Spectrum Repurposing Draws Two Broadcasters’ Interest
Two smaller chains of TV station owners sought a “market-based approach” to repurpose radio waves, as almost all other broadcaster replies discussed the CEA and CTIA’s spectrum-saving proposal. “A Commission-sanctioned, market-based approach for reallocating unused and underutilized broadcast spectrum deserves serious consideration,” by the FCC, said Communications Corp. of America and Granite Broadcasting. They cited comments by the top FCC staffer reviewing TV spectrum that a voluntary approach is preferred (CD Jan 19 p10). Both CEA and CTIA have backed such a tack.
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The two companies own a total of about 24 full-power TV stations, their filing said, http://xrl.us/bgtzkf. That’s less than 2 percent of all U.S. full-service commercial stations. A lawyer for CCA and Granite declined further comment. Owners of many more stations have said spectrum repurposing could leave them unable to start newer services like mobile DTV and continue to have high-quality terrestrial HD picture quality. NAB is reviewing the two broadcasters’ filing, a spokesman said.
“Granite’s position makes business and political sense for broadcasters,” said analyst Paul Gallant of Washington Research Group. “Having the FCC create a secondary market for spectrum gives stations one more way to monetize their bandwidth. And as a practical matter, opposing voluntary reallocation might push the FCC, or perhaps even Congress, toward a more compulsory approach.”
A voluntary tack is “the logical outgrowth of often conflicting comments submitted in this proceeding by broadcasters, the wireless industry, and consumer electronics manufacturers,” said the two broadcasters. “Such an approach could ensure that spectrum would be put to its highest valued use while maintaining sufficient spectrum for broadcasters to continue their critical role as spectrum-efficient, locally-based providers of news, weather, and entertainment video programming to the public.” To implement it, “the Commission need not start from scratch with a lengthy, complicated, or potentially divisive rule making,” CCA and Granite continued. “Instead, the Commission could simply extend its ‘Secondary Markets’ policy to television broadcast spectrum.” The broadcasters pointed to FCC rules letting educational broadcast and broadband radio service licensees lease excess capacity to others who use the spectrum for wireless voice and data.
Other broadcast filings panned a proposal by the CEA and CTIA for industry to move to a lower power model where each station uses multiple towers scattered throughout a coverage area. That was expected (CD Jan 28 p10). “While distributed transmission system (DTS) technology may be used primarily as a fill-in service in certain circumstances, it is not practical or feasible as a sole vehicle for delivering digital television,” said the Association for Maximum Service Television and NAB. “Although theoretically attractive, the CTIA/CEA proposal would, in reality, undermine the localized services provided by broadcasters.” Recent comments by the Justice Department and NTIA on spectrum don’t “address other vital competitive issues, such as the effective and efficient competition that new broadcast mobile video will offer to wireless providers’ video services,” MSTV and NAB said, http://xrl.us/bgtzm3.
The commission ought to complete a spectrum inventory, investigate claims of a shortage and take four other steps before considering relocating TV radio waves, said Gray Television, McGraw-Hill, Media General, Meredith Corp., Tribune and five other broadcasters. The companies own 146 TV stations in total, their filing said, http://xrl.us/bgtzns. “The Commission, after collecting such data, will have no reasonable basis for taking spectrum from television broadcasters and reallocating it to wireless broadband.”