Levin To TV: Give Auction Plan A Chance

A Q&A with former Federal Communications Commission staffer Blair Levin. Levin, who led the task force that wrote the National Broadband Plan and, since leaving the FCC in May, has been a fellow at the Aspen Institute. He remains an advocate and unofficial spokesman for the plan.

The way Levin sees it, the National Broadband Plan is no real threat to broadcasting. On the contrary, he believes it's an opportunity for broadcasters who are facing increasing competition and decreasing profits to cash in on all or some of their spectrum. The opportunity can be seized or ignored. The key is the incentive auction -- an auction of repurposed spectrum that will allow incumbents like broadcasters to receive some share of the proceeds. Levin predicts that Congress will authorize such auctions, although he does not know what limits will be placed on the sharing of proceeds. "Then the broadcasters will have a choice about whether they want to play a constructive role in that process or not," he says. Levin also reemphasizes that most aspects of the spectrum play are voluntary and urges broadcasters to cast aside their skepticism, cool the rhetoric and join the FCC (and now the White House) in coming up with a final reallocation plan that benefits broadcasters and satisfies the country's pressing need for wireless broadband spectrum.