NAB: FCC Needs To Extend Repack Deadline

The NAB today told the FCC that its 39-month deadline for stations to complete moves following the commission’s incentive auction and spectrum repack is “likely unachievable” and the agency should “build into its plan the ability to adjust its schedule based on progress during the transition.”

In reply comments on the repack procedures, the association said: “The commission’s plan to assign broadcasters to phases with fixed transition deadlines before the commission, or repacked broadcasters themselves, know the scope of work involved with a particular transition is unlikely to be successful in practice.” It cited comments from a number of other parties that expressed concern that various factors may make it difficult or impossible to move all the stations in the timeframe laid out by the FCC.

The NAB goes on to agree with comments from the Sinclair Broadcast Group that the commission’s deadline for the submission of construction permit applications and cost estimates within three months, combined with the threat that stations will be forced off the air if they are unable to meet their transition deadline, is likely to result in stations racing to obtain access to vendors and services they will need for the transition. Rather than creating incentives for broadcasters to work cooperatively during the transition, “the commission’s repacking plan creates a paramount, ‘every man for himself’ incentive” that will inevitably lead to inefficiencies that will slow the progress of the transition.

In addition, NAB said that “threatening broadcasters and their viewers with service losses solely due to the commission’s miscalculation is an irresponsible and unfair approach to the repacking challenge.”

NAB also said that to prevent uncertainty leading into the transition, “the commission should expressly determine that stations operating on temporary channels or pursuant to temporary channel sharing will maintain their must carry and retransmission consent rights without alteration.”

It also suggests the FCC “provide transparency into the progress of the transition without placing undue burdens on broadcasters,” and urges adoption of an AT&T proposal that the commission “establish a web portal to disseminate transition information to all affected parties. To that end, broadcasters should be required to provide the commission with an estimate as to when they will be able to complete their transition, and update those estimates periodically, based on major project milestones or when problems arise.”

NAB’s final point was that the repacking plan should not result in any station being forced off the air or to operate with reduced facilities “if it is unable to meet the commission’s arbitrary repacking deadline due to circumstance outside the station’s control. Such an outcome unfairly penalizes repacked television stations and their viewers for a failure that is wholly of the commission’s making.”