The FCC may have delayed its spectrum auction procedures vote until Aug. 6, but in the process it backed into an announcement of the start date for the broadcast incentive auction—March 29, 2016.
Rather than trumpet a date finally put on its general “first-quarter 2016” target, a date broadcasters and others have been trying to pin down, the commission appeared to bury it in the title of the auction procedures item on a list of items on circulation. That came after FCC chairman Tom Wheeler pulled the item from a vote at the public meeting July 16 and rescheduled it for Aug. 6.
More likely it just slipped out, since it is part of something that has yet to be voted on or approved, so there was no reason to trumpet it just yet.
In any event, there is now a date that, if not exactly certain, is at least somewhat more certain.
