Wait, am I reading this right? The Director of the LPTV Spectrum Rights
Coalition, presumably someone who wants for LPTV stations to continue to
operate as TV stations, is volunteering instead to convert LPTV stations into
wireless ISPs?
Interesting!
Bert
---------------------------------------------
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/washington/lptvs-pitch-fccs-orielly-repack-challenges-opportunities/163685
Feb 28, 2017 03:48 PM ET
LPTVs Pitch FCC's O'Rielly on Repack Challenges, Opportunities
Point to dislocations but highlight role as digital uniters
By John Eggerton
Michael Gravino, director of the LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition, was at the FCC
last week meeting with Republican commissioner Michael O'Rielly and top
staffers to highlight the issues his members have had, are having, and will
have, with the spectrum auction and its aftermath.
That, according to an ex parte filing with the FCC about the meeting, includes
the financial stresses, uncertainty about displacement, and the business plans
that have been on hold throughout the auction process.
Gravino said that over 3,000 LPTVs will be displaced in the repack. And that is
just displacement from the UHF channels 39 through 50 being vacated to turn
over to wireless broadband.
He says that another 4,000 displacements could result from the repacking of all
those stations into channels 36 through 2, though just how much repacking needs
to be done and how much displacing will not be known until after March 30, when
the spectrum auction is finally over and the FCC releases the data on who won
what and where, as well as issuing new channel assignments for the repack.
Gravino also said that LPTV repack costs could reach $1 billion out of pocket
over the repack period. By contrast, repacked full powers and Class As get to
tap into a $1.75 billion relocation fund.
FCC chairman Ajit Pai has said closing the digital divide is a priority for
him. Gravino pointed out to fellow Republican O'Rielly, that LPTV's could be a
big help.
He said the coalition supports repurposing LPTV spectrum in digitally divided
areas as WISPs (wireless internet service providers). "LPTV spectrum can be
utilized immediately, at no cost to the government, to help solve the digital
divide problem," he told the O'Rielly camp.
He suggested that if all LPTV licenses were allowed to be flexible use4-used
for other than traditional broadcasting-the FCC could create a simple
two-layered map: where added spectrum capacity can help close the digital
divide and the location of the 10,000 LPTV and translators licenses/permits.
Gravino had some asks of the commission. First for the FCC to create that
overlay map; second that the FCC finally conduct a study of the impact of the
repack on LPTVs and translators; third that the FCC study the loss of public
service obligations of the hundreds of stations-primaries, noncoms and Class As
that will be going off the air after giving up their spectrum and whether
upgrading some of the remaining LPTVs to Class A could help offset that; and
fourth, that O'Rielly provide a short video greeting for LPTV coalition members
meeting at the National Association of Broadcasters convention in April in Las
Vegas.
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