Before the

Federal Communications Commission

Washington, D.C. 20554

In the Matter of )

)

Assessment and Collection of Regulatory Fees for ) MD Docket No. 19-105

Fiscal Year 2019 )

)

COMMENTS OF PUERTO RICO TELEVISION BROADCASTERS

AMERICA-CV STATIONS, INC.

Francisco R. Montero, Esq.

Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth, PLC

1300 N 17th Street, Suite 1100

Arlington, VA 22209

Tel: (703) 812-0400

Fax: (703) 812-0486

montero@fhhlaw.com

SPANISH BROADCASTING SYSTEM HOLDING COMPANY

TELEVICENTRO OF PUERTO RICO, LLC

Sally A. Buckman, Esq.

Nancy A. Ory, Esq.

F. Scott Pippin, Esq.

Lerman Senter PLLC

2001 L Street NW, Suite 400

Washington, DC 20036

Tel: (202) 429-8970

Fax: (202) 293-7783

sbuckman@lermansenter.com

December 6, 2019

i

Summary

VHF television stations are unfairly penalized under the Commission’s Noise Limited

Service Contour population-based regulatory fee formula. VHF stations suffer from technical

inferiorities that make their signals highly susceptible to degradation caused by terrain shielding

and other factors. These same issues affect all television stations in Puerto Rico – whether VHF

or UHF. The Commission recognizes that, due to severe terrain conditions, actual television

coverage in Puerto Rico is far less than predicted coverage. In Puerto Rico, broadcast television

service is often not received within the Grade A contour (equivalent to the Principal Community

Contour), much less the Grade B contour (equivalent to the Noise Limited Service Contour).

Therefore, Noise Limited Service Contours vastly overstate actual signal coverage and

populations served, and result in unfair and inequitable inflation of the regulatory fees assessed

on Puerto Rico’s television stations.

For Fiscal Year 2020, each of Puerto Rico Television Broadcasters will be assessed fees

based on hypothetical NLSC service to millions more people than live on the island of Puerto

Rico. The Noise Limited Service Contours of each of these broadcasters’ stations, which include

satellites that combine with a primary station to form “networks,” hypothetically overlap – often

to a large degree or almost entirely. Residents who live within the NLSCs of more than one of

these stations are counted two, three, or even four times. As a result, on an island with a total

2010 population of 3.7 million people, Televicentro’s stations are predicted to serve 9.06 million

people. ACV’s stations are predicted to serve 11.5 million people. SBS’s stations are predicted

to serve 5.5 million people. Puerto Rico Television Broadcasters will be assessed regulatory fees

based on these greatly exaggerated population numbers.

ii

When translated into actual dollar figures, the results are shocking. This double-, triple-,

and even quadruple- counting of viewers, combined with a general overcounting of the

population that results from the use of outdated 2010 census data that does not take into account

Puerto’s Rico’s recent 14% drop in population, results in fee assessments that simply cannot be

justified. Televicentro’s regulatory fee liability will go up 850%, from $7,700.00 to $65,485.57.

ACV’s total fees will rise nearly 900%, from $9,325.00 to $82,955.16. SBS’s fees will increase

from $7,700 to $40,028.75, an escalation of 520%.

These results are untenable. Puerto Rico Television Broadcasters encourage the

Commission to continue its longstanding tradition of recognizing that the application of a general

rule to Puerto Rico would be unfair and burdensome, and to afford Puerto Rico’s television

broadcasters appropriate relief. Puerto Rico Television Broadcasters suggest that the

Commission either reinstate the uniform satellite fee rule for satellite stations in Puerto Rico, or

set a standard that limits the “market served” by a primary station and any commonly owned

satellites in Puerto Rico to no more that the total population of the Puerto Rico DMA – that is,

the total population of the island.

