The FCC should perform a cost-benefit analysis on including low-power TV stations in the reverse auction, said company Free Access & Broadcast Telemedia in an ex parte filing Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1qf9siz). “Allowing LPTV into the auction is the seamless way to clear the maximum amount of spectrum expeditiously,” and will lessen the burden on the FCC to relocate stations after the incentive auction, the filing said. “After repacking full service and Class A TV stations, there is a looming shortage of relocation opportunities expected for LPTV in the 600 MHz band,” said the ex parte. The FCC should include such an analysis in its upcoming incentive auction report & order, or at least in the LPTV NPRM proposed for issue after the report and order, the filing said. Including LPTV in the auction would minimize “the harmful unfunded private mandate thrust upon thousands of legitimate, bona fide licensees,” said Free Access. It said the FCC should “consider the most free-market and inclusionary approach to treating all broadcast licensees equitably by allowing LPTV and translators in the auction."

ONE Media, created by Sinclair and Coherent Logix, will build a “Next Generation Broadcast Platform” that offers wireless access to “premium video content” without a data cap, said ONE Media in a news release Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1hvpfjT). The platform will “harmonize television broadcasting with LTE-based mobile infrastructure” and will be used on TVs in the home, over Wi-Fi on mobile devices, or over mobile broadband, said ONE Media. The “Open Network Enabled broadcast/broadband converged Media platform” will extend 3GPP LTE standards “to accommodate existing high power/tall tower broadcast infrastructure” and “eliminate the technical limitations of a conventional mobile TV standard to penetrate mobile devices,” it said. The platform can be built and demonstrated within 12 months, said ONE Media CEO Tommy Eng. The platform is intended to “align the business interests of various parties” to facilitate the Advanced Television Systems Committee 3.0 standardization process,” said ONE Media. “The challenge of meeting broadcaster needs through the current ‘Next Generation’ (ATSC 3.0) activity within the ATSC organization is difficult due to there being little business alignment between broadcast consumer electronics (CE), and other wireless industries,” it said. “A standards development organization is not a suitable forum in which to align business interests."

The FCC should consider the incentive auction’s effect on low-power TV stations and translators at every stage of the auction process, said the LPTV group Advanced Television Broadcasting Alliance in an ex parte filing Monday (http://bit.ly/1fN2wEV). Though the Media Bureau has said it will recommend that an NPRM on the auction’s effects on LPTV be released after the auction report and order, that’s not soon enough, said ATBA. “If the FCC resolves all other auction issues before considering the treatment of LPTV and translators, some of the best options may have already been foreclosed,” said the filing. “The FCC does not have authority from Congress to simply dismantle the LPTV and translator industries or to achieve the same result by conducting the auction without consideration of the impact on these vital local services.” The FCC should be “an honest broker” in the incentive auction and allow the market to determine how much spectrum is needed rather than pressing broadcasters to participate, said ATBA. The commission shouldn’t care “how much spectrum is relinquished and re-sold, or even whether the auction closes at all in the reverse and forward auctions,” said ATBA. The FCC’s “clearly stated preference for repurposing as much spectrum as possible” is troubling because the FCC will be running the auction, ATBA said. The group also opposes the band plan proposed by the FCC because it emphasizes spectrum repurposing, the filing says. The commission should also allow flexible use for displaced LPTV and translator licensees, and issue a “time-out” on LPTV construction obligations until a reasonable period of time after the auction and repacking, the filing said. “No one could rationally dispute the futility of undertaking any LPTV construction when the FCC has taken the position that any or all facilities could be displaced at some time in the future,” said ATBA.

The FCC Media Bureau dismissed Guaranty Broadcasting Company’s petition for reconsideration of the commission’s grant of Alex Media’s application for a new FM station at Belle Rose, Louisiana. Guaranty hasn’t met the burden of showing either a material error in the FCC’s original order, or raising additional facts, “not known or existing at the time of the petitioner’s last opportunity to present such matters,” the bureau said in a letter to attorneys for Alex Media (http://fcc.us/1fNkXsU). The petition merely repeats arguments raised in Guaranty’s informal objection, it said.

