Channel Substitution Wave Expected to Continue
The flood of full-power TV channel substitution requests into the FCC Media Bureau since November showed pent-up demand that's likely to continue, broadcasters and broadcast attorneys told us. As channel swap requests continue, more low-power stations could find themselves facing being bumped from their channels, said Smithwick & Belendiuk broadcast attorney Mark Denbo, who represents low-power broadcaster King Kong. “I think there’s going to be more and more,” Denbo said. “With ATSC 3.0, more full powers want to get on UHF.”
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The Media Bureau has received “approximately 35 rulemaking petitions” for channel substitutions since the freeze was lifted, an FCC spokesperson said. Most request a move from VHF to UHF. All but four have proceeded to the NPRM stage, and about two-thirds of the petitions led to orders, the spokesperson said. The remaining third are in a comment period, waiting for international coordination, or will have an order shortly, the spokesperson said. The four petitions that haven’t received NPRMs have technical problems that need to be resolved, the spokesperson said. The FCC didn’t say whether it rejected any petitions. Broadcast attorneys said the Media Bureau was more likely to not act on such requests than to reject them outright.
The ongoing stream of petitions stems from modification freezes that go back to the DTV transition and continued through the broadcast incentive auction, said Lerman Senter broadcast attorney David Burns. “The table of allotments has been pretty much frozen since 2004,” said Burns. UHF spectrum is more desirable because it has less interference and is better for the mobile uses broadcasters are hoping to get from ATSC 3.0, Burns said. “There was a lot of pent-up demand for UHF,” said Wiley broadcast attorney Ari Meltzer.
“A VHF signal has a longer wavelength than a UHF signal,” said Gray’s Robert Folliard, senior vice president-government relations and distribution. “A viewer needs a larger antenna to receive a VHF signal than a UHF signal.” Most antennas sold today are smaller and intended to be installed indoors, making it harder to receive a VHF signal, he said. When the FCC lifted its freeze, “we immediately filed for new channels” for “stations that had been complaining for several years about VHF signal issues.”
Gray and Sinclair appear to be the most prolific filers seeking channel substitutions, and Folliard said his company is likely to make more requests. Sinclair didn’t comment. Burns and Meltzer said they believe the rush to change channels could be starting to slow, as the number of stations that want to make the change but haven’t yet done so dwindles. “We filed our most urgent problems first, but, when you are in 94 markets, new problems continue to emerge, and we have a few more ... likely [to] get filed in the next few weeks,” said Folliard. A tower industry official said he doesn’t see any indication that work is starting to slow down.
The majority of channel swap requests appear to receive no objections or comments. Some markets have gotten pushback from an existing low-power station that occupies the channel that a full-power is seeking. The TVStudy software used by full-power stations to check for channel conflicts doesn’t include LPTV stations, Denbo said. His client King Kong Broadcasting said its channel KGNG-LD Las Vegas was intentionally targeted by Scripps over a personal dispute. “There are plenty of channels for Scripps,” Denbo said. Scripps didn’t comment.
King Kong also argues its station provides a public service through programming targeted at diverse communities and so shouldn’t be bumped by a full power. “From its inception, low power television service has been secondary to full power service, and low power television stations must correct interference to, and accept interference from, full power television stations,” said KTVL Licensee, a broadcaster affiliated with Sinclair Broadcast. KTVL Licensee was responding to a similar opposition filing from theDove Media seeking to preserve its station KDSO-LD Medford, Oregon. “This exemplary, unique service to Medford is threatened by the proposed allotment,” said theDove’s filing. There’s no other UHF channel for theDove, the broadcaster said. Both theDove and King Kong also suggest the Media Bureau designate their channel as a new full-power vacant channel they could then apply for. “KTVL should explore other alternatives to address the reception problems cited in its Petition before the Commission acts to displace a station like KDSO.”