Before the

Federal Communications Commission

Washington, D.C. 20554

In the Matter of )

)

Assessment and Collection of Regulatory Fees for ) MD Docket No. 19-105

Fiscal Year 2019 )

)

COMMENTS OF PUERTO RICO TELEVISION BROADCASTERS

America-CV Station Group, Inc. (“ACV”), Spanish Broadcasting System Holding

Company, Inc. (“SBS”), and Televicentro of Puerto Rico, LLC (“Televicentro”) (collectively,

“Puerto Rico Television Broadcasters”), respectfully file these comments in response to the

Commission’s Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“FNPRM”) in the above-referenced

proceeding.1 Puerto Rico Television Broadcasters proudly serve the Commonwealth of Puerto

Rico, a unique island the Commission recognizes is “in a highly unusual position”2

geographically and economically, and which requires special measures by broadcasters and the

Commission to ensure that all citizens of the island receive broadcast television service.

In its assessment of annual regulatory fees, the FCC has recently substantially changed

the methodology it uses to calculate broadcast television station fees.3 Previously, fees were

1 Assessment and Collection of Regulatory Fees for Fiscal Year 2019, Report and Order and Further Notice of

Proposed Rulemaking, 34 FCC Rcd. 8189 (2019) (“2019 Regulatory Fee Order”).

2 Paxson Communications of San Juan, Inc., Memorandum Opinion and Order, 16 FCC Rcd. 14139, 14143 (2001)

(“Paxson”).

3 See Assessment and Collection of Regulatory Fees for Fiscal Year 2019, Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, 34 FCC

Rcd. 3272 (2019); Assessment and Collection of Regulatory Fees for Fiscal Year 2018, Report and Order, 33 FCC

Rcd. 8497, 8501-502, ¶¶ 13-15 (2018); Assessment and Collection of Regulatory Fees for Fiscal Year 2018, Report

and Order and Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, 33 FCC Rcd 5091, 5101-103, ¶¶ 27-31 (2018) (“2018 Regulatory

Fee Order”).

2

based on the size of the market (the “DMA”) served by each station, with DMAs arranged by

tiers, so that stations in larger markets paid higher fees. Stations that were categorized as

“satellites” paid a uniform (and often much lower) fee regardless of DMA. Regulatory fees

assessed on non-satellite television stations serving Puerto Rico were based on a DMA size in

the “remaining markets” tier, i.e., those markets below DMA number 100. Now, the

Commission is converting to a system where fees are based on the population that a television

station is predicted to serve. The stated purpose of this change is to allow the Commission to

“more accurately ascertain the actual market served by a station.”4 In calculating this “actual

market,” the Commission has chosen to rely on the predicted Noise Limited Service Contour

(“NLSC”) of each station. Thus, the number of people who reside within a station’s predicted

NLSC determines the fee paid by that station.

Several parties (the “VHF Licensees”) expressed concerns in this proceeding that the use

of NLSC-based population data results in overcounting of actual populations served by VHF

stations, and therefore in over-assessment of regulatory fees against those stations. The VHF

Licensees asked the Commission to adjust VHF station fees downward, or at least to reconsider

how the fees are assessed, in recognition of the technical inferiorities inherent in VHF signals.5

In the FNPRM, the Commission sought comment on these concerns.6 The Puerto Rico

Television Broadcasters support the VHF Licensees’ request, and agree with the VHF Licensees

that because of the technical limits of VHF signals, “projected noise-limited contours do[ ] not

4 2018 Regulatory Fee Order, 33 FCC Rcd. at 5096, ¶ 12.

5 See Comments of Maranatha Broadcasting Company, Inc., MD Docket No. 19-105 (filed June 6, 2019)

(“Maranatha Comments”); Comments of T Z Sawyer Technical Consultants, MD Docket No. 19-105 (filed June 7,

2019) (“Sawyer Comments”); Reply Comments of National Association of Broadcasters, MD Docket No. 19-105

(filed June 24, 2019).

6 2019 Regulatory Fee Order, 34 FCC Rcd. at 8214-215, ¶ 68.

3

reflect an adequate measure of the actual service provided by . . . VHF stations.”7 It is common

knowledge in the broadcasting industry that VHF signals are severely degraded by factors such

as terrain blockage, and that predicted NLSCs often significantly overstate actual signal coverage

provided by VHF stations. As the VHF Licensees correctly asserted, relying on Noise Limited

Service Contours will result in an overcount of the actual population served by VHF stations, and

artificial inflation of regulatory fees levied against VHF stations.

