Media Investment


FCC settles with Videohouse LPTV ahead of broadcast spectrum auction


Details

Michelle Clancy

| 07 May 2016

| 07 May 2016




The FCC’s incentive spectrum auction has cleared another hurdle: the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit has accepted the US TV regulator’s settlement in Videohouse et al's challenge to proceedings.



fccVideohouse, Fifth Street Enterprises and WMTM had sued over their low-power TV (LPTV) stations' exclusion from the spectrum auction, which begins on 31 May. They had requested a stay of the auction start date so that its eligibility could be considered.

The FCC said that “while the court expressed its expectation that allowing Latina to participate will not cause the auction to be delayed, granting Videohouse’s request for a stay or provisional participation will cause substantial delay and resulting harm to the public.”

Videohouse apparently agreed to financial recompense for being excluded – terms were not revealed.

“We’re gratified that that petitioners have withdrawn their challenge," an FCC spokesman said. "In taking the opportunity to settle this matter out of court, the commission avoids the unnecessary expenditure of resources on further litigation.”

The commission is gearing up for an incentive auction of unused analogue TV spectrum, left over from the digital TV transition. The hope is to free up more spectrum for 4G and advanced wireless services, like mobile video, while the FCC is set to implement a spectrum incentive auction framework. Thus, it will be a two-sided auction for the spectrum in an effort to pay broadcasters a fair value for their assets before selling them to the highest-bidding mobile carriers.

However, those broadcasters choosing not to participate will have their spectrum 'repacked' into other bands to protect their signals from neighbouring interference and ensure uninterrupted TV service. The FCC last autumn proposed setting aside up to two UHF channels in every US TV market for Wi-Fi and other unlicensed wireless services. This so-called ‘vacant channel’ effort takes valuable real estate away from LPTVs looking to find new homes after the agency’s repacking this year, broadcasters have argued. Some have chosen to circumvent the issue by participating in the auction, but the FCC hasn’t been supportive of the effort.

The FCC last week also unveiled its initial clearing target for the spectrum auction, and it is at the top of the charts at 126MHz – meaning the auction could bring in as much as nine figures for broadcast stations.

“The initial clearing target announced is the highest possible clearing target and associated band plan for which the provisional assignment satisfies the optimisation objectives and the near-nationwide standard for impairments,” the FCC said.