SOUTH BEND — Get ready, viewers: The local television landscape could soon be turned upside down by the federal government.
The Federal Communications Commission wants to create more airwave space for smartphones and tablets, and it is looking to TV stations across the country to free up that room.
The FCC's upcoming auction of public airwaves will result in faster speeds on mobile devices to, for example, stream video on the go. But it could come at a cost for over-the-air viewers who watch TV for free with antennas, as some of their favorite channels could go dark.
Some local stations that carry popular shows, such as “Everybody Loves Raymond” on My Michiana Channel 69, could be in jeopardy. Cable and satellite subscribers could also lose some channels.
And in a market crowded with four network affiliates that cover local news, the auction could trigger at least one to shut down and have its programming rights sold to a rival. A station in the spotlight is ABC 57 because it is a low-power station — unlike its full-power news competitors — meaning it could be involuntarily knocked off the air by the FCC.
If one or more local affiliates go away, that will likely trigger a scramble among the surviving stations to pick up their programming — to keep, for example, ABC shows like "Dancing with the Stars" and "Grey's Anatomy" on local airwaves.
But nothing is certain about what changes the complex auction will bring. Only this much is sure: the auction will transfer a massive swath of airwaves across the country from carrying TV signals to delivering wireless services for data-hungry mobile devices. The shift comes as consumers are spending less time watching TV and more time streaming video on smartphones and tablets.
Experts say airwaves — also known as spectrum — in the South Bend market are in higher demand by the FCC than in other regions. That's because the region is surrounded by major markets: Chicago, Indianapolis and Detroit.