These very same issues affect all television stations in Puerto Rico – whether VHF or

UHF. The Commission consistently recognizes that “the severe and rugged terrain conditions

existing in Puerto Rico have a significant limiting [e]ffect on the actual over-the-air coverage of

television stations operating on the island.”8 The Commission long ago determined that actual

signal coverage in Puerto Rico is far less than “the coverage indicated by calculated . . . [Grade]

B contours.”9 “In fact, [the Commission] . . . determined that useful television service for

stations in Puerto Rico usually does not extend beyond the Grade A contour and is sometimes not

satisfactory within that area.”10 In the digital broadcasting era, NLSC “generally is considered

equivalent to the analog Grade B contour, which was larger than the analog Grade A contour.”11

It is clear, therefore, that NLSC vastly overstates actual coverage for television stations in Puerto

Rico. “Useful television service” in Puerto Rico is often not even received within the Principal

7 Maranatha Comments at 2.

8 Hector Nicolau, Memorandum Opinion and Order, 5 FCC Rcd. 6370, 6371 (1990).

9 Id.

10 Canal 48, Memorandum Opinion and Order, 8 FCC Rcd. 2193, 2194 (1993) (emphasis added); see also

Televicentro of Puerto Rico, Letter, 22 FCC Rcd. 2176, 2177 (MB 2007) (“[The] useful television coverage for

stations in Puerto Rico is ordinarily limited to the Grade A contour and is sometimes unsatisfactory even within that

area.”) (“Televicentro Decision”).

11 Stephen Diaz Gavin, Letter, 25 FCC Rcd. 1851, 1857 (MB 2010).

4

Community Contour, which is the digital equivalent of the analog Grade A contour, much less

the NLSC. Relying on hypothetical NLSC predictions results in an extremely inaccurate over-

assessment of actual populations served by television stations in Puerto Rico, and the inflation of

regulatory fees paid by those stations.

Puerto Rico’s exceptionally challenging operating environment has led the island’s

broadcasters, and the Commission, to undertake and permit unique arrangements to ensure that

all Puerto Ricans have access to broadcast television service. In Puerto Rico, a single broadcast

television signal cannot serve the entire island.12 Puerto Rico is 125 miles long and 35 miles

wide, with a rugged central mountain range that sharply divides the island and in many locations

completely blocks broadcast signals.13 To serve viewers across the island, which the

Commission considers to be a single television market,14 television broadcasters in Puerto Rico

therefore employ a unique “network” system that relies on the strategic placement and operation

of multiple full power satellite television facilities, in addition to a primary station which is

usually located in San Juan. By design, these full power satellites are constructed in close

proximity to each other and to the primary station, and have Noise Limited Service Contours that

hypothetically overlap – substantially, or is some cases, almost entirely. This does not mean,

however, that these stations’ actual signals overlap. The Commission has recognized in

numerous decisions over several decades that due to terrain shielding and outright blockage of

12 “The island’s topography significantly obstructs local broadcast signals, and limits the ability of television stations

in San Juan to provide service to portions of the island for which service would ordinarily be received.” Paxson, 16

FCC Rcd. at 14143.

13 See Univision Communications Inc., Memorandum Opinion and Order, 22 FCC Rcd. 5842, 5857 (2007)

(“Univision”) (“A mountainous ‘spine’ separates the eastern and western portions of Puerto Rico that limits signal

propagation. . . .”)

14 See Televicentro Decision, 22 FCC Rcd. at 2176.

5

signals, there is little if any actual overlap in these stations’ signals. As the Commission stated in

one case involving the common acquisition of two full power stations that were only 47 miles

apart, “while the predicted overlap between [the stations] is not insubstantial, the area[ ] between

the stations is mountainous and neither station is likely to be received much beyond its

immediate community of license.”15 As it has in numerous other decisions, the Commission

found that common ownership and operation of the two stations in question was in the public

interest, even when the multiple ownership rules would have otherwise prevented such common

ownership.

