NAB, Harris: FCC Needs to Build In More Planning Time to TV Station Relocation

The National Association of Broadcasters and tech powerhouse Harris Corp. told the Federal Communications Commission that there could be chaos unless broadcasters have the flexibility to take more than three years after spectrum auctions to relocate and repack their signals.

The FCC held a workshop on its design of a program to reimburse broadcasters for channel relocations after the FCC reclaims some broadcast spectrum for wireless broadband through reverse auctions, and the general agreement was that the FCC needed to provide sufficient opportunity for planning of those moves. In introducing the panel discussion, which was moderated by the Media Bureau's Rebecca Hanson, Bureau Chief Bill Lake said the FCC's goals in coming up with a plan and spending up to $1.75 billion to do so were simplicity, promptness and fairness. He said the reimbursement was not meant to be Christmas or winning the lottery. He also said the workshop was more about teeing up the right questions to ask when the FCC issues its first notices of proposed rulemaking this fall. Currently, the deadline for the FCC and broadcasters to complete what amounts to a second DTV transition is within three years after the end of the auction. While that deadline was set by Congress, Jane Mago, who represented the National Association of Broadcasters, said the FCC could ultimately control the time period by tying the end of the auctions to when broadcasters had had sufficient time to plan for their moves