TV: Auction Meeting With FCC Chairman Wheeler Too Short

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler has invited incentive auction stakeholders to meet with him personally to take their best shots at his proposed rules for the auctions -- before the agency adopts the regulations as widely expected on May 15 -- but at least some broadcasters are complaining that their meeting with the chairman appears to be little more than window dressing.

“On some levels, it’s an insult,” says one broadcast group representative, of the planned April 22 meeting between Chairman Wheeler and representatives of the National Association of Broadcasters, the TV networks, public broadcasters, network affiliate and station group representatives. “It’s hard to believe this will be a meaningful feedback session,” the station group rep added, of the half-hour session. “It will take half that time for everybody to go around and introduce themselves. What’s the point of dragging us in there?”

NAB coalition members, who have been decidedly unenthusiastic about the auctions from the get-go, are complaining in part because their half-hour “feedback” session with the chairman is allegedly too short to provide for substantive discussion -- and appears to be taking place after the chairman has already forwarded his rule recommendations to his fellow commissioners.