PBS, CBP, APTS: FCC Disregarding Needs of Viewers

Noncommercial TV stations were taking aim June 22 at the Federal Communications Commission's rejection of their petition to insure that there is still a channel available for noncommercial stations in each market after the broadcast incentive auction. They suggest that, for the first time, the FCC is subjecting the future of noncommercial TV to commercial market forces. "Through this decision, the Commission has disregarded the needs of the millions of Americans who rely on public television for essential services in education, public safety and civic leadership," the Association of Public Television Stations, PBS and CPB said in a joint statement. The FCC said, in rejecting the petition by the noncom groups, that those stations could still give up spectrum and share, but that if a station wanted to get out of the business and the result was no more noncom channel in the market, it was not going to prevent that.

The FCC pointed out that stations could still give up spectrum and share with another station, reserving the noncommercial license on their part of the channel. But in response to the FCC decision, the groups made clear their displeasure, particularly after a noncom volunteered for a sharing test that helped the FCC advance its auction proposal. "By denying this petition, the Commission is discarding six decades of regulatory precedent and the clear mandate of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 to provide universal service. In taking this action without a rulemaking procedure in which interested parties might participate, the Commission is neglecting its own rules and ignoring the Administrative Procedure Act governing such rulemakings," the groups said.