FCC Will Walk LPTVs Through Reimbursement Process

The FCC has scheduled a webinar Aug. 28 on reimbursing LPTV's and translators in the incentive auction repack.

Those stations were not initially included in the relocation fund, but Congress updated its incentive auction framework to include payouts to those stations. The FCC voted to allocate $150 million.

The hour webinar (11 a.m. to noon) will be hosted by the Incentive Auction Task Force and Media Bureau and will cover a range of topics from certifying covered expenses and eligibility to how to submit invoices and an overview of the payment process.

The webinar follows the FCC's Aug. 15 publication of the reimbursement form, in which it set the deadline and procedures for filing LPTV's, translators and FM stations (radio stations co-located with TV's having to move also got money) that plan to seek reimbursement have to file the requisite form and expense estimates by 11:59 p.m. Oct. 15.

The money to pay LPTVs, translators and FMs was included in the RAY BAUMS Act FCC reauthorization legislation passed last year, which freed up as much as a billion more dollars, if/as needed, on top of the $1.75 billion that FCC had concluded would not quite cover it.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.