KLCS, KJLA In Channel Sharing Pilot Project

CTIA–The Wireless Association and Los Angeles stations KLCS (PBS) and KJLA (a multilingual independent) announced on Tuesday a channel sharing pilot project in response to the FCC’s recent request to “demonstrate the technical and legal arrangements necessary to implement a successful channel sharing operation.”

The goal of the pilot program, CTIA said, “is to show that if implemented in markets across the country as part of the upcoming incentive auction of television broadcast spectrum, channel sharing would allow over-the-air broadcasters to continue providing — and enhancing — quality content without impacting their viewers while reducing infrastructure costs.” Subsequently, the spectrum relinquished by those channel sharing broadcasters would be auctioned with some of the proceeds going to those participating broadcasters to reinvest in services to benefit their communities.

In turn, mobile providers will acquire the spectrum in a forward auction so they may continue to expand wireless broadband service coverage, CTIA said.

A key component of the FCC’s Broadcast Incentive Auction plan is to ensure the wireless industry has the spectrum needed to meet consumers’ demands and remain the world’s wireless leader. Channel sharing entails two television stations “sharing” a single over-the-air broadcast TV channel, with their primary and multicast content combined on a single, digital stream capable of carrying multiple high-definition and standard-definition video services.

Once the two parties receive FCC approval, CTIA said, the testing process will occur through the first quarter of 2014. Under the channel sharing agreement, KLCS and KJLA will conduct a series of tests that will culminate in KLCS “hosting” KJLA’s content and transmitting a shared stream that will combine the two stations’ primary and multicast content.

KLCS and KJLA will also attempt a variety of HD and SD video feeds to confirm the feasibility and technical limits of channel sharing between two unaffiliated broadcast stations. There will be no impact to KJLA’s and KLCS’ viewers during this test.

The KJLA and KLCS stations volunteered to participate in the pilot channel sharing project. Once the testing process is complete, the organizations will prepare a report to the FCC that they hope will yield critically important data for the commission and provide other interested parties with information as they consider whether to engage in their own channel sharing efforts.

To test the viability of this technology, CTIA said, it was considered important that the over-the-air television stations were in large cities where the highest demand for spectrum is occurring.

“We welcome the opportunity to host this important project so that we may share the lessons learned with the FCC and other interested parties,” said Alan Popkin, Director of TV Engineering, KLCS. “We also hope that the pilot program will provide broadcasters around the country with ‘real world’ data to evaluate the opportunity to channel share in the upcoming spectrum auction.

“We are grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with KLCS to deliver some of our existing programming to a select group of viewers through this unique new platform,” said Francis Wilkinson, VP-GM of KJLA. “This partnership will enable us to evaluate the practical impact of channel sharing on KJLA’s signal, and on our multicast content partners and viewers, as we consider our potential participation in the reverse auction. We hope these early test results will be useful to other members of the broadcast industry.”

Steve Largent, president-CEO, CTIA, said: “Since spectrum is a finite and valuable resource, channel sharing is truly a win-win-win for consumers, broadcasters and wireless providers. This helps broadcasters ensure that over-the-air customers may continue to enjoy their programming while the wireless industry continues to invest and innovate so it can meet the insatiable demands of its consumers for everything from broadband access to the ‘Internet of Things.

“We appreciate the leadership that KJLA and KLCS have shown by volunteering to participate in this important pilot project, and are confident this will be a successful test that will be copied throughout the country,” Largent added.

In response to the announcement, to NAB EVP of Communications Dennis Wharton said: “We look forward to any new information arising from this pilot program. The industry already has a good deal of technical experience with channel sharing, as many stations multicast today, which is channel sharing under another banner.

“On a technical level, one of the main challenges to channel sharing concerns the ability of the sharers to offer new and innovative services as they are limiting their available spectrum.

“On the business side, there are difficult contractual provisions that would need to be addressed. We will continue to work with any interested parties to make the process as simple as possible should stations seek to go this route,” Wharton concluded.