The FCC should “think long and hard” about adopting any repacking plan that would cost more than the $1.75 billion set aside to reimburse repacked broadcasters, said Commissioner Ajit Pai in a speech Monday at the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters Convention (http://fcc.us/1njcPAn). “If broadcasters that stay in business are repacked and are required to pay some of their relocation costs, can we say that the incentive auction is truly voluntary?” Pai asked. The commission should ensure that non-participating broadcasters are “held harmless,” and make it simple for broadcasters to channel-share with the goal of encouraging them to participate in the auction, he said. “Channel sharing can allow broadcasters to stay in business while still receiving a cash infusion that can be used to improve their services or facilities,” he said. Keeping the repacking cost under the $1.75 billion mark is one of several ways Pai said the FCC could improve its relationship with broadcasters. “Every segment of the industry we regulate should have confidence that the commission will give them a fair hearing, and none should be under the impression that the FCC is out to get them.” Pai said it isn’t the commission’s role to urge broadcasters into the over-the-top video marketplace, a reference to Chairman Tom Wheeler’s speech at the National Association of Broadcasters show last month (CD April 9 p1). “For all of the talk of over-the-top programming, it’s still over-the-air programming that draws the largest crowds,” Pai said. Another way to help broadcasters would be to “modernize” the commission’s media ownership rules and eliminate the prohibition against newspaper-radio cross-ownership, he said. “The commission has signaled an openness to getting rid of this anachronism,” he said. “The FCC has no evidence at all justifying our newspaper-radio cross-ownership prohibition -- and nobody even bothers trying anymore.” The AM revitalization proposal could also be a way for the FCC to help broadcasting, and enjoys broad support, Pai said. “There are many issues at the FCC that are controversial. AM radio isn’t one of them.” The FCC should move forward with an FM translator window for AM broadcasters, Pai said. The commissioner said he will hold meetings with stakeholders this summer to collect more ideas for improving the AM band. “Our decisions should reflect a consistent regulatory philosophy instead of appearing to help or harm a particular segment of the industry,” Pai said.

Broadcasters should always allow the FCC access for inspection to avoid fines, a broadcast attorney said. Pillsbury lawyer Christine Reilly referenced the $89,200 fine proposed by the FCC to Class A station WHPA Philadelphia (CD April 30 p13). The language used by the FCC in this particular notice of apparent liability “leaves no doubt that the commission was not happy with the licensee, particularly with what the FCC believed was blatant disregard for its authority,” she said in a blog post (http://bit.ly/1apzXs4). “The obvious lesson learned here is that if the FCC comes knocking at your door, let them in.”

The FCC Media Bureau seeks comment on a series of NPRMs on FM channel allotments. The bureau’s Audio Division seeks comment on a proposal from Bryan Broadcasting to substitute Channel 274A for Channel 267A at Centerville, Texas, it said in an NPRM (http://bit.ly/1rYgLIU). The division invites comment on Ashley Bruton’s proposal to allot Channel 280A at McCall, Idaho, as the community’s eighth local service, said a separate NPRM (http://bit.ly/1joRGUT). Bruton also filed a Form 301 application for Channel 280A at McCall, it said. The Navajo Nation proposed to allot FM Channel 258C2 at Rough Rock, Arizona, as a first local service, the division said (http://bit.ly/1joSpFz). Initial comments in all proceedings are due June 23, replies July 8.

The FCC Audio Division’s increase in speed in the resolution of applications for review is notable, a broadcast attorney said. It is likely a result of an effort by the division to identify and “package” cases appropriate for relatively streamlined treatment, and “an affirmative response to that effort from the 8th floor,” Fletcher Heald attorney Donald Evans said in a blog post (http://bit.ly/1uePPXl). The latter factor is particularly noteworthy because, under former chairmen Kevin Martin and Julius Genachowski, the commission “reportedly showed zero interest in dealing with pretty much any routine Media Bureau applications for review,” he said. The commission under Chairman Tom Wheeler “has encouraged disposition of those long-pending items,” he said. If only the other bureaus and divisions would follow a similar course, “those mountains of years-old applications for review could be reduced to molehills,” he said.

Illinois low-power stations backed comments by Mako Communications urging the FCC to avoid treating low-power TV as a secondary service to mobile broadband and unlicensed services. LPTV’s WBKM Chana and WRDH Ashton commented Thursday in docket 12-268. They urged the commission “to adopt those comments in its ultimate ruling on the status” of LPTV in the repurposing of TV spectrum, the stations said in separate comments (http://bit.ly/1rMEwSq and http://bit.ly/1iLveR6). LPTVs willing to enter into channel-sharing agreements should be included in first priority grouping, Mako commented (http://bit.ly/1ue1gP7). WBKM and WRDH included Mako’s comments in their filings.

An FCC Media Bureau public notice announcing increased scrutiny for transactions involving sharing arrangements violates the Administrative Procedure Act, said NAB in a letter to the FCC Thursday (http://bit.ly/1uffkI8). The FCC should order the bureau to withdraw the notice ((http://fcc.us/OoNg4k) and “cease and desist” applying the stricter scrutiny to transactions by May 8, the letter says. The PN violated the APA by being “fatally premature,” since it was issued before the commission changed the rules governing joint sales agreements, NAB said. “The FCC cannot regulate on the basis of speculation and conjecture."