FCC Still Not Reserving Noncommercial Channel in Each Market

Apparently, despite pushback from noncommercial broadcasters and some phone calls from the Hill, the Federal Communications Commission is still proposing not to guarantee at least one noncommercial channel reservation in each market after the incentive auction. That is part of a number of rejections of petitions to reconsider the incentive auction framework that the FCC plans to vote on at its public meeting June 18.

Multiple sources inside and outside the FCC said, that as far as they knew, the item still denies the request by the Association of Public Television Stations, PBS and CPB for at least one noncommercial channel in each market after the auction -- in case, as expected, some noncoms give up their spectrum for auction. Without that set-aside, they warned, it could adversely impact minority communities and others reliant on over-the-air TV. FCC staffers have been arguing the channel set-asides would complicate the auction, said one source familiar with conversations with those staffers, though it would be hard to make it any more complicated than it already is.