Mobile DTV Seen Foreclosed to Stations That Didn’t Already Move from VHF
Many TV stations probably won’t be able to broadcast to mobile devices anytime soon, because of an FCC action Tuesday (CD June 1 p20), industry lawyers and executives said in interviews. They said the Media Bureau decision to stop accepting applications to change TV channels means the several hundred broadcasters using VHF channels must stay there for the foreseeable future. The so-called freeze starting Tuesday on petitions to substitute digital channels was long awaited by some, but surprising to others, they said. Broadcasters who hadn’t sought moves can’t, foreclosing moving to the UHF band where it’s much easier to do mobile DTV, industry executives and lawyers said. More stations sought to move to UHF last week, citing mobile DTV.
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Stations had plenty of time to petition the commission to change their DTV channel since the last freeze ended May 30, 2008, some broadcast lawyers said. Because some stations had thought VHF would be the better band, as it was for analog, and cash was scarce during the recession, there still are broadcasters that would eventually like to move to UHF, executives said. As the ad market improves, lifting station revenue, and more portable devices get mobile DTV chips so they can receive the broadcasts, more stations may decide they want to get positions above channel 13 and decide they can afford it, the executives said. There were 360 commercial TV stations in the VHF band as of March 31, according to FCC figures. A bureau spokeswoman had no comment.
"I know a couple broadcasters who are there,” in such a position where they may soon want to move to UHF, said Director Mark Aitken of Sinclair Broadcast Group, whose 58 stations are already on that band. “It takes a lot of work and a long, long time to come up with a UHF slot if you are in VHF. If you haven’t started down that road with all the paperwork, then you are stuck.” Some may not “understand exactly how bad of a predicament it is,” he said. While the upper VHF band can be used for mobile DTV, “it’s still not sunny weather” compared to using UHF for the new service that’s being rolled out in the U.S., Aitken said. He foresees top-rated stations in major markets in the VHF band possibly leasing out UHF spectrum from less popular stations “in order to have a halfway chance of making mobile work for themselves.”
"We were caught off guard,” by the FCC announcement, despite hearing some speculation the freeze would be put in place, said Vice President James Ocon of Gray TV. It has moved several of the 36 stations it operates to UHF and last week sought to change another one. “We weren’t being preemptive,” with the request to move WJHG-TV Panama City, Fla., to channel 18 from 7, “because it costs us a lot of money to switch channels, in a very tough economic climate,” Ocon said. “We were just very lucky” to have made the request, he said. “I am disappointed that I can no longer file at any of our other stations, because I am kind of doing this case by case,” he added. “I definitely have other stations in my cross-hairs to switch them out, but now I can’t."
WCYB-TV Bristol, Va., wants to go to channel 29 from 5, licensee BlueStone said in an FCC filing last week. The change would improve DTV reception and let the broadcaster provide mobile DTV, the filing said. The station is “concerned” the low-band VHF channel “is not suitable for providing such services,” WCYB said. “Reception of VHF signals requires physically larger antennas that are generally not well suited to the mobile applications expected under flexible use, relative to UHF channels.” Gray’s filing also discussed mobile DTV.
"There are probably folks who are kicking themselves” for not having petitioned to change channels who might have wanted to do it soon, after the economy continues to gain “some steam,” said broadcast lawyer Scott Flick of Pillsbury. That’s even more so “particularly as we see what mobile DTV can do in the U.S.,” he said. “It’s one thing to say ‘OK, fine, I will forgo getting really top-notch service to my entire community,'” by staying on VHF at a higher power level, “but it’s another thing to entirely forgo mobile DTV,” Flick said: Those who stay on VHF “will suddenly find themselves in a far more difficult position trying to open up a new line of business with mobile DTV.”