Court clears way for next year’s FCC spectrum auction

[Retail Fan+ (Justin Hill)]

By Mario Trujillo - 06/12/15 02:55 PM EDT

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Friday rejected a lawsuit from broadcasters that challenged some of the procedures of the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) upcoming airwaves auction.

The decision removes one roadblock that will allow the agency to move ahead early next year with the auction, which is meant to free up more spectrum to help satisfy the increasing demand from mobile phones. Initially scheduled for mid-2015, the auction was delayed because of the court challenge.
A three-judge panel on the court rejected arguments from the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) that some of the FCC’s decisions on the auction are arbitrary and capricious and conflict with the Spectrum Act, which was passed in 2012 to set up the first-of-its-kind auction.
“This decision provides the commission and all stakeholders with the certainty necessary to proceed apace toward a successful auction in the first quarter of next year,” FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said.

The auction pushes broadcasters, who own a large share of the country’s spectrum, to sell it off to wireless providers like Verizon and AT&T. About three-quarters of people in the United States own smartphones, and demand for spectrum has grown rapidly in the past decade.

The auction would take place in multiple parts. The FCC would hold a “reverse auction” with broadcasters to see what price they would demand for their spectrum rights. The agency would then hold an auction with wireless companies to purchase those rights.

Broadcasters who do not want to sell would be moved to a smaller band of spectrum to continue operating. This “repackaging” process paid for by the wireless auction would still allow mobile companies to take a valuable portion of that spectrum.

The broadcast industry has taken particular issue with the repackaging plan, which it says can significantly harm television broadcasters.

The industry has questioned the FCC’s methods for determining the area and number of customers served by each license. The law requires the FCC to make all reasonable efforts to preserve broadcasters’ previous coverage area when they are repackaged to new channels.

“We're disappointed with today's ruling, which we believe fails to hold the FCC to the letter of the law passed by Congress,” said NAB Executive Vice President Dennis Wharton. “Nonetheless, we remain committed to working with policymakers to ensure a successful auction that protects the interests of broadcasters, whether they participate or not, and does not disenfranchise our tens of millions of viewers.”

The wireless industry applauded Friday’s decision as a win for wireless consumers, noting that the court upheld the entire FCC order dealing with the incentive auction.

“We are thankful that the court addressed these issues quickly and look forward to a successful and timely incentive auction that delivers access to more spectrum as soon as possible to be able to meet ever increasing mobile broadband demand,” said Meredith Attwell Baker, the president of CTIA-The Wireless Association.

[TheFugitive]

A lot of your small local stations on the air today running Retro TV or home shopping are
just staking claim to the spectrum space until they can sell it to Verizon and get the heck
out of Dodge.

Local over-the-air TV is going away, and soon.

[Retail Fan+ (Justin Hill)]

A lot of your small local stations on the air today running Retro TV or home shopping are
just staking claim to the spectrum space until they can sell it to Verizon and get the heck
out of Dodge.

Local over-the-air TV is going away, and soon.

Some TV stations will be repackaged, so it won't be going away completely. They will be repacked, so that the channels occupy another position on the dial, by filling in gaps on the upper VHF or lower VHF dials.
http://wireless.fcc.gov/incentiveauctions/learn-program/repacking.html

Local TV needs to stay in business. I don't want to live in a world where my only options are cable TV, pay satellite TV, IPTV, or free-to-air satellite TV.

Remember that it's only the mostly-unused UHF spectrum that is being sold off.

It's only channels 36-51 being sold off.

[ynkeesfn82]

In Connecticut Connecticut Public Television says they're putting WEDW Channel 49 in Bridgeport in the auction. Rumor has it Media General is going to put WCTX Channel 59 in New Haven (Broadcasts on Channel 39) into the auction and will put WCTX's programming on a sub Channel of WTNH Channel 8. And NRJ may be putting WZME Channel 43 in Bridgeport (Broadcasts on Channel 42) into the auction.

[Hudsons81]

Rumors are also going around that Adell is going to put WADL 38 (real channel 39) Mount Clemens, Michigan in the auction as well.

Ever since Antenna TV disappeared I see little-to-no value in WADL any more.

Thankfully a new version of ATSC is in development which will allow for stations to have more subchannels without a noticeable picture quality degradation, so hopefully WHNE 14 will pick up Get TV, Grit and Antenna TV on their subchannel lineup. I was hoping WNWO NBC 24 Toledo, Ohio was going to add Antenna TV but since they're one of the charter affiliates of Comet TV I don't see that happening soon. (Yes, I can receive WNWO with an indoor antenna here in Downriver Detroit.)

[Retail Fan+ (Justin Hill)]

Thankfully a new version of ATSC is in development which will allow for stations to have more subchannels without a noticeable picture quality degradation.

...And hopefully our existing TV tuners, HD DVRs (such as Dish DTV Pal or Channel Master DVR+), Converter Boxes, and HD receivers are compatible with the new ATSC upgrades, and that there are no noticeable changes to PSIP data coming from the TV stations and their accompanying digital subchannels.

[TheFugitive]

Rumors are also going around that Adell is going to put WADL 38 (real channel 39) Mount Clemens, Michigan in the auction as well.

Ever since Antenna TV disappeared I see little-to-no value in WADL any more.

Thankfully a new version of ATSC is in development which will allow for stations to have more subchannels without a noticeable picture quality degradation, so hopefully WHNE 14 will pick up Get TV, Grit and Antenna TV on their subchannel lineup. I was hoping WNWO NBC 24 Toledo, Ohio was going to add Antenna TV but since they're one of the charter affiliates of Comet TV I don't see that happening soon. (Yes, I can receive WNWO with an indoor antenna here in Downriver Detroit.)

