47 U.S.C. § 336 — Broadcast spectrum flexibility

(a) Commission action. If the FCC decides to issue extra licenses for "advanced television services" (like digital or high-definition TV), it should first limit who can get them to broadcasters already licensed or permitted to run a TV station. The FCC must also write rules letting license holders offer extra ("ancillary or supplementary") services on their assigned frequencies, as long as doing so fits the public interest. (b) Contents of regulations. Those rules must: (1) only let a licensee offer extra services if using the frequency that way fits the technology the FCC assigned for advanced TV; (2) limit extra services enough to avoid hurting the required advanced TV broadcasts, including high-definition broadcasts; (3) apply the FCC's normal rules for similar services offered by anyone else — except that these extra services never get the special "must-carry" rights under sections 534 or 535, and are never treated as a "multichannel video programming distributor" under section 548; (4) set technical and other requirements to keep the advanced TV signal's quality up, possibly including minimum daily broadcast hours; and (5) include any other rules needed to protect the public interest. (c) Recovery of license. If the FCC grants an advanced-TV license to a broadcaster who already holds a TV license or construction permit, the FCC must require that broadcaster to give back either the new license or the original one, so the FCC can reassign it. (d) Public interest requirement. Nothing here excuses a TV station from its normal duty to serve the public interest. When the FCC reviews a license renewal for a station offering extra services, the station must prove all its programming — old and new — serves the public interest, and breaking the FCC's rules on extra services can hurt the station's chances of renewal. (e) Fees. (1) If a licensee's extra service on a given frequency either charges subscribers or brings in payment from a third party for carrying that party's content (not counting ordinary free ad-supported broadcasting), the FCC must set up a program to charge that licensee an annual fee. (2) That fee program must be designed to recover for the public part of the value of the spectrum being used commercially, avoid letting the licensee get an unfair windfall, aim to collect roughly what would have been collected under the normal competitive-bidding rules in section 309(j), and be adjusted over time to keep meeting those goals. (3) Normally, all this fee money goes to the Treasury — but the FCC can keep some of it as an offsetting collection to cover the costs of running this fee program and regulating advanced TV services; that kept money must be spent under the usual appropriations rules and deposited quarterly. (4) The FCC must report to Congress every year on how much it collected. (f) Preservation of low-power community television broadcasting. (1) Within 120 days after November 29, 1999, the FCC had to create a new "class A" television license for qualifying low-power stations, giving them the same license terms, renewal standards, and primary broadcaster status as full-power stations, as long as they keep meeting the qualifying rules. The FCC had to notify existing low-power licensees about this within 30 days, and interested licensees had to certify their eligibility within 60 days; the FCC would then generally certify them absent some real problem. Once final rules were adopted, a licensee had 30 days to apply for class A status, and the FCC generally had to award the license within 30 days of getting a complete application. While applications were pending, the FCC had to protect low-power stations' service areas, and if the class A conversion created technical conflicts with a full-power digital station's channel assignment, the FCC had to adjust things to preserve that full-power station's service area, and to allow it to maximize its area if it had properly filed for that by set 1999–2000 deadlines. If a station later shrinks its own digital service area, its "protected contour" shrinks to match. (2) A station qualifies as a "low-power television station" eligible for class A status if, in the 90 days before November 29, 1999, it broadcast at least 18 hours a day, aired at least 3 hours a week of programming made in its own local market (possibly shared among commonly owned low-power stations), and followed the FCC's low-power rules — and if, from the date it applies for class A status onward, it follows the FCC's full-power operating rules. Alternatively, the FCC can qualify a station if doing so serves the public interest for other reasons. (3) No low-power station licensed as of November 29, 1999, can be denied a class A license just because it's commonly owned with another form of media. (4) The FCC doesn't have to give a class A station — or any TV translator station — an extra license for advanced TV services, but must accept applications for such services that won't interfere with any other protected broadcast facility. Any such new license, or the original license, expires at the end of the digital-TV transition period the FCC sets. A low-power or translator station can choose to switch to advanced TV service on its existing analog channel, but doesn't have to convert until the transition period ends. (5) This subsection doesn't override or affect section 337. (6) The FCC can't grant a class A license for a station operating in the 698–806 MHz band, but must give those stations a chance to qualify anyway; if such a station later gets moved to core spectrum, the FCC issues the class A license right when that channel assignment happens. The FCC also can't grant a class A license to a station on a channel within a specific set of 175 channels the FCC identified in a 1998 order; the FCC had to specifically identify those channels within 18 months of November 29, 1999. (7) The FCC can't grant or modify a class A license unless the applicant shows it won't cause interference within: the predicted coverage area of any analog TV station; the protected digital-TV service areas under the FCC's Table of Allotments and related rules, including stations later granted digital licenses or seeking to maximize power; the protected area of any low-power or translator station licensed, permitted, or with a pending application before the class A application was filed; or, for certain frequency bands, an 80-mile radius around specific protected areas listed in FCC rules. (8) Low-power stations displaced by a class A application get priority over other low-power stations when new channels become available. (g) Evaluation. Within 10 years after the FCC first issues advanced-TV licenses, it must evaluate the program — looking at whether consumers are actually buying the TV sets needed to watch advanced TV, what other uses (including public safety) exist for that spectrum, and how much spectrum the FCC has been able to reclaim from licensees. (h) Provision of digital data service by low-power television stations. (1) Within 60 days of a proper request, the FCC must let a listed low-power station provide digital data service — as a pilot project testing whether low-power stations can deliver high-speed wireless internet, including to underserved areas. (2) The law names 13 specific pilot stations, in cities including Houston, Tampa, Jacksonville, Albany, Honolulu, Phoenix, Bozeman (two stations), Richmond, Nashville, the Kenai Peninsula/Matanuska-Susitna area in Alaska, and Plano and Aurora, Illinois. (3) The FCC had to write rules — within 120 days of the authorizing Act — covering how stations request pilot status, how to test for interference, how to shut down a station or transmitter that causes interference, what quarterly reports participating stations must file, how a station must coordinate with local broadcasters, and how the FCC will handle interference complaints quickly. (4) A pilot station can't provide digital data service unless doing so, including any return-signal transmission for two-way service, doesn't interfere with other TV stations under existing rules, and unless it follows FCC safety, environmental, and engineering rules. (5) The FCC can limit a station's digital data service if two-way service causes interference that can't be fixed, or if one-way service causes any interference at all; but the FCC must let a station apply to relocate, switch channels, or use booster transmitters if doing so won't cause interference and fits the FCC's normal rules for non-class-A stations. The FCC must also collect quarterly reports on interference complaints and market results, and must resolve interference complaints within 60 days. (6) The FCC must charge these pilot stations an annual fee similar to fees charged for comparable services, may keep some of that money to cover the pilot program's costs, and must send the rest to the Treasury. (7) "Digital data service" in this subsection includes interactive digital broadcast service and wireless internet access, however it's delivered — one-way or two-way, portable or fixed, and regardless of technology, including delivery from multiple transmitters at multiple sites. (8) Nothing here limits the FCC's authority under any other law. (i) Definitions. "Advanced television services" means TV services using digital or other advanced technology, as defined in the FCC's 1992 order on advanced television systems and later related proceedings. A "designated frequency" is any frequency the FCC designates for advanced-TV licenses. "High definition television" means a system offering roughly twice the resolution — both vertical and horizontal — of TVs generally available as of February 8, 1996, as further defined in that same FCC proceeding.