Auction 111: LPTV and TV Translator

General information and associated licensing parameters are provided below. Public Notices provide specific information regarding this auction.  This fact sheet includes:

• Key Dates
• Construction Permits Offered
• Permissible Operations
• License Period
• New Entrant Bidding Credits
• Incumbents
• Licensing Rules

Key Dates

Construction Permits Offered

Auction 111 will resolve groups of pending mutually exclusive (MX) engineering proposals for up to 17 new or modified LPTV and TV translator (collectively, LPTV/translator) station construction permits.  The MX groups and engineering proposals listed in Attachment A to Public Notice DA 21-1176 consist of applications for new LPTV/translator stations, or major changes to existing stations, that were accepted on a first-come, first-served basis (i.e., rolling one-day windows), pursuant to section 74.787(a)(3) of the Commission’s rules and displacement relief applications filed pursuant to a special filing window for eligible LPTV/translator stations displaced by the broadcast television spectrum incentive auction (Auction 1000).  Auction 111 is a closed auction; only those parties listed in Attachment A to Public Notice DA 21-1176 are eligible to file applications to participate in Auction 111 and to complete the remaining steps to become qualified to bid.

Permissible Operations

LPTV (Secondary Service Television (SST)) - A station authorized under the provisions of Part 74, Subpart G that may retransmit the programs and signals of a digital television (DTV) broadcast station, may originate programming in any amount greater than 30 seconds per hour for the purpose of providing DTV reception to the general public and, subject to a minimum video program service requirement, may offer services of an ancillary or supplementary nature, including subscription-based services.

Television Translator (SST) – A station operated for the purpose of retransmitting the programs and signals of a DTV broadcast station, without significantly altering any characteristic of the original signal other than its frequency and amplitude, for the purpose of providing DTV reception to the general public.

License Period

A winning bidder, if its post-auction amendment to its pending long-form application is granted, is awarded a construction permit, rather than a “license.”  A winning bidder is required, within a specified time period, to construct its facility and file an application for a “license to cover construction permits” to obtain a license for the constructed facility. See 47 CFR § 74.788.  Licenses are issued for an eight-year term.

New Entrant Bidding Credits

A New Entrant Bidding Credit will be available for this auction.  Eligibility and application requirements for New Entrant Bidding Credit are specified in Public Notice DA 21-1176.  Applicants that qualify for the New Entrant Bidding Credit are eligible for a bidding credit that represents the amount by which a bidder's winning bid is discounted.  Eligibility for the new entrant bidding credit must be specified in an applicant’s short-form application, which establishes that applicant’s maximum bidding credit eligibility for Auction 111.  The size of a New Entrant Bidding Credit depends on the number of ownership interests in other “media of mass communications” that are attributable to the bidder-entity and its attributable interest-holders:

• A 35% bidding credit will be given to a winning bidder if it, and/or any individual or entity with an attributable interest in the winning bidder, has no attributable interest in any other media of mass communications, as defined in section 73.5008;
• A 25% bidding credit will be given to a winning bidder if it, and/or any individual or entity with an attributable interest in the winning bidder, has an attributable interest in no more than three mass media facilities, as defined in section 73.5008;
• No bidding credit will be given if any of the commonly owned mass media facilities serve the “same area” as the broadcast permit proposed in the auction, as defined in section 73.5007(b), or if the winning bidder, and/or any individual or entity with an attributable interest in the winning bidder, has attributable interests in more than three mass media facilities. 

Attributable interests held by a winning bidder in existing low power television, television translator or FM translator facilities will not be counted among the winning bidder’s “other mass media interests” in determining eligibility for a bidding credit.

Bidders intending to divest a media interest or make any other ownership changes, such as resignation of positional interests, in order to avoid attribution for purposes of qualifying for the New Entrant Bidding Credit, must have consummated such divestment transactions or have completed such ownership changes by no later than the short-form application filing deadline (see “Key Dates”).  Events occurring after the short-form application filing deadline, such as the acquisition of an attributable interest in a medium of mass communications, may cause diminishment or loss of the bidding credit.

Incumbents

The licensee of a new LPTV/translator station shall protect existing LPTV/translator stations from interference within the protected contour defined in section 74.707 and shall protect existing Class A TV and digital Class A TV stations within the protected contours defined in section 73.6010.  With secondary frequency use status, LPTV and television translator stations may not cause interference to, and must accept interference from, full service television stations, certain land mobile radio operations, and other primary services.  See, e.g., 47 CFR §§ 74.703, 74.709 and 90.303.

For more information, refer to Section III.A. “Due Diligence” in Public Notice DA 21-1176.

Licensing Rules

47 CFR Parts 73 and 74