Under the Commission’s new NLSC population-based fee assessment methodology,

Puerto Rico’s television broadcasters are being severely penalized for employing these

innovative network systems, which have been blessed by the Commission numerous times, to

ensure that all residents of Puerto Rico receive broadcast television service. Because the Noise

Limited Service Contours of these stations hypothetically (but not actually) overlap, the

operation of these networks leads to a highly inequitable result in terms of the regulatory fees

now being assessed against the individual stations in the networks. Under the NLSC-based fee

methodology, millions of viewers in Puerto Rico are counted twice, or even three or four times –

once for each predicted NLSC in which they reside. Fees are then assessed against a single

television broadcaster based on overcounts that can number in the millions. This is obviously

inequitable and unfair.

Televicentro’s situation vividly demonstrates the problem of double- and triple- counting

of the population and how such overcounts result in artificial inflation of regulatory fees. As

seen in Attachment A hereto, the predicted NLSC of Televicentro’s WAPA-TV, which

15 Hector Nicolau, 5 FCC Rcd. at 6371.

6

originates from the eastern side of Puerto Rico, covers nearly 100% of the island.16 In reality,

the actual WAPA-TV signal covers nowhere near 100% of Puerto Rico. This is why licenses

were sought from and granted by the Commission for two additional full-power stations to serve

as satellite facilities to retransmit WAPA-TV to viewers located in portions of the island that do

not receive WAPA-TV. The predicted NLSC of the first of these satellites, WTIN-TV, which

originates from the southern part of the island, also covers nearly 100% of the island.17

However, like WAPA-TV, in actuality WTIN-TV serves nowhere near 100% of the island.

Instead, it serves the area directly around Ponce, its community of license, where WAPA-TV’s

signal cannot be received due to terrain blockage. The predicted NLSC of the other full power

satellite – WNJX-TV – which originates from the western side of the island, covers over half of

Puerto Rico, and to a large extent overlaps the predicted contours of both primary WAPA-TV

and sister satellite WTIN-TV.18 However, in reality, WNJX-TV serves only the area in and

around its community of license – Mayaguez – where the signals of WAPA-TV and WTIN-TV

cannot be received due to terrain blockage. Obviously, the satellite stations – WTIN-TV and

WNJX-TV – were never intended to, nor do they actually, provide duplicative service to each

other or to primary station WAPA-TV. They serve highly localized areas near their communities

of license, and their signals, like those of primary station WAPA-TV, are otherwise blocked by

severe terrain.

Relying on NLSC to determine the regulatory fees of these stations leads to highly

inequitable results. Primary station WAPA-TV has a predicted “population served” of

16 See Attachment A, Predicted Noise Limited Service Contours, red WAPA-TV contour.

17 See id., green WTIN-TV contour.

18 See id., blue WNJX-TV contour.

7

3,764,742, while satellite station WTIN-TV is assessed a regulatory fee based on nearly the very

same population (3,714,547) as WAPA-TV.19 The hypothetical NLSCs of these two stations

predict that they both serve nearly the entire island; thus, they are both assessed a fee based on

nearly the entire population of Puerto Rico. But these stations do not serve the same populations,

nor do they serve anywhere near 3.7 million viewers each. Similarly, satellite station WNJX-TV

is predicted to serve approximately 1.6 million of the same viewers that primary station WAPA-

TV serves, and is assessed a regulatory fee accordingly.20 The very same 1.6 million viewers are

also predicted to be served by satellite station WTIN-TV. Stated differently: nearly the entire

population of Puerto Rico is counted twice when assessing the fee of WTIN-TV, and nearly 1.6

million people are counted three times when assessing the fee of WNJX-TV. In total,

Televicentro is being charged fees for these three stations based on purported service to 9.06

million people. Yet in 2010, the entire population of Puerto Rico was 3.73 million.21 This unfair

situation must be addressed.

