Monty Tayloe

FCC Commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Ajit Pai said rules devised for the TV incentive auction will discourage participation by broadcasters, further tilt the playing field in favor of competitors to AT&T and Verizon and effectively mean that the FCC won't offer generic blocks of spectrum. The two vigorously dissented to an incentive auction procedures public notice, citing those and other concerns. The two Republicans and Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel also issued a plea for the FCC to simplify the rules as much as possible prior to the auction, now slated to start in 2016. Pai said he wished “luck” for those planning to comment on the auction rules. “They will need it as they try to decipher what these proposals mean and how they are supposed to work,” he said Thursday.

Though the FCC has characterized Sinclair’s deal with Howard Stirk Holdings as a victory for rules designed to increase diversity, Free Press and Sinclair's general counsel are less convinced the new arrangement is an improvement, they said in interviews. Free Press and others had characterized Sinclair’s original plan to shutter the stations as a political move designed to make tighter rules for joint sales agreements look bad. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn pointed to the stations’ sale last week to the African-American-owned broadcaster as evidence that those policies are working. New ownership models will "bring more independent voices to the station ownership ranks in a manner that promotes diversity, competition, and localism,” said Wheeler and Clyburn in a blog post.

A pricing plan proposed in the upcoming draft FCC incentive auction comment public notice is seen by many as discouraging broadcasters from participating in the auction and increasing the likelihood of interference between repacked broadcast stations and wireless uses, wireless and broadcast industry officials told us. The PN on circulation and slated for Thursday’s FCC meeting proposes basing initial offers to broadcasters in part on the population they serve, and also proposes using a dynamic reserve pricing system, said Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition Executive Director Preston Padden and other industry officials. Under that DRP system, some broadcasters in the auction could face a choice of either being repacked into the wireless band or having already-locked-in bids for their stations unexpectedly reduced. Called the “antithesis of simplicity” by Padden in a recent ex parte filing, the DRP proposal is opposed by wireless, unlicensed and broadcast industry stakeholders because of its complexity and since it would increase interference and variability in the spectrum band plan, said a wireless industry official.

The success of the AWS-3 auction shows there's a demand for mid-band spectrum, and highlights an FCC error in establishing an enhanced review process for low-band spectrum as part of mobile spectrum holdings item, Commissioner Ajit Pai said in a Q&A session on the second day of the Practising Law Institute’s Institute on Telecommunications Policy and Regulation. Pai described the reaction to the success of the AWS-3 auction as “pleasantly shocked” and cited the FCC decision to have open eligibility for the auction as “greatly increasing participation” and one of the reasons it generated total provisional winning bids of $41 billion so far (see 1412050052). Pai and members of panels of privacy experts and consumer electronics industry officials also discussed net neutrality, the Internet of Things and possible ways the Communications Act could be updated to improve the FCC.

The FCC Media Bureau restarted the merger shot clocks and pleading cycles for the AT&T/DirecTV and Comcast/Time Warner Cable deals on the same day that Dish Network, Public Knowledge and other entities launched their new Stop Mega Comcast Coalition in opposition to that deal. The new group, which also includes content company The Blaze, NTCA, Sports Fan Coalition and others, wants the FCC and Department of Justice to block the Comcast/TWC merger outright, said Public Knowledge President Gene Kimmelman in a conference call Wednesday. “It’s no surprise that the same competitors and special interest groups who’ve gone after Comcast in the past are at it again,” said Comcast in a blog post responding to the coalition launch and FCC announcement of the restarted merger reviews.

Broadcasters need more transparency from the FCC Media Bureau on how broadcaster repacking costs will be reimbursed after the incentive auction, said NAB in comments posted Friday in docket 12-268 on the draft version of the forms that broadcasters will use to request payouts from the $1.75 billion relocation fund. The fund doesn’t have enough money to cover the costs of the repacking, NAB said. “The best forms and processes will not solve the problem.” Along with commenters Association of Public Television Stations, Corporation for Public Broadcasting and PBS and engineering firm Cohen, Dippell, NAB said the form didn’t include enough categories of reimbursable expense, and asked for improvements that would allow broadcasters to submit more complete justifications for their costs.

The FCC is implementing electronic filing procedures for domestic Section 214 Communications Act transfer of control and discontinuance applications and LEC network change notifications, said an order issued Wednesday. The change follows recommendations from the commission’s Report on FCC Process Reform, the order said. Accompanied by new functionality for the Electronic Comment Filing System that allows non-docketed filings to be submitted, the order indicates the filing change is part of a broader effort to expand electronic filing options. “We expect these new filing procedures to be more convenient and efficient for applicants, provide better transparency and information to the public, and save Commission staff resources,” the order said. It was approved by all FCC members.

FCC adoption of two minimum sales prices for spectrum in the incentive auction will discourage competition and lower the amount of money the auction generates for taxpayers, said the Competitive Carriers Association, Computer & Communications Industry Association and T-Mobile in reply comments to oppositions to petitions for reconsideration in docket 12-268 Monday, the deadline for such comments. In their own filings, the New America Foundation and Public Knowledge disagreed with the WMTS Coalition over whether petitions opposing unlicensed use in Channel 37 are premature. Low-power TV interests and Sennheiser asked the FCC to overturn some auction decisions, and NAB attacked CTIA’s “cheerleading” for FCC decisions that “abrogate the rights of broadcasters.” CTIA’s “wholehearted support for each of the Commission’s decisions harming broadcasters draws into sharp focus exactly how imbalanced the Commission’s Report and Order is,” NAB said.

Video streaming service Aereo has about $20 million in assets, including about $4.5 million in cash, and faces $4.2 million in liabilities, plus potential damage claims from broadcasters, the company said in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing Thursday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan.

A draft of proposed rules for the incentive auction circulated among commissioner offices Thursday proposes setting opening bid prices for the reverse auction based on TV stations' population served and the amount of interference they cause, FCC officials told us on background. The draft item, called the auction comment Public Notice, will eventually go before the full commission for a vote before being offered up for public comment, as expected (see 1410160056).