The FCC announced late today that the freeze that has been in place since April 2013 which prevents full-power and Class A TV stations from filing applications to expand their coverage areas will be lifted temporarily, likely before the end of this year. The lifting of the freeze allows stations that were not repacked following the Broadcast Incentive Auction to file minor modification applications to expand their signal for the first time in nearly five years.
Earlier this year, television stations that were repacked filed applications specifying facilities on their new channel assignments. A small group of repacked stations that were unable to build on their assigned channel, and stations that were predicted to receive excessive interference as a result of the repack, were allowed to file applications for different facilities in a priority filing window that closed on September 15. A second priority window for repacked stations to further modify their facilities is currently underway. CommLawCenter reported on these various repack milestones here and here.
Today’s announcement alerts full-power and Class A TV stations which were not repacked that the freeze on filing modification applications will be lifted temporarily some time after the second priority window for repacked stations closes on November 2, but before a planned Special Displacement Window for LPTV stations is opened, which is predicted to occur early next year.
Given the timing of those two windows, the odds seem good that the temporary lifting of the freeze will occur before the end of this calendar year. By allowing these stations to file modification applications before the opening of next year’s LPTV window, the FCC hopes to avoid having LPTV stations file in that window only to find their newly authorized facilities subsequently displaced by full-power and Class A TV stations that have been waiting to file a modification application since 2013.
While the freeze is lifted, applications to modify facilities will be accepted on a first come, first served basis. Only applications that qualify as minor modifications will be permitted. The temporary lifting of the freeze also means that processing of modification applications that were pending in April of 2013 can resume.
In this complex game of upgrade chess, LPTV station licensees should file any minor modification applications they are contemplating as soon as possible, since the FCC indicates that the filing of those types of applications will be frozen 30 days prior to the opening of the LPTV Special Displacement Window. Such is the freeze-thaw cycle at the FCC.