In actual dollars, for 2019, under the “blended fee” structure, WAPA-TV was assessed a

fee of $15,823.99. WTIN-TV was assessed a fee of $14,230.13. The fees for these two stations

were similar because under the NLSC-based fee assessment methodology the stations are

purported to serve nearly equal numbers of viewers. For FY 2019, the FCC phased in the new

population-based fees, so a portion of WAPA-TV, WTIN-TV, and WJNX-TV’s fees were based

on their much lower historical fees ($4,450.00 for WAPA-TV, and $1,625.00 for each of WTIN-

TV and WNJX-TV). For FY 2020, however, the benefit of this “blend” will disappear. The

19 See 2019 Regulatory Fee Order; see also Attachment A hereto.

20 See Attachment A hereto.

21 U.S. Census Bureau, QuickFacts, Puerto Rico, available at https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/PR. (“Census

QuickFacts for Puerto Rico.”)

8

FCC will use full population-based fees in 2020. WAPA-TV’s fee will increase to $27,197.89.

WTIN-TV’s fee will increase to $26,835.26, and WNJX-TV’s fee will rise to $11,452.42. What

had been a total assessment of $7,700.00 in 2018 will become $65,485.57, an increase of 850%.

Specifically, WAPA-TV’s fee will rise 611% over this two-year period, WTIN-TV’s fee will rise

1,651%, and WNJX-TV’s will rise 705%. These results are unjustifiable.

ACV’s situation mirrors Televicentro’s. ACV is the licensee of four full-power

television stations in Puerto Rico: WJPX, which serves as the primary station, and WJWN-TV,

WKPV, and WIRS, all of which serve as satellites for WJPX.22 While the predicted NLSC

contour of WJPX covers most of Puerto Rico, the actual signal is nowhere near that robust.

ACV therefore uses the three satellite stations to reach the rest of the island.23 The predicted

contours of the satellites overlap each other, and primary station WJPX, to a large degree.24 In

reality, the stations’ actual signals are highly localized, and do not extend far beyond their

communities of license due to the island’s mountainous terrain.

As with Televicentro’s stations, relying on NLSC population-based data to determine the

regulatory fees of ACV’s stations creates highly inequitable results. Under the NLSC model,

satellite station WIRS has a purported “population served” greater than that of its primary

station WJPX (3,714,677 and 3,254,481, respectively),25 even though WIRS is licensed to

22 See America-CV Station Group, Inc., Letter, 22 FCC Rcd. 2751 (MB 2010).

23 See Attachment B. See also America-CV Station Group, 22 FCC Rcd. at 2753.

24 See Attachment B.

25 See 2019 Regulatory Fee Order, 34 FCC Rcd. at 8296 & 8297.

9

Yauco, near the island’s southwest coast, far from the population center of San Juan.26 While the

“population served” of each of ACV’s satellite stations is actually less than that of WJPX,27

reliance on the NLSC population-based methodology nevertheless leads to double-, triple-, and

even quadruple- counting of the population. In total, ACV is now being charged fees for its four

stations based on purported service to nearly 11.5 million people, based on the FCC’s flawed

NLSC-based formula.28 As noted above, the entire population of Puerto Rico was 3.73 million

in 2010. In terms of actual dollars, the historical regulatory fee for ACV’s stations were as

follows: WIRS - $1,625.00; WJPX - $4,450.00; WJWN-TV - $1,625.00; and WKPV -

$1,625.00.29 The proposed FY 2020 regulatory fees for the stations are: WIRS - $26,836.20;

WJPX - $23,511.57; WJWN-TV - $14,180.61; and WKPV - $18,426.78.30 This represents

almost a 900% increase in ACV’s total regulatory fee liability, from $9,325.00 to $82,955.16.

This result is untenable.

SBS is the licensee of primary station WTCV(DT), which serves San Juan and the

eastern side of Puerto Rico, and satellites WVOZ-TV, which serves Ponce and the surrounding

areas on south-central Puerto Rico, and WVEO, which serves Aguadilla and the surrounding

areas on the northwest corner of Puerto Rico. Under the NLSC population-based methodology,

26 ACV notes that the NLSC-based population figure of 3,714,677 for WIRS is based on outdated data. WIRS’s

service area was greatly reduced after the broadcast incentive auction, and the station’s NLSC now encompasses less

than half of the island. See Attachment B. ACV believes that the NLSC-based “population served” by WIRS is

now approximately 1.14 million. ACV encourages the Commission to update its databases and correct this error,

and to investigate whether other stations may have been affected by similar oversights.

