FCC Auction Task Force Deciding on Specifics of Auction Outreach

The FCC Incentive Auction Task Force is deciding what information will be provided to broadcasters as part of the commission’s outreach efforts in advance of the incentive auction, said an agency official Tuesday.

The commission has hired investment banking firm Greenhill & Co. to prepare “information material” that will contain information on pricing and auction mechanics to help broadcasters decide whether to participate in the auction, but it’s unclear how specific that material will get, how it will be disseminated or its breadth, agency officials told us. “To be effective, that material needs to tell broadcasters the range of prices they can expect to see,” said Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasting Coalition Executive Director Preston Padden.

Price estimates will be part of the information material, FCC officials said, declining to talk about the specifics of how that information will be presented, whether it will be a broad range or specific to each broadcaster. Specificity matters, said industry attorney Jack Goodman. “If it’s generic prices, it doesn’t tell me anything.” Price information presented to broadcasters should at least be specific to each market to allow educated decisions about auction participation, he said.

Too much pricing information could represent a government overreach, said NAB Executive Vice President-Strategic Planning Rick Kaplan. The FCC shouldn’t be telling individual stations what their value in the auction is, Kaplan said. “The FCC shouldn’t tell someone they regulate how much they're worth.” Such an estimate would be largely subjective, he said. “Broadcasters are smart enough they don’t need the government telling them the value of their stations.” Kaplan said it’s very important for the FCC to tell broadcasters the opening bids they can expect to receive, and said commission outreach efforts are essential to the auction. Opening bid information “should be widely available,” he said. “Nobody should not know the opening price for their station."

Any pricing information the FCC can provide to broadcasters should be welcome, Padden said. “We're not going to try to micromanage how the FCC provides [information] to broadcasters,” he said. “The FCC staff understands the need for pricing guidance.” The hiring of Greenhill to prepare the information material is “a positive sign,” Padden said. Having an outside firm do that work could also allay concerns voiced by some broadcasters that the FCC outreach efforts could be perceived as the regulator “strong-arming” them into the auction, said Goodman.

The Task Force is working on how the informational material will be shared, said an FCC official. Auction officials could approach broadcasters that are likely candidates for the auction, or the FCC may ask broadcasters to come to them, the official said.

Along with pricing, the information material will include a detailed explanation of the auction mechanics, and information on the many options for participating broadcasters, said the FCC official. That will include information on channel sharing, moving stations from UHF to VHF and the repacking process, the official said. Although the information material won’t be available until later this summer, the FCC started some outreach efforts with webinars for state broadcasting associations this week, said the officials.