Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Tom Wheeler has said the U.S. incentive auction is on course to begin in early 2016, as he made a final attempt to convince broadcasters to participate in what he called a "once-in-a-lifetime" opportunity.
"We will begin accepting applications in the fall of this year," he said in a speech delivered at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show in Las Vegas, which was published on the FCC’s Website on Wednesday.
The aim of the incentive auction is for TV stations to volunteer their 600 MHz spectrum to be sold to telcos in return for a share of the auction proceeds. Broadcasters that decline to participate will have a choice of either being moved to another frequency, entering a channel-sharing arrangement with another player, or going off air. TV stations that opt not to take part but wish to keep broadcasting will be compensated by the government, which allocated $1.75 billion of the auction proceeds for the purpose.
The FCC hoped to complete the process by the end of 2014, but the complexity of designing the auction rules led to its postponement in late 2013. Then in August last year, NAB filed a lawsuit claiming that the FCC’s plan to ‘repack’ TV stations into other frequency bands would leave some broadcasters short-changed by curtailing their coverage areas, leading to a loss in viewership.
The incentive auction’s complexity coupled with the lawsuit prompted the FCC in October 2014 to postpone the sell-off until early 2016.
The FCC is on track to adopt final rules and procedures "in the next few months," Wheeler said. In addition, the incentive for broadcasters to participate received a boost after the AWS-3 auction raised $41 billion in net bids, confirming "strong mark et demand for more spectrum for wireless broadband," he said.
"A possible bump in the road is a certain lawsuit challenging our rules," Wheeler admitted. "But we are hopeful the court will dispose of that suit in a way that will allow both of us to move forward."
It being the last NAB Show before the incentive auction is due to take place, it was Wheeler’s last chance to publicly convince broadcasters to participate, and he did not hold back from using sales patter.
"The incentive auction is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," he said. "This is it. The FCC has no other incentive auctions planned, or expected."
