DTV Station Status

If you have been monitoring the DTV Station Status section here over the past several weeks, you may have noticed a huge upsurge in applications and CP modifications. In reviewing the numbers extracted this weekend from the FCC CDBS, it appears the FCC is managing to keep up with the extra applications. In this week's update, the number of applications pending showed a slight drop, after the number of DTV applications increased by 20 between May 31 and June 12. The number of DTV applications also increased by 20 from May 15 to May 31. The effect of these applications can be seen in the increase in number of modified DTV construction permits issued (up 20 this week) and the decline in the number of unmodified construction permits (down 15). The number of DTV licenses issued has also been steadily increasing -- five in the last two weeks and three more between May 15 and May 31.

It's expected that in two weeks the report will show a big jump in the number of modified DTV construction permits and, to a slightly lesser extent, a jump in the number of licenses issued. The number of DTV special temporary authorizations (STAs) has remained relatively constant over the past several weeks. With the requirement that stations with DTV STAs that do not intend to build out their maximized facilities on their existing channel have to replace the STA with a construction permit followed by a license application, Expect to see the number of STAs drop quickly over the next few months.


DTV Station Status per FCC CDBS - June 25, 2006:
LICENSED (LIC): 905 (+5)
CONSTRUCTION PERMIT (CP): 535 (-15)
CP Modification (CP MOD): 372 (+20)
STA (All variations):1076 (-3)
STA (Modifications): 173 (-1)
APPLICATIONS (minus rule making and channel/service elections): 217 (-3)

Rule making - Digital channel changes
PENDING APPLICATIONS: 20 (-0-)
GRANTS: 155 (-0-)

(Change from June 12, 2006 listing)


Note: These totals do not include digital class A TV, low power TV or TV translator entries. The total will be greater than the number of DTV stations as some stations have licenses, construction permits and applications on file. Some stations also have licenses, construction permits or applications for backup facilities (auxiliary broadcast). Subtracting the STA Modification number from the number in STA (All variations) will give a more accurate indication of the number of DTV stations operating under STA, although STA records sometimes remain in the CDBS after the licensed facility is operational.

A spreadsheet showing all current DTV entries in the FCC CDBS TV engineering database files may be downloaded from www.xmtr.com/fcc/dtvdb.zip. CDBS database files used for the spreadsheets carry a date of June 25, 2006. The entire TV engineering database (large file - over 2MB) extracted from the CDBS is available from www.xmtr.com/fcc/tvdb.zip.