FCC Issues Public Draft of LPTV Order Scheduled for Adoption December 18th

The FCC Commissioners meet on December 18, 2025 and have published an agenda that includes consideration of a Report and Order in a proceeding begun by the prior administration that contemplated new regulations for LPTV stations.  A draft of the Order has been published and several items are particularly relevant in the context of new filing opportunities that are ongoing (see next article).

The draft Order updates how relocation distances are calculated for displaced and channel sharing LPTV/TV translator stations, and establishes both a uniform maximum relocation distance for all minor modification applications and a formal method for LPTV Service stations to specify a community of license. The draft also includes language requiring LPTV stations to use a call sign that matches their service designation, though existing LPTV/Class A call signs are “grandfathered.” In addition, it establishes a formal process for LPTV stations to change their service designation, clarifies what EAS equipment must be installed by LPTV stations and the video program responsibilities of LPTV/TV translators. Finally, the draft Order declines to adopt new LPTV minimum operating hours, limit community of license changes, restrict service designation changes, or limit applicants’ ability to round distance calculations.

If adopted, the Order’s provisions would have different “effective dates” because some will need to get approval for new information gathering and application forms.

Although a separate proceeding proposing the imposition of political file obligations on LPTV stations was part of the same docket, the draft Order makes clear that it makes no decision regarding the proposals in that proceeding.