Neither the country’s largest radio company nor its largest broadcast association is happy about what the FCC has proposed in reimbursement costs when satellite services transition from the Upper C-band.
iHeartMedia comments
In comments to the Federal Communications Commission, iHeartMedia says this spectrum shift will have a significant impact on affiliates of its Premiere Network, which syndicates approximately 100 programs and services to more than 8,400 radio affiliates.
As Radio World has reported, the FCC plans to auction 160 megahertz in the Upper C-band by July 27, 2027, to clear more spectrum for wireless services.
This repack follows the 2020 spectrum transition of the Lower C-band, which already required many broadcasters to replace or modify satellite equipment. Many operations were compressed into the remaining Upper C-band.
The coming conversion will be far more complex and expensive, iHeart told the commission.
Specifically, the loss of one of three transponders aboard an SES-11 satellite will mean additional equipment costs for incumbent users.
A Preliminary Cost Catalogue from the FCC sets out tentative payments for broadcasters and other spectrum users that need to transition.
iHeart argues that thousands of Premiere Network affiliates and incumbent earth station operators face additional costs to replace antenna feedhorns, install additional converters, filters and cabling, and upgrade indoor distribution systems. It said the previous transition largely required installing interference filters and retuning receivers.
Premiere Networks’ syndicated programs are typically captured by its radio affiliates via their receive-only earth stations, which operate in the Upper C-band, iHeart wrote.
In addition, the modifications will require work “both at the outdoor antenna and within the broadcast radio station’s technical facilities,” including equipment installation, cabling, integration and testing.
iHeart says the transition “will have a far-reaching impact on the broadcast radio industry, whose expenditures to ensure a smooth transition must be adequately funded.”
The Preliminary Cost Catalog, iHeart believes, relies too heavily on the catalog developed for the 2020 transition.
Complicating matters, iHeart says, will be the transition of one of the remaining two SES satellite transponders from vertical to horizontal polarization, which will present a different engineering challenge.
“The change from vertical to horizontal polarization required by the 2026 Upper C-band transition will have significant implications for the radio broadcast affiliates of syndicated programmers,” iHeart wrote.
For a typical affiliate equipped with a single-polarization receive system, the transition will require replacing the existing feedhorn with a dual-polarization capable feed assembly, installing an additional LNB for horizontal reception, adding protective waveguide filtering for both polarization paths, and installing an additional coaxial transmission line between the receive antenna and the equipment room where the receivers are located, it said
iHeart says affiliates of other networks, including Skyview Networks, Westwood One and Learfield, will face similar challenges.
It asked the FCC to improve its transition plan by revising the preliminary calculations to “truly reflect not only inflation but the greater complexities” of the transition.
NAB comments
The National Association of Broadcasters also told the FCC that the reimbursement plan for broadcasters comes up short.
The Upper C-band order establishes that incumbents are entitled to reimbursement of “reasonable and necessary transition costs” to maintain “substantially the same service,” NAB told the commission.
However, it says the Preliminary Cost Catalog does not adequately reflect the equipment, engineering, installation, and other expenses necessary to accomplish that relocation to maintain substantially the same service.
Rather than repacking existing facilities within a reduced portion of C-band, NAB says many incumbent earth station operators will have to relocate to another satellite frequency band, possibly the Ku-band, or to an entirely different distribution platform or both.
NAB asks the FCC to update the catalog using “current, verifiable equipment and service estimates, incorporate additional cost categories, disclose and reassess the assumptions underlying lump-sum calculations, and preserve flexibility for reasonable expenses that are not identified in the catalog or exceed specified amounts.”
The commission should also establish streamlined certification and reimbursement procedures that avoid unnecessary duplication of previously accepted documentation, NAB said.
“Above all, the final Cost Catalog must recognize that the Upper C-band transition will require many incumbents to relocate their operations to different frequency bands or distribution technologies while maintaining substantially the same service.”
