MAP Proposes New Station License Category

The Media Access Project, a public interest law firm, is proposing a new category of station license that would apply to existing TV stations' digital-multicast channels. The "S Class" licenses could be obtained by minorities and others if a station agreed to give up the excess digital spectrum for licensing. The station would be compensated via a baseball-style auction for "use of the main licensee's facilities" to deliver the channel. MAP will share the plan with the Federal Communications Commission today at the FCC's field hearing titled "Capital Markets and Ownership Diversity." MAP wants the FCC to separately license each of those digital channels (it does not currently do so) for broadcasters willing to volunteer their spectrum. Those licenses could then go to minorities, women and others underrepresented in media-ownership circles. The stations would have must-carry rights -- cable operators would have to carry them -- and public-interest obligations.