Advanced Television Broadcasting Alliance

The Advanced Television Broadcasting Alliance (ATBA) hosted the Fifth Annual Low Power Television and Translator Industry Awards during the  Annual Low Power Television Industry Association Reception and Awards during the NAB Show Monday night April 8. “The awards are an opportunity for the LPTV and Translator industry to shine the light on their work and […]

There are currently close to 6,000 LPTV and TV translator stations that serve the heart of America – with more stations in the construction process – providing local programming that cannot be found elsewhere. LPTV service has also brought more diversity to the broadcast television business. Unfortunately, the FCC’s upcoming broadcast spectrum incentive auction puts at risk low-power TV stations and could force many of them to turn off their signal forever.

In a May 7 letter to the FCC, the NAB, the Advanced Television Broadcasting Alliance, the National Religious Broadcasters and the National Translator Association “urge the commission to do everything in its power to ensure that the important benefits of LPTVs and TV translators are not undermined as a result of the incentive auction.”

The former NBC tech exec will lead the Advanced Television Broadcasting Alliance’s efforts to protect LPTV and other broadcast users of spectrum .

Michael Copps, the former FCC commissioner, tells C-SPAN’s The Communicators that a complete spectrum inventory is needed, which he believe will reveal that there’s a “whole bunch of spectrum lying fallow that could fuel a whole lot of devices and fuel a whole lot of technology.”

The Advanced Television Broadcasting Alliance is calling for the immediate release of the FCC’s AOM (Allotment Optimization Model) that FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said would be released upon authorization to conduct spectrum auctions. That authorization came in the recently signed “Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act.”