FCC Early Approves Broadcast Rule Update

The FCC has approved a draft order on updating broadcast television rules to reflect the digital transition and post-incentive auction repacking 4-0, according to FCC officials. The item had been set for the September open meeting, but was approved early. FCC Commissioner-designate Anna Gomez didn't vote on the item, FCC officials told us. The agency didn't comment on whether Gomez has been sworn in or taken office. The final order is said to be largely unchanged from the draft version announced earlier this month, and docket 22-227 shows that the item hasn’t drawn any lobbying activity since it was unveiled. The rule changes in the order “are mostly non-substantive and do not materially change the regulatory obligations of full power and Class A stations,” said Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorney David Oxenford in a blog post.

The order will “delete, update, or otherwise revise” FCC for full power and Class A television stations that “no longer have any practical effect” after the transition from analog to digital-only television and the smaller TV band created by the repacking, the item said. Language in the order deletes “as obsolete” procedural rules connected to the bidding in the incentive auction and the transition of broadcasters to new channels. The order also deletes language on wireless services avoiding interference to broadcasters above Channel 37 – the incentive auction did away with broadcast services operating in that range.

The order also reorganizes, amends and clarifies the Part 73 broadcast rules “to make them easier to find and thus more practical for users,” it said. It includes the creation of a system of cross-references so that the rules remain easy to navigate, the order said. The "current rule structure has become disjointed over the years," and deletion of obsolete rules exacerbates that problem, but "the structure is also familiar to many users, including licensees and counsel,” said the draft order.

The order doesn’t take up a number of changes proposed by NAB at the NPRM stage. NAB had objected to proposals to change rules on how the FCC calculates station power levels, but the agency said in the draft item that the rules NAB sought to keep referred only to analog station power levels. “We find that since all full power and Class A television stations are operating with digital-only facilities” it's "unnecessary to grant NAB’s request,” the draft order said. The agency also didn’t take up NAB proposals on changes to the way station coordinates are calculated. NAB had expressed concern that the calculation change could cause some broadcasters to run afoul of land mobile radio protection rules. “Given the small differences involved, we believe it is unlikely that these minor corrections would result in any stations suddenly finding themselves no longer compliant with land mobile protection requirements,” the agency said. “But in response to NAB’s concern, we clarify that we will not require existing full power television stations to make changes due to these coordinate updates.”