The Metropolitan Television Alliance, LLC (MTVA) is a group organized in the wake of the loss of the transmission facilities atop the World Trade Center in 2001. Its mission is to identify, design and build a facility suitable for the long-term requirements of its member stations to meet their over-the-air digital broadcast requirements. [1] This could include designing facilities for the Freedom Tower in Lower Manhattan, assessing alternative sites and technologies and dealing with local, state and federal authorities on relevant issues. [2]
The original World Trade Center was a large complex of seven buildings in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. It opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. At the time of their completion, the Twin Towers — the original 1 World Trade Center, at 1,368 feet (417 m); and 2 World Trade Center, at 1,362 feet (415.1 m)—were the tallest buildings in the world. Other buildings in the complex included the Marriott World Trade Center, 4 WTC, 5 WTC, 6 WTC, and 7 WTC. The complex was located in New York City's Financial District and contained 13,400,000 square feet (1,240,000 m2) of office space.
One World Trade Center is the main building of the rebuilt World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan, New York City. One WTC is the tallest building in the United States, the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, and the sixth-tallest in the world. The supertall structure has the same name as the North Tower of the original World Trade Center, which was destroyed in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The new skyscraper stands on the northwest corner of the 16-acre (6.5 ha) World Trade Center site, on the site of the original 6 World Trade Center. The building is bounded by West Street to the west, Vesey Street to the north, Fulton Street to the south, and Washington Street to the east.
Lower Manhattan, also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York, is the southernmost part of Manhattan, the central borough for business, culture, and government in the City of New York, which itself originated at the southern tip of Manhattan Island in 1624, at a point which now constitutes the present-day Financial District. The population of the Financial District alone has grown to an estimated 61,000 residents as of 2018, up from 43,000 as of 2014, which in turn was nearly double the 23,000 recorded at the 2000 Census.
The group, which includes stations WABC-TV 7, WCBS-TV 2, WFUT–TV 68, WNBC–TV 4, WNET–TV 13, WNJU–TV 47, WNYE-TV 25, WNYW–TV 5, WPIX–TV 11, WPXN-TV 31, WWOR-TV 9 and WXTV–TV 41, signed a memorandum of understanding in 2003 with the developer, Larry A. Silverstein, to install antennas atop the Freedom Tower. Broadcasters have used the Empire State Building (and, to a lesser degree, 4 Times Square) since the September 11 attacks. [3] In 2006, control of the project was transferred to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, with which further discussions have been ongoing.
WABC-TV, virtual and VHF digital channel 7, is the flagship television station of the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), licensed to New York, New York, United States. The station is owned by the ABC Owned Television Stations subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. WABC-TV's studios are located on Lincoln Square on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, adjacent to ABC's corporate headquarters; its transmitter is located atop the Empire State Building.
WCBS-TV, virtual channel 2, is the flagship station of the CBS television network, licensed to New York, New York, United States. The station is owned by the CBS Television Stations subsidiary of CBS Corporation, as part of a duopoly with Riverhead-licensed independent station WLNY-TV. The two stations share studios within the CBS Broadcast Center on West 57th Street in Midtown Manhattan; WCBS-TV's transmitter is located atop One World Trade Center.
WNBC, virtual channel 4, is the flagship station of the NBC television network, licensed to New York, New York, United States. The station is owned by the NBC Owned Television Stations subsidiary of NBCUniversal, as part of a duopoly with Linden, New Jersey-licensed Telemundo co-flagship WNJU. WNBC's studios are co-located with NBC's corporate headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan; it shares transmitter facilities with WNJU atop One World Trade Center. Master control and some internal operations for the two stations are based in Centennial, Colorado, at the studios of Telemundo O&O KDEN-TV.
The group received a grant from the NTIA to study distributed transmission system (DTS) in New York City. [4] Multiple tests were run from various sites in the New York and Newark region in 2006 and 2007 by MTVA and individual member stations, with the use of distributed transmission on a permanent, non-experimental basis ultimately approved for US stations by the Federal Communications Commission on November 7, 2008.
In North American digital terrestrial television broadcasting, a distributed transmission system is a form of single-frequency network in which a single broadcast signal is fed via microwave, landline, or communications satellite to multiple synchronised terrestrial radio transmitter sites. The signal is then simultaneously broadcast on the same frequency in different overlapping portions of the same coverage area, effectively combining many small transmitters to generate a broadcast area rivalling that of one large transmitter or to fill gaps in coverage due to terrain or localised obstacles.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government created by statute to regulate interstate communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable. The FCC maintains jurisdiction over the areas of broadband access, fair competition, radio frequency use, media responsibility, public safety, and homeland security.
In 2008, Saul Shapiro was appointed President. [5]
