Members of Congress Seek GAO Study of Auction Impact on LPTV, Translators

Reps Anna Eshoo (D-CA) and Joe Barton (R-TX) have asked the Government Accountability Office to study the impact of the Federal Communications Commission's incentive auction on low-power TV stations and translators.

They asked the GAO for:

• The total number of LPTV stations that provide original programming or broadcast local news and information, especially those serving racial and ethnic minority communities
• The total number of TV translator stations that rebroadcast local news and information programming of a full-power TV broadcast station
• A projection of the number of such LPTV stations and TV translator stations that will be unable to locate to or operate on replacement channels after the auction
• A projection of the number of viewers that will lose over-the-air access to at least one such local LPTV station that provide local news and information, especially to underserved communities of interest
• A projection of the number of such LPTV stations and TV translator stations that will be unable to locate to or operate on replacement channels after the auction
• A projection of the number of viewers that will lose over-the-air access to at least one such local LPTV station that provide local news and information, especially to underserved communities of interest
• A projection of the number of viewers that will lose over-the-air access via such TV translator stations to at least one of the signals of the regional affiliates of the major commercial or noncommercial educational television broadcast networks
• Recommendations to the FCC and Congress on ways to remedy adverse impacts of the auction on LPTV stations and TV translator stations and, most importantly, their viewers.