Low power TV organizations taking their fight to Washington

The Coalition for Free TV and Broadband and the National Translator Association are teaming up and heading to Washington to meet with members of the House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet. Their goal: to make sure Class A TVs, LPTVs and TV translators are not lost in the spectrum auction shuffle.

Representatives of the two organizations also plan to check in with people at the FCC and at public interest groups to make their case. Television broadcasters in general are concerned about whether spectrum auctions will be truly voluntary, whether they will be fairly compensated for any changes necessitated by channel repacking, and whether channel repacking is even possible in some markets without killing off some affected television stations. The situation is probably more worrisome for low power licensees, who are regarded by the FCC as providers of secondary television service and generally are not afforded the same protections as their full-power colleagues.