FCC Grants DTV Waivers to 325 Stations; Issues Broad NPRM

“Many stations have been granted numerous extensions of their original construction deadline. At this late stage in the DTV transition, there remains little time for further extensions,” said one of 2 FCC orders Fri. granting delays. “We caution stations they should utilize the waivers granted herein to take all steps possible to complete construction,” said the 2nd order, “as any future waivers will be constrained by the hard [Feb. 17, 2009] deadline and may be evaluated under a more stringent standard.” Recipients of 6- month waivers were found by the FCC to face severe financial struggles, to have been knocked off the air by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks or by hurricanes, to have been involved in zoning or property disputes, to have faced hurdles getting DTV gear or to have related matters before the Commission. Although 98.8% of TV stations have DTV construction permits or licenses, only 1,136 were transmitting a digital signals April 2. That’s only 67% of licensees with FCC permission for DTV.

One of 2 orders issued Fri. extended a “use it or lose it” deadline under which licensees must send digital signals to all viewers in their coverage areas. The original deadline was July 1, 2005, for ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC affiliates in the top 100 markets and July 1, 2006, for all other commercial and nonprofit stations. Delays in receiving tower equipment, approval of construction plans by municipalities or landlords and snafus by installation crews are grounds for the 6-month waivers. Nexstar Bcstg., which put itself up for sale last week, got a “financial hardship” exemption for KTAL Texarkana, Tex., and for Ill. DTV stations WCIA Springfield and WTVT Evansville. Those getting waivers because of the Sept. 11 attack included WNET N.Y.-Newark and N.Y. broadcasters WPIX and WPXN-TV. The waivers expire “30 days after the effective date” of amendments in the DTV NPRM, the order said. That deadline will be 30 days after a future Commission order dealing with the questions raised in the NPRM takes effect, a Media Bureau spokeswoman said. NAB cheered the slew of extensions. A spokesman said the group is “pleased the FCC has indicated a willingness to work with broadcasters in dealing with the many challenges related to bringing the DTV transition to a successful conclusion.”

About 20 stations got extensions until Feb. 17, 2009, because they can’t serve their entire coverage areas with digital transmitters fixed to the side of analog antennas. Transmissions from side-mounted antennas reach fewer viewers than those atop TV towers. After the DTV transition, the broadcasters using side-mounted antennas will move them to the top, said the Commission. Waiver recipients include the DTV facilities of KABC L.A., KTRK-TV Houston and KOTV Tulsa. The agency denied exemptions to DTV facilities of WDHS Iron Mountain, Mich.; WCOV-TV Montgomery, Ala.; KAME-TV Reno; KUAM-TV Agana, Guam; KBDI-TV Broomfield, Colo; and WTXX Waterbury, Conn.

The 2nd batch of waivers gave licensees more time to build DTV facilities and follows a construction deadline that took effect in stages May 1, 1999-May 1, 2003. The FCC acknowledged the construction schedule was “aggressive,” but added that licensees had plenty of time to comply. Six-month delays went to 3 Denver stations involved in a years-long municipal zoning dispute resolved late last year with passage of federal legislation. Six stations owned by the Ga. Public Telecom Commission got waivers because the agency hasn’t been able to sell bonds to fund digital antenna construction. Also getting financial hardship waivers were 9 stations owned by Mission Bcstg. and another 15 Nexstar properties. Other stations that got waivers on that basis said they faced problems getting state funding or were trying to raise money from listeners. The DTV operations of Cal. stations KCET L.A. and KICU-TV San Jose were denied waivers because the Commission said they provided little justification. The FCC admonished WTVA Tupelo-Columbus, Miss.; KECY-TV El Centro, Cal.; and KJUD Juneau for not showing “they were unable to complete construction due to unforseen circumstances, circumstances beyond their control or financial hardship.”

The NPRM seeks public comment on a wide range of DTV issues including future construction deadlines and how the Commission should monitor compliance. The rulemaking “tentatively” found that stations that haven’t finished building full-power transmission facilities on their current channels needn’t finish construction if they will get new DTV channels after Feb. 2009, the NPRM said. It asked for comment on a 0.5% interference standard and asked “whether coordination is needed between broadcasters and [pay-TV providers] to ensure a smooth transition, whether this coordination is underway and what actions the Commission should take.” Comments are due 30 days after the NPRM is published in the Federal Register, with a reply deadline 15 days later.

The FCC wants comment on whether to require broadcasters to pass “active format description” (AFD) data to keep “postage-stamp"-format video images off widescreen DTV sets, according to its 3rd DTV periodic review rulemaking adopted April 25 and released Fri. AFD is a signal code that broadcasters can transmit with pictures by MPEG video stream, enabling optimal presentation by 4:3 or 16:9 DTV sets of content sent in either format. Postage-stamp video -- named for a small, black-bordered image floating at midscreen -- can occur when 4:3 content is mixed with widescreen HDTV, producing a “pillar-boxed image” that’s also letterboxed, the rulemaking said.

In its 2nd DTV report and order, the FCC said it feared that postage-stamp video would become more prevalent as consumers bought widescreen DTV sets. Still, the FCC made AFD use optional for broadcasters, with stations sending AFD data required to follow the ATSC standard, it said in the latest rulemaking: “At the time, the Commission believed that broadcasters would want to make their programming attractive to viewers as they begin to adopt DTV.” ATSC specs -- since updated through A/53 Revision E -- improved AFD “by revising and clarifying the relevant standards,” it said. Last July a “coordinated effort” at ATSC, CEA and SMPTE endorsing use of AFD encouraged CEA to publish a “recommended practice” (CEA-CEB16) for putting AFD aspect- ratio signaling capability in DTV sets and other receiver devices, it said. For various transmitted display formats, CEA-CEB16 makes individual recommendations on “output signaling and display appearance, taking into account possible decoder capabilities, scaling options and user preferences regarding display format,” the CEA website says. SMPTE also has developed a “2016-1” standard for AFD, the rulemaking said: “We thus seek comment on whether these voluntary, industry-driven efforts are sufficient, or if, instead, we should require broadcasters to provide AFD and bar data.” The FCC wants to know, if it requires AFD: (1) Should AFD data streaming be required for all broadcast programming, no matter what its source? (2) Should AFD data be required of sports and other live programming that may involved a combination of SD and HD gear? (3) How would the requirement affect small broadcasters?