Sinclair Plan Shot Down By FCC Fine Print

The Federal Communications Commission has all but slammed the door on a broadcast industry proposal that could have made it easier for TV station groups to introduce a new advanced television standard in the US, broadcast industry sources said.

Under the proposal, originally pitched at the FCC by Sinclair Broadcast Group, TV station groups that agreed to forego federal reimbursement for any stations forced to move to new channels during the agency’s incentive auction repacking process would have received a waiver allowing them to use the existing spectrum for all their stations’ channels for traditional broadcast and other new services.

Some broadcasters, led by Sinclair, want to be able to use at least part of their existing spectrum capacity to introduce an advanced TV standard that would make it easier for them to broadcast a variety of services to consumer mobile devices. But in the fine print of the 484-page text of the incentive auction rules the agency released June 2, the FCC rejected the request for a blanket waiver that would have applied to all of a group broadcaster’s stations.