NAB Asks For Clarity On Auction

The NAB wants the FCC to clarify that “all broadcasters will receive equal treatment in repacking, regardless of whether and how they participate in the auction.”

In a Petition for Clarification filed Sept. 11, NAB said that the commission’s public notice on the proposed spectrum repacking following next year’s spectrum auction “could be read to suggest that the commission is planning to relocate in the 600 MHz band only those television stations that do not participate in the reverse auction or do not participate in a particular manner.

“NAB requests that the commission clarify that all broadcasters will receive equal treatment in repacking, regardless of whether and how they participate in the auction (if their bids are not ultimately accepted). Notwithstanding the protections the commission asserts it will extend to stations placed in the wireless band, for a variety of reasons no broadcaster would voluntarily choose to be relocated outside of the broadcast band. Congress instructed that the auction remain voluntary, meaning that no station should feel obligated to participate in the auction and its decision whether and at what level to participate should be motivated solely by the economic opportunity presented.

“Repacking only non-participants in the 600 MHz band in the opening stage, and not making their channel assignments subject to optimization, would mark a significant departure from the commission’s position in the Comment Public Notice. There, the commission stated that, “Stations will be treated the same in the repacking process whether or not they participate in the auction.” Were the commission to take a different approach, it would be violating both the letter and spirit of the Spectrum Act and the fundamental voluntary nature of the auction.”

NAB continued: “We assume the commission intends to treat all stations equally in the repacking process, as it stated it would in the Comment PN. To avoid unnecessary confusion on this point, and to reassure broadcasters that the commission intends to treat them fairly in all aspects of the incentive auction, we respectfully request that the commission promptly clarify that stations not participating in the auction will not be treated differently than participating stations.”