FCC Sets Comment Schedule for Auction Challenges
The FCC will give those opposed to petitions to reconsider the FCC's May broadcast incentive auction order until Nov. 12 to file those, with oppositions due Nov. 24.
The National Association of Broadcasters and Sinclair went directly to court with their issues with the auction item, but a number of petitions to reconsider were filed, including by noncommercial broadcasters who want the FCC to explicitly preserve noncommercial licenses in every market, and the Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition, which wants the FCC to fix calculations of TV station interference and signal contours.
T-Mobile also challenged the orderfor how much of the low band spectrum was, or in this case, was not reserved for carriers other than Verizon and AT&T.
The FCC released the list of petitions Oct. 2, which was published Oct.27 in the Federal Register. By FCC rule, the deadlines are 15 days after that publication for oppositions to those petitions, and replies 10 days after that.
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Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.