This week at the FCC is looking to be a big, even historic, one for broadcasters as the reverse auction winds down and the commission’s review of ownership rules winds up.
If all goes as planned, the FCC on the morning of June 29 will close the reverse auction after round 52 (or that afternoon after round 54, if needed)—and, almost immediately, will announce the cost of hitting its 126 MHz spectrum-clearing target.
The higher that cost is, the harder it will be for the FCC to cover it with forward auction proceeds, but the FCC probably won’t know that for months.
If the forward auction does not raise enough, the FCC moves to round two of the reverse auction, lowering the clearing target, meaning some of the stations with payouts would lose out.
If the forward covers the cost, the auction closes and the FCC turns to step two, the television station repack.
The forward auction cannot begin until at least July 1, when the forward auction upfront payments are due. Likely the auction will start in mid-to-late July at the earliest. The FCC must still conduct a mock forward auction to allow bidders to test the system, as it lets broadcasters test the reverse auction online bidding.
The other big FCC action this week is chairman Tom Wheeler’s promised circulation by the end of June of the agency’s overdue quadrennial review of media ownership rules, which incorporates 2010 and 2014 reviews. The FCC is under pressure from a federal court to come up with a definition of eligible entity so it can get on with spurring diverse ownership.
The court also remanded the FCC’s decision tightening station duopoly rules to include most joint sales agreements, which Wheeler may try to restore via the item being circulated.
