FCC Auction Rules Fall Short of Protecting Broadcasters in Key Areas, NAB Says

“In a number of critical areas, the Commission elected to employ only half-measures to protect broadcasters, essentially suggesting that Congress instructed the FCC merely to 'give it the old college try,’ and too bad viewers are left in the dark after the auction,” NAB said.

NAB supports full reimbursement for broadcasters who must move even if they don’t sell. “If broadcasters electing not to participate in the auction are forced to fund their own involuntary relocation, the auction is no longer voluntary,” NAB said. There's growing evidence that the $1.75 billion relocation fund will be insufficient to cover the costs of relocating broadcasters, the group said. It said clearing 120 MHz nationwide for wireless broadband requires relocating 1,163 stations, and clearing 84 MHz nationwide requires relocating 1,332 stations. “There is no reason to believe the $1.75 billion relocation fund will be sufficient to reimburse costs associated with this many channel changes,” the group said.

The rules also must be changed to guarantee that broadcasters don’t suffer more than de minimis losses of population served as a result of post-auction changes. “NAB’s analysis of these repacking simulations shows that some stations may experience significant population losses beyond the interference loss values on which the FCC has focused,” the group said. In their analysis of potential losses, FCC staff focuses only in interference, NAB noted. It predicted that losses due to channel changes may prove “many times greater than the losses due to new interference.”

NAB questioned the FCC’s “inflexible” 39-month deadline for stations to be relocated after the auction. Changing facilities at a “super complicated site,” such as on the roof of a tall building in New York or Chicago or on Mount Sutro in San Francisco, could take longer than 39 months, NAB said. That doesn’t take into account “scheduling issues, weather delays or other factors” that could slow progress, NAB said. “The Commission should adopt a clear, predictable waiver process that allows stations to remain on the air if they are unable to complete relocation due to circumstances outside their control,” the group said. NAB also agreed with questions raised about whether the FCC should be required to complete international coordination before starting the auction. “Failure to complete international coordination prior to commencing the auction puts hundreds of stations at risk of either failing to receive reimbursement for their involuntary relocation, or being forced to go dark on their old channels before relocation is completed and they can begin operation on their reassigned channels,” NAB said.

CTIA took a particular shot at calls by some broadcasters that the FCC reconsider the current 600 MHz band plan, which allows for limited market variability in markets where less spectrum can be cleared. “While CTIA believes that a near-national band plan will greatly simplify the auction and deployment of 600 MHz spectrum, the band plan can and should accommodate a limited amount of market variability to increase the amount of spectrum available in non-constrained markets,” the group said in its comments.

But CTIA supported the Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition’s calls for reconsideration of rules that could inhibit channel sharing. Broadcasters should have the tools to control with whom they share post-auction, CTIA said. “In the absence of such certainty, broadcasters interested in channel sharing may nonetheless determine that such an arrangement will not work for them, an outcome clearly not in the public interest.” The FCC should also allow channel sharing agreements even if agreements are not worked out before the auction, CTIA said: Negotiation of channel sharing agreements “is a highly complex and time-consuming process, and the window provided by the Commission may dissuade broadcasters from attempting channel sharing.”

CTIA disputed arguments by Block Communications that the federal spectrum law that authorized the auction limits repacking costs to $1.75 billion. “The Spectrum Act merely limits the budget of the Relocation Fund to $1.75 billion – it does not require that actual costs fall below this level,” CTIA said. “Such a limitation on repacking threatens to limit the number of stations repacked and thus the amount of spectrum made available for wireless services.”