LPTV Deserves Opportunity to be Heard

[Commentary] The House Communications and Technology Subcommittee hearing on spectrum incentive auctions had one glaring oversight. Not one representative from the low-power television industry was invited. Why is this so egregious? Simply put, no other group has more to lose in the incentive auction and related repacking than does LPTV. It is the only group that has nothing to gain and everything to lose, especially if the repack is as aggressive as some would like it to be. Consider these four facts:

• LPTV stations cannot enter the auction.
• If no spectrum remains in their market after the repack, LPTV stations will be involuntarily wiped out with no compensation.
• LPTV stations get no reimbursement if their spectrum is taken away and they are forced to move to another channel to exist.
• Millions of TV viewers may lose their only source of free information and free entertainment.

[Payne is a low-power TV operator and chairman of the Advanced Television Broadcasting Alliance, a group dedicated to preserving spectrum for TV broadcasting]