D.C. Circuit Rejects Challenge on LPTV Upgrades
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit unanimously denied a Radio Communications Corp. petition for review of the FCC’s implementation of the 2023 Low Power Protection Act (LPPA), which allowed low-power TV stations fulfilling certain criteria to upgrade to Class A status (see 2411180040). “We are unpersuaded by RCC’s arguments. The FCC’s Order adheres to the best reading of the statute,” said Judge Harry Edwards in the opinion Friday.
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RCC had argued the LPPA's requirement that eligible stations operate in a designated market area (DMA) with not more than 95,000 TV households was misinterpreted by the FCC, and it actually meant the upgrades should be available based on the size of a station’s community of license. The phrase "community of license" appears in the Communications Act but not the LPPA, Edwards said. “Nowhere in the statute does Congress reference ‘community of license,’ nor are communities of license equivalent systems to DMAs,” he wrote. “RCC’s convoluted reading of these statutory provisions is plainly incorrect.”
Edwards also dismissed arguments from RCC that barring most LPTV stations from converting to Class A ran counter to Congress’ purpose in passing the LPPA, which was to protect such stations. RCC “significantly overreads the LPPA’s purpose,” Edwards wrote. “The LPPA does not provide unbounded protection for LPTV stations” but instead gives some a limited window to apply for Class A status. RCC’s concerns “are better levied at Congress, which set out the eligibility requirements, than at the Commission, which faithfully executed them.”