FCC Stays the Course on Digital Transition for LPTV/Class A Stations

The Federal Communications Commission has nixed requests submitted by a number of Low Power Television (LPTV) and Class A stations looking for relief from spectrum-clearing measures put in place two years ago.

In 2011, the FCC announced the end of the transition to digital broadcasting for Class A and LPTV stations. In so doing, it set a number of deadlines. In response to a handful of petitions of reconsideration, the FCC has now reaffirmed those deadlines. Under the deadlines set in 2011, all TV operation of any kind, analog or digital, on Channels 52 and above had to end by December 31, 2011, and all analog LPTV broadcasting on any channel must end by September 1, 2015. While a number of LPTV representatives asked the Commission to re-think the December 31, 2011 deadline, the Commission has now concluded that no such re-think is necessary. Looking back on what actually happened post-December 31, 2011, the FCC is satisfied that it gave everybody plenty of time to get the job done and that its staff bent over backwards to help out where possible. With respect to the September 1, 2015 deadline for ceasing all analog operation on any channel, one LPTV licensee suggested that that hard-and-fast deadline be softened to permit LPTV stations to continue to operate in analog mode until some later time tied to the roll-out of the National Broadband Plan. The FCC’s response in a nutshell? Enough is enough. Analog is inefficient, and it’s time to put an end to it.