PUBLIC NOTICE Federal Communications Commission 1919 M St., N.W. Washington, D.C. 20554 Released: October 16, 1997 COMMISSION DETAILS APPLICATION FILING PROCEDURES FOR DIGITAL TELEVISION (DTV) This Notice sets forth procedures and related information to assist the filing of DTV construction permit and license applications by those TV broadcast stations awarded "initial modification licenses" in the Fifth Report and Order in the Commission's DTV proceeding. In that Order the Commission affirmed its goal of rapid DTV implementation and, in pursuit of this goal, established a streamlined process for authorizing DTV service. The initial licenses modify analog TV broadcast licenses or permits to incorporate the digital television channel assignments made in the Sixth Report and Order, but do not authorize the construction of DTV facilities. For that purpose, a construction permit application must be filed on or before the midpoint of a station's DTV construction period, as established in the Fifth Report and Order. The Commission has already streamlined this stage of the authorization process and, as described below, is undertaking measures to simplify the requirements for obtaining DTV station licenses. In the Fifth Report and Order, the Commission determined that applications for authority to construct DTV facilities for the initial allotments should be treated in the same manner as applications for minor changes in TV broadcast facilities, inasmuch as the associated analog and DTV facilities will serve the same community under a single license. Accordingly, except as specifically provided in the Fifth Report & Order or as further provided herein, all Commission rules, policies and procedures that govern the filing and processing of analog TV broadcast minor change applications will also govern DTV construction permit applications for allotments in the initial DTV table. For example, applicants for minor changes do not have to submit legal or financial qualifications information, nor are they subject to local public notice requirements in 47 C.F.R.  73.3580. Applicants for commercial DTV facilities should complete Sections I and VII of FCC Form 301 and the new Section V-D - DTV BROADCAST ENGINEERING DATA. This information, together with Fee Form 159 (using fee code MPT) and a processing fee of $690.00 should be sent to the following address: Federal Communications Commission Mass Media Services P.O. Box 358165 Pittsburgh, PA 15251-5165 Applicants for noncommercial DTV facilities should complete Sections I, V-D and VII of FCC Form 340. No fee is required for such applications and the applications should be filed directly with the FCC in Washington, D.C. at the following address: Secretary's Office Room 222 1919 M Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20554 The Section V-D supplement to FCC Form 301 can be obtained from FCC internet address http://www.fcc.gov./formpage.html or the Commission's Fax-on-Demand service [telephone no. (202) 418-0177, document retrieval no. 000014.] It also may be copied from Appendix D of the Fifth Report and Order. Section V-D is tailored for specifying DTV engineering and technical parameters and related information; for example, DTV and paired analog channels, site coordinates, antenna height above average terrain (HAAT), effective radiated power (ERP) and antenna data. In many respects, it is similar to Section V-C of Forms 301 and 340, which collects technical information for analog TV broadcast facilities. Applicants must submit all data and exhibits called for in Section V-D for the proposed facility; for example, the community coverage data in Item 19 and the environment statement in Item 22. New or modified antenna structures for which notification to the FAA is required must be registered by the Commission before a grant of applications specifying such structures can be made. Applicants are encouraged to attend to structure registration matters before filing their DTV construction permit applications. Guidance and application forms for structure registration are available at FCC internet address http://www.fcc.gov/wtb/antstruc.html. Section V-D begins with a "Certification Checklist, a series of questions by which applicants may certify compliance with the following key processing requirements: (1) Conformance with the DTV Table of Allotments, (2) Safety of air navigation, (3) Environmental protection, (4) Signal coverage over the community of license, and (5) Protection to radio astronomy, radio receiving, or FCC monitoring installations. Applicants who can answer "yes" to all checklist questions may expect their applications to be granted within several days after public notice of the filing. Some applications may require additional processing time regardless of the applicant's responses to the checklist; for example, some applications for stations in the border areas may be delayed by coordination with Canada or Mexico. In the Sixth Report and Order, the Commission allowed flexibility for DTV facilities to be constructed at locations within five kilometers of the reference allotment sites without consideration of additional interference to analog or DTV service, provided the DTV facilities do not exceed the allotment reference HAAT and ERP values. Certification Checklist Question 1. asks if the proposed facility conforms to the DTV Table of Allotments by specifying operation: (1) on the station's allotted DTV channel, (2) at an antenna site within five kilometers (3.1 miles) of the reference allotment site, (3) with an antenna height above average terrain (HAAT) that does not exceed the allotment reference HAAT, and (4) with an effective radiated power (ERP) in each azimuthal direction that does not exceed the allotment reference ERP in that direction. Applicants who certify affirmatively to this question are not required to submit interference studies and their applications will not be subjected to interference protection processing. Otherwise, applicants should submit a technical showing that their proposed facilities will not result in additional interference to analog TV broadcast and DTV service or to DTV allotments, based on the standards given in  73.623 of the Commission's Rules. Additional interference is the predicted interference a DTV station would cause beyond the amount of interference, if any, "built into" the DTV allotment table. (See OET Bulletin 69 for guidance on interference analysis). In the Sixth Report and Order, the Commission permitted broadcasters to agree to proposed DTV facilities that do not conform to the initial allotment parameters, as described above, even though they might be affected by "potential new interference." The Commission also recognized that industry frequency coordination could help to facilitate the implementation of the DTV service, and it encouraged the broadcast industry to continue their voluntary coordination efforts through a process open to all affected parties. In this regard, the Commission stated that it will consider granting applications on the basis of interference agreements if it finds that such grants will serve the public interest. In addition to the interference agreements, signed by all pertinent parties, the following information is needed to enable such public interest determinations: a list of parties predicted to receive additional interference from the proposed facility, a showing as to why a grant based on the agreements would serve the public interest, and a technical study depicting the additional interference, if any, that would result from operation of the proposed facility. Additionally, applicants who use a voluntary coordination process, should provide the name, address, and telephone number of the person who performed the coordination studies and a description of how the coordination process was open to all interested parties, including low power TV and TV translator operators. Applicants may submit with their applications any additional coordination documents they deem helpful to the Commission. The DTV allotment reference HAAT and maximum ERP values are given in Table 1 of Appendix B of the Sixth Report and Order. Reference site coordinates are given in Table 2 of that appendix. DTV reference directional ERP values are calculated by squaring the antenna's horizontal plane relative field strength for a particular azimuth and multiplying the result by the maximum ERP. The standard application processing practice is to use 36 equally spaced azimuthal radials, supplemented by up to 10 special radials as needed. The relative field strength values are stored in the FCC's Directional Antenna Database, which can be accessed under the heading TV Engineering Database at FCC internet address http://www.fcc.gov/OET/headline/FCC97115. The DTV reference ERP is also described in OET Bulletin 69, Longley-Rice Methodology for Evaluating TV Coverage and Interference (July 2, 1997), available at the FCC internet address http://www.fcc.gov/oet/info/documents/bulletins/#69. Each DTV construction permit will expire on the station's scheduled construction deadline established in the Fifth Report and Order and listed in  73.624(d) of the Commission's Rules. When a station has been constructed and is ready for operation, a permittee may commence program tests upon notification to the FCC, provided an application for license to cover the construction permit is filed within ten days and any special condition on the permit has been met. FCC Form 302-TV is used to apply for a license to cover a construction permit. For commercial stations, the application filing fee is $210.00 and the fee code is MJT. Feeable license applications should be mailed to the Pittsburgh, PA address given above. License applications for noncommercial stations should be directed to the FCC at the above Washington, D.C. address. The Mass Media Bureau has designed a new DTV license application form (FCC Form 302- DTV), which is shorter than the current Form 302-TV, specifically tailored for DTV use, and contains a "certification checklist." This form will require less time for applicants to complete and will hasten the license application review process. The Commission has instructed the Bureau to seek OMB approval for this form. Its use will be announced in a subsequent public notice. Notice of acceptance of DTV applications and other processing actions will be given in the manner presently used for TV minor change applications. DTV construction permit and license applications will be assigned file number prefix codes BPCDT and BLCDT, respectively, for commercial stations and BPEDT and BLEDT for educational stations. DTV station call signs will automatically consist of the basic call sign of the associated analog station as appended by the suffix "-DT". For additional information, contact Keith Larson, Office of the Bureau Chief, Mass Media Bureau at (202) 418-2600 or Clay Pendarvis or John Morgan, Video Services Division, at (202) 418-1600.