LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition Wants To Be at Table for 600 MHz Transition
The LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition offered its own concerns and said “repacking ‘all’ broadcasters, both those eligible for repacking protection, and those that are not, into a smaller portion of the UHF and VHF bands after the close of the…
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incentive auction, will present unprecedented logistical AND financial challenges to our industry.” The comments came in a letter to the FCC, noting the repacking could start in less than a year. The coalition complained that low-power TV stations and translators will have to move with no compensation. “Our impacts will range from $500 to $900 million at a minimum just to move,” the group said, using an industrywide figure. “The damages over the past four years of regulatory overhang and non-eligibility in the auction have devastated our balance sheets and pocket books, and has ruined many a retirement plan. Our industry is determined not to let that happen to us in any new legislation or rulemaking.” The coalition said it must be “at the table” as transition planning evolves. “Unless our industry is at the table for the transition planning, we will go to court and Congress to intervene,” the group said. “We know our status; we know what the rulemaking says. But for too long the FCC has neglected its obligations to the owners of the spectrum to make sure they are getting the best they can from it.” The letter was filed in docket 12-268.