LPTV, Translator Displacement Window Opens April 10, Say IATF, Media Bureau

translators to identify new channels, and lifted the filing freeze on displacement applications, the PN said. The freeze will go back into effect when the displacement window ends May 15. The IATF and bureau will host a webinar on the channel selection data Feb. 28, the PN said. To be eligible to file during the window, LPTV stations must be both operating and displaced by the auction, the PN said. During the window, eligible digital broadcasters will be able to request a change in transmitter site of up to 48 kilometers from their existing community of license. Eligible analog broadcasters may propose a change in antenna location of up to 16.1 km. Full-power TV stations may begin filing applications for digital-to-digital replacement translators April 10. Opening the displacement window doesn’t “preclude the preservation of a vacant television channel,” a footnote said. Microsoft and advocates for unlicensed spectrum have been pushing the FCC to preserve vacant channels for unlicensed use in the TV bands. The notice also contains guidance for LPTV channel selection that references and uses language from a Microsoft filing posted Tuesday in docket 16-306. “Given the public interest in promoting the efficient use of spectrum,” LPTV and translators outside of the top 40 designated market areas are encouraged to pick new channels “that are adjacent to channels in use by other broadcast television stations to help provide flexibility in the future,” the PN said. There will likely be vacant channels available in many areas of the country even after the window, it said.