Interesting.  I did not know that.

Will that new version require us all to buy new converter boxes?

[Retail Fan+ (Justin Hill)]

I just hope that only a small fraction of stations participate. The cellular phone companies don't need to hog all of the spectrum. Yes, the stations might be sitting on a gold mine, but do they really need to give it all up?

[Retail Fan+ (Justin Hill)]

Thankfully a new version of ATSC is in development which will allow for stations to have more subchannels without a noticeable picture quality degradation.

...And hopefully our existing TV tuners, HD DVRs (such as Dish DTV Pal or Channel Master DVR+), Converter Boxes, and HD receivers are compatible with the new ATSC upgrades, and that there are no noticeable changes to PSIP data coming from the TV stations and their accompanying digital subchannels.

I did some more research and ATSC 3.0 won't be compatible with ATSC 1.0. All of the equipment currently being used today will be obsolete two or more years from now, meaning that ATSC 3.0 converter boxes will have to be purchased, or TV sets will be replaced entirely, with ATSC 3.0 capable models. I also heard ATSC 3.0 merges the world of the Internet and cellular phone with broadcast television.

New electronics that will use the ATSC 3.0 standard:

* Converter boxes (a must for uses of old TVs)
* Television sets
* Digital Video Recorders
* DVD Recorders

All channels on ATSC 3.0 will be high VHF and low VHF, since the remainder of the UHF spectrum is being sold off.

[TheFugitive]

is Verizon going to buy me a new converter?

[Retail Fan+ (Justin Hill)]

is Verizon going to buy me a new converter?

ATSC refers to the standard used by free broadcast TV, not pay TV.

[TheFugitive]

is Verizon going to buy me a new converter?

ATSC refers to the standard used by free broadcast TV, not pay TV.

Yup.

When we adopted the first ATSC the government subsidized two converters for me.
Since Verizon is going to benefit from this they should at least be kind enough to do likewise.

[Retail Fan+ (Justin Hill)]

We are thankful that they introduced the ATSC standards and digital subchannels long before the impending announcement of the UHF spectrum auction.

Here's a couple digital subchannel examples (all on VHF, not market specific):

* 2-1 CBS
* 2-2 Decades
* 2-3 Local Weather

* 4-1 ABC
* 4-2 Comet
* 4-3 ThisTV
* 4-4 The CW

* 6-1 Fox
* 6-2 MyNetworkTV
* 6-3 Movies!
* 6-4 Heroes & Icons
* 6-5 Bounce TV
* 6-6 Mundomax

* 8-1 NBC
* 8-2 Local Accuweather
* 8-3 PBJ
* 8-4 Heartland
* 8-5 TheCoolTV
* 8-6 Azteca America

* 10-1 Univision
* 10-2 UniMas
* 10-3 LATV

[Hudsons81]

Here's my prediction of Detroit's OTA lineup using real channel numbers when ATSC 3.0 takes effect.

*2.1 WJBK/Fox
*2.2 Movies
*2.3 Buzzr
*2.4 Heroes & Icons
*2.5 Retro TV
*2.6 Comet

*3.1 Ion
*3.2 Qubo
*3.3 Ion Life
*3.4 Ion Shop
*3.5 QVC
*3.6 HSN

*4.1 WDIV/NBC
*4.2 This TV
*4.3 Me TV
*4.4 PBJ
*4.5 Grit
*4.6 Get TV

*5.1 WWJ/CBS
*5.2 WKBD/CW
*5.3 Decades

*7.1 WXYZ/ABC
*7.2 WMYD/My Network TV
*7.3 Bounce TV
*7.4 Cozi TV
*7.5 Laff
*7.6 Escape

*8.1 WTVS/PBS
*8.2 World
*8.3 Create
*8.4 V-Me
*8.5 WTVS Family

*9.1 CBET/CBC

[Retail Fan+ (Justin Hill)]

Here's my prediction for Green Bay, Wisconsin's OTA lineup when repacking for ATSC 3.0 takes effect (all UHF stations would move to VHF positions on channels 2-13):

2-1 - WBAY-TV (ABC)
2-2 - WBAY-WX (Storm Center 2 24/7)
2-3 - Vacant (was supposed to be Decades when LWN went off the air, awaiting future channel assignment)

5-1 - WFRV-TV (CBS)

6-1 - WGBA-TV (NBC) (formerly 26-1)
6-2 - WGBA-TV (MyNetworkTV) (formerly WACY-TV 32-1)
6-3 - WGBA-TV (MeTV) (formerly 26-2)
6-4 - WGBA-TV (Laff TV) (formerly 26-3)
6-5 - WGBA-TV (Grit TV) (formerly WACY-TV 32-2)
6-6 - WGBA-TV (Escape) (formerly WACY-TV 32-3)

8-1 - WPNE-TV (PBS) (formerly 38-1)
8-2 - WPT-2 (The Wisconsin Channel) (formerly 38-2)
8-3 - WPT-3 (Create) (formerly 38-3)

11-1 - WLUK-TV (FOX)
11-2 - WLUK-TV (The CW) (formerly WCWF-TV 14-1)
11-3 - Comet (formerly 14-2)

13-1 - WGBD-TV (Daystar) (formerly 49-1)

*This list is my guess of how my TV stations will be repacked following the spectrum auction, therefore it is not a final listing.

[TheFugitive]

All evidence is that low VHF does NOT work well for digital TV.
It will be very prone to ionosphere-skip interference from nearby markets.

Not to mention there will not be enough bandwidth to accommodate local
low-power repeater stations.

[Retail Fan+ (Justin Hill)]

I do not know what will happen with spectrum auction, if all of the UHF or part of the UHF spectrum will be auctioned off.