[opendtv] FCC Retains Higher Fees for VHF TV Stations in Regulatory Fee NPRM
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2010 17:54:35 -0500
Another mysterious move by the FCC?
Presumably, higher fees should result from some performance advantage which
benefits the licensee, no? Not performance disadvantage, caused by the FCC's
mandated power restictions.
Presumably, higher fees would be used to discourage the use of that frequency
band, exactly the opposite of what the FCC should be doing given that VHF freqs
are not considered for broadband wireless.
Are the broadcasters getting frustrated yet? Add this to the list of things the
NAB should be screaming about.
Bert
---------------------------------
http://www.tvtechnology.com/article/99442
FCC Retains Higher Fees for VHF TV Stations in Regulatory Fee NPRM
by Doug Lung, 04.16.2010.
The FCC has released a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (FCC 10-51) [PDF]
proposing regulatory fees for the 2010 fiscal year. Last year fees were based
on TV stations' analog license; this year, they will apply to the remaining
digital TV license. I was surprised to see the FCC has retained a significant
differential between UHF and VHF TV stations, with VHF TV stations paying
significantly more in fees. This is surprising, considering that in most
markets, the UHF stations now provide far more reliable reception than the VHF
stations. It directly contradicts an implied recommendation in the National
Broadband Plan to move more DTV stations to VHF to make more of the more
desirable UHF broadcast spectrum available to wireless carriers for broadband.
As an example, in markets 11 to 25, a VHF station would pay $60,531, while a
UHF station would pay only $24,843 under fee structure in the Notice of
Proposed Rule Making (NPRM). I searched the NPRM with no success for a
description of how they determine whether a station is counted as VHF or UHF. I
maybe wrong, but it seems to me that this could only refer to the actual
channel the station is broadcasting on, since the virtual channel now has no
connection to the coverage or real operation of the station.
The NPRM is not the final fee structure and I expect there will be many
comments on this before the May 4, 2010 deadline and reply comments before the
May 11, 2010 deadline. Now that the DTV transition is complete, it's hard to
see how the FCC can justify basing regulatory fees on a station's TV channel.
It should be interesting to read the comments filed in this proceeding.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways:
- Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at
FreeLists.org
- By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word
unsubscribe in the subject line.
Other related posts:
- » [opendtv] FCC Retains Higher Fees for VHF TV Stations in Regulatory Fee NPRM - Manfredi, Albert E