan, president of the Association for Maximum Service TV. “This is one of those decisions that can simply pop up and sneak by and it certainly deserves a full look by a new administration because of the precedent of allowing spectrum reallocation by waiver,” he said. “There is a concern that they're going to interfere with the AWS folks, and it’s a concern that the commission hasn’t even looked at.”
Clarity can start the service at all of Flying J’s more than 200 truck stops within six months of getting FCC approval, said a spokesman. Rollout of the standard definition service isn’t impacted by Flying J’s bankruptcy filing in December, he said. “After four years of working through all these aspects we really hope it gets approved now.”