WASHINGTON—The National Translator Association joined its colleagues from the LPTV Coalition in praising the recent decision to open a 60-day filing window for TV translator and LPTV stations to apply for reimbursement for TV spectrum repack-related expenses.

“We are delighted to see the FCC begin the process of reimbursement for low power translators, LPTV and FM stations,” said John Terrill, president of the NTA.

TV Translators will now have until Oct. 15 to file for reimbursement, for which Congress had set aside $150 million. Terrill urges translators to file as early as possible.

Terrill notes that the NTA’s “Fast-Track” plan had some influence in the reimbursement process, saying that it allows “stations that have had to move and have purchased equipment and built their stations to skip the bid process and simply use paid invoices in requesting reimbursement.”

Additional information on the filing process is available on the NTA website.

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WASHINGTON—The item in the Aug. 14 edition of the Federal Register might as easily have been labeled “Existential Threat Averted,” but instead it was called “Final rule; announcement of compliance date.”

But the former more aptly describes what publication of rules establishing a 60-day filing window for LPTV and TV translator stations to apply for reimbursement of TV spectrum repack-related expenses amounts to for many such stations, says Mike Gravino, director of the LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition.

“… [D]espite a movement to end the LPTV service, our industry has prevailed over those forces and is now poised with [a] new next gen TV standard to blaze the trail into the future, once again,” he says.

The newly opened window gives LPTV stations and TV translator stations displaced by the repack a way to apply for repack expense reimbursement from a $150 million fund Congress established in 2018 to address a segment of the TV industry overlooked when it initially authorized the TV spectrum auction.

“The opening of the filing window … for the Post Auction LPTV Displacement Funding, some $150 million in Congressional funding, is an historic step in keeping over 1,500 of the nations’ secondary TV stations in business and is most welcomed in many small and large communities across the country,” says Gravino.

The coalition director sees the filing window as the culmination of a process that has taken the FCC more than six years to complete.

The coalition of more than 300 LPTV and TV translator licensees is appreciative of “the careful attention to detail” the agency has paid to make sure “as many as possible LPTV and TV translator qualifying entities” have quick access to the reimbursement funds, he says.

Gravino also is urging displaced LPTV stations, in particular, to get busy with their expense reimbursement filings. As opposed to the TV translator community, most LPTV operators affected by the repack haven’t yet begun the preparatory steps, he says.

For more news and insight on the repack, visit TV Technology'srepack silo.