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As spectrum auction winds down, some public TV stations must plan moves to new channels
As spectrum auction winds down, some public TV stations must plan moves to new channels
By Doug Halonen | March 1, 2017
Public broadcasters who learned that their TV stations will be moving to new channels during the “repack” phase of the FCC’s spectrum auction are questioning how to manage the costs of the engineering projects, which must be completed no later than the middle of 2020.
The FCC has committed $1.75 billion of the auction proceeds to reimburse 90 percent of the estimated costs for each public TV station’s transition to new signals. The payments will be made up front, but some pubcasters are concerned about their ability to foot even part of the bill. ... State networks such as Maryland Public Television and Mississippi Public Broadcasting are among the public TV stations that will be affected by the repack. The scope of the engineering involved in both cases is daunting.
MPB {Mississippi Public Broadcasting} will be required to shift three of its eight TV stations to new channel assignments. “I feel easily we’ll be well into the six figures out of pocket through this, and that’s even after the reimbursement,” said Scott Colwell, CTO.
MPT {Maryland Public Television} will move all six of its TV stations to new channels. CTO George Beneman is “cautiously optimistic” that the federal government will eventually provide full compensation for the mandated moves. He declined to provide estimates of how much the repack could cost.
By Doug Halonen | March 1, 2017
Public broadcasters who learned that their TV stations will be moving to new channels during the “repack” phase of the FCC’s spectrum auction are questioning how to manage the costs of the engineering projects, which must be completed no later than the middle of 2020.
The FCC has committed $1.75 billion of the auction proceeds to reimburse 90 percent of the estimated costs for each public TV station’s transition to new signals. The payments will be made up front, but some pubcasters are concerned about their ability to foot even part of the bill. ... State networks such as Maryland Public Television and Mississippi Public Broadcasting are among the public TV stations that will be affected by the repack. The scope of the engineering involved in both cases is daunting.
MPB {Mississippi Public Broadcasting} will be required to shift three of its eight TV stations to new channel assignments. “I feel easily we’ll be well into the six figures out of pocket through this, and that’s even after the reimbursement,” said Scott Colwell, CTO.
MPT {Maryland Public Television} will move all six of its TV stations to new channels. CTO George Beneman is “cautiously optimistic” that the federal government will eventually provide full compensation for the mandated moves. He declined to provide estimates of how much the repack could cost.
From the DCRTV mailbag:
February 14:
From Tom Taylor Now: Scripps Howard, owner of WMAR ABC 2 has opted out of the TV spectrum auction. Scripps, which owns a lot of large market stations, cited that too low a price was offered to them to sell & turn in any TV channels. This doesn't guarantee that WMAR will keep it's current channel 38 with arguably the best signal in the market. The final TV spectrum is supposed to be repacked to 2-36, or smaller, depending on the success of the {auctions}. Channels 2-6 however are not ideal for DTV transmission with more interference issues, so WMAR would not like to return to Channel 2 even if it was possible. Locally only the RF channels WJLA, 7, WUSA 9, WBAL 11, WJZ 13,, WFDC 15, WETA 27, WNVC 24, WMPB 29, WNVT 30, WHUT 33 (which has already offered up its channel for sale), WPXW 34, WDCA 35, and WTTG 36 are in the TV Channel Allocation. All the others will have to move most likely and share channels. In Baltimore, all of Sinclair's stations will have to move, and in DC, WRC NBC 4 must move too. -- BaltoMedia.Net (2/14/17)
February 13:
More about the spectrum auction: The point being missed in the discussion is that these so-called “downgrades” of stations moving to weaker signals for cash will be short lived. Sure some stations may take the money and run, mostly marginally successful or already failing TV stations, but most others will use the spectrum auction money to upgrade to ATSC 3.0 or Next Generation TV and just rent or be allocated space on another channel. With Next Generation TV, stations like WHUT will just use space on WRC, WJLA, or WUSA. All the PSIP testing to do this is now being done. Your TV for example won’t know you’re getting WHUT on channel 7 along with Channel 7. It will still scan as WHUT 32. There will be as many as 5 HD stations per channel and as many as 20 SD 480i signals. Some stations will be 4K video at high frame rates, for say, sports. Others will be lower frame rates and standard 1080i or 720p. A place like Hagerstown or Altoona PA might have just one TV tower and transmitter for PBS & local or network programming all on one channel with multiple competing stations. Most certainly the TV table allotment will be a mess until this all shakes out. Sinclair might be frugal on talent, but they are spending quite a bit of money testing all this on channel 43. The reason for the FCC quiet period is to prevent collusion between companies ahead of time and make the process fair to both small and large TV companies. The current kink in the operation is that the mobile companies do not seem to be biting as hard as expected. The corrupt near monopolies that companies like Comcast have is going to make them obstructionist through lobbying. This is why allowing Comcast to buy NBC was a mistake. NBC might also not be a willing participant. WRC TV could say to WHUT, “No, we’re not interested in you using our frequency space.” We shall see. As always, the devil is in the details. — BaltoMedia.net (2/13/17)
Previously at DU:
WBIN-TV sold in FCC Auction; NH1 News to invest in new digital platforms
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