27 WJWN-TV and WKPV have a “population served” of 1,962,885 and 2,550,642, respectively. See id. at 8297 &

8298.

28 Assuming that WIRS actually “serves” 1.14 million people, see supra n. 26, the total is 8.9 million.

29 2019 Regulatory Fee Order, 34 FCC Rcd. at 8296-8298.

30 Id.

10

SBS’s three stations are purported to serve 5,574,696 people (on an island with a 2010

population of 3.73 million). Due to double- and triple- counting of the populations served by its

stations, SBS’s total regulatory fees will climb from $7,700.00 to $40,028.75, an increase of

520%.

This situation is exacerbated because, in addition to the double-, triple-, and quadruple-

counting described above, the base population of Puerto Rico is being significantly overcounted

under the Commission’s NLSC population-based methodology. In assessing FY 2019 fees (and

presumably in assessing fees for the next several fiscal years until 2020 census figures become

publicly available), the Commission is relying on census data from 2010. For Puerto Rico, this

data is highly inaccurate. In 2010, the population of Puerto Rico was 3.73 million. As of July 1,

2018, it was 3.19 million, a decrease of 14.4%.31 Between 2017 and 2018 alone, Puerto Rico’s

population declined four percent, “the largest population drop seen in a single year ever

registered.”32 Because of the substantial emigration away from the island, the population is now

at its lowest since 1979.33 This rapid population decline is caused by a combination of severe

economic recession, which shows no signs of abating, and the immense devastation caused by

Hurricanes Irma and Maria.34

31 See Census QuickFacts for Puerto Rico.

32 New Data Shows 4% Drop in Puerto Rico Population Since Maria, Associated Press (Apr. 18, 2019),

https://www.apnews.com/df63a2f9186a4eaaaa531d69d59adf4e.

33 Puerto Rico’s Population Continues to Decline, Puerto Rico Report (July 30, 2019),

https://www.puertoricoreport.com/puerto-ricos-population-continues-to-decline-2/#.XY47IUZKi9I.

34 See Puerto Rico’s Economy Has Been Plummeting Like A Stone, Forbes (Oct. 18, 2019),

https://www.forbes.com/sites/eriksherman/2019/10/18/puerto-ricos-economy-has-been-plummeting-like-a-

stone/#473f2def184e.

11

Clearly, the general rule that the Commission has adopted for assessing broadcast

television regulatory fees – basing the fees on estimates of populations within hypothetical

NLSCs – does not work in Puerto Rico. As it has done numerous times in the past, the

Commission must recognize that applying a general rule to Puerto Rico would be unfair and

unduly burdensome to Puerto Rico’s citizens and its broadcasters, given the special

circumstances of the island and the broadcast industry that provides service to it, and must craft

relief specific to the island. The Commission has long recognized that Puerto Rico’s

broadcasters are subject to different regulatory obligations than those in other areas of the United

States. It has, in many ways, “created a unique body of law applicable only to Puerto Rico,”

especially as pertains to satellite stations.35 As explained above, the Commission has repeatedly

recognized that Puerto Rico’s mountainous terrain and poor economic conditions warrant

approval of satellite exemptions from the local television ownership rule.36 The FCC has also

departed from conventional radio and television broadcast market definitions, and has tailored

market definitions that are specific to the island.37 After Hurricanes Irma and Maria, the Media

Bureau withheld cancelling broadcast licenses in Puerto Rico pursuant to Section 312(g) of the

Act for a period of six months – noting that considerations of “equity and fairness” warranted

withholding such action.38 For similar reasons, the Media Bureau permitted applicants in Puerto

Rico for mutually exclusive (“MX”) FM translators to move their MX translator proposals to any

35 Paxson, 16 FCC Rcd. at 14142.

36 See supra at 4-5.

37 See Timothy Fitzgibbon, Esq., et al., 29 FCC Rcd. 14927, 14929-30 (MB 2014); Televicentro Decision, 22 FCC

Rcd. at 2179; Univision, 22 FCC Rcd. at 5857; Paxson, 16 FCC Rcd. at 14143-44.

38 See Media Bureau Provides Guidance for Broadcast Licensees Still Rebuilding in the Aftermath of Hurricanes

Irma and Maria, Public Notice, 33 FCC Rcd. 8368, 8368-69 (MB 2018).

12

available channel, and treated such changes as minor and therefore permissible under the

Auction 100 rules.39 The Commission has consistently found that the unique socioeconomic and

geographical features of Puerto Rico warrant different regulatory scrutiny for broadcasters on the

island than in other areas of the United States.

This is another instance where the Commission should recognize that a “one size fits all”

approach is not suitable for Puerto Rico and its broadcasters, and should fashion relief

accordingly. In converting from a DMA-based fee structure to one based on predicted NLSC

coverage, the Commission’s stated goal was to “more accurately ascertain the actual market

served by a station.” 40 This goal is not being met in the instance of Puerto Rico; in fact, the

opposite is occurring. Populations are being overcounted and double-, triple-, and quadruple-

counted, and regulatory fees over-assessed based on this erroneous data, leading to absurd

results. The population of Puerto Rico today is 3.19 million. Yet for FY 2020, SBS will be

assessed fees based on purported service to approximately 5.6 million people, Televicentro for

service to 9.06 million people, and ACV for service to 11.5 million people.

Puerto Rico Television Broadcasters respectfully present two possible remedies to this

situation for the Commission’s consideration. First, for satellite stations in Puerto Rico, the

Commission could reinstate the policy of collecting a uniform, set fee. Assessing a fee for

satellite stations in Puerto Rico based on a different methodology than that used for satellites

elsewhere in the United States would be in keeping with the Commission’s longstanding policy

of granting Puerto Rico’s satellite stations special recognition in general. As discussed above,

39 See generally Media Bureau and Wireless Bureau Waive Minor Changes Rule for Auction 100 Applicants

Affected by Hurricanes Irma and Maria, Public Notice, 33 FCC Rcd. 4512 (MB & WTB 2018).

40 2018 Regulatory Fee Order, 33 FCC Rcd. at 5102, ¶ 12.

13

the Commission has frequently made exceptions to permit, and in fact encourage, the liberal

ownership and use of satellites in Puerto Rico. Affording those same stations unique treatment

in the regulatory fee context would be a natural extension of these policies.

Second, the Commission could implement a policy that, for Puerto Rico, the total

combined “market served”41 by a primary station and any commonly owned satellites cannot

exceed the total population of the Puerto Rico DMA – that is, the total population of the island.

It is completely illogical and unfair for the combined “market served” by a primary station and

its satellites to exceed the entire population of all of Puerto Rico, yet that is exactly what occurs

under the NLSC population-based methodology.

CONCLUSION

One commenter in this proceeding succinctly stated, “[a] facility should not be assessed a

fee based on a service population that is not served. . . .”42 Puerto Rico Television Broadcasters

wholeheartedly agree. They ask the Commission to address the manifestly unfair situation they

currently face. Their stations are not only being assessed fees based on service populations that

are not served, but also on populations that do not even exist.

41 Id.

42 Sawyer Comments at 4.

14

Respectfully Submitted,

AMERICA-CV STATIONS, INC.

Francisco R. Montero, Esq.

Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth, PLC

1300 N 17th Street, Suite 1100

Arlington, VA 22209

Tel: (703) 812-0400

Fax: (703) 812-0486

montero@fhhlaw.com

SPANISH BROADCASTING SYSTEM

HOLDING COMPANY

TELEVICENTRO OF PUERTO RICO, LLC

Sally A. Buckman, Esq.

Nancy A. Ory, Esq.

F. Scott Pippin, Esq.

Lerman Senter PLLC

2001 L Street NW, Suite 400

Washington, DC 20036

Tel: (202) 429-8970

Fax: (202) 293-7783

December 6, 2019 sbuckman@lermansenter.com

Attachment A

Attachment B

NLSC Contours of ACV’s Stations

WIRS

WJWN-TV

WJPX

WKPV