CEA wants to intervene in support of the FCC in...

CEA wants to intervene in support of the FCC in Sinclair’s court challenge of the commission’s incentive auction order, CEA said in a motion filed Monday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (http://bit.ly/1rFUrFT). Sinclair’s challenge threatens to “derail” or “delay” the incentive auction, which would harm CEA’s members, CEA said. Though NAB’s challenge to the auction order was filed last month and has now been consolidated with Sinclair’s, CEA named only Sinclair as the motivation behind the motion to intervene. “Challenges to the Incentive Auction Order by broadcasters who have eight year broadcast licenses harm the FCC’s ability to ensure our wireless networks and innovations are keeping pace with our growing innovation environment,” CEA President Gary Shapiro said in a statement Monday. CEA hopes to help “inform the record” in support of the auction, Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Julie Kearney told us. Sinclair’s challenge threatens to harm CEA and its members “because a decision vacating the challenged rules will force the FCC to delay the auction while it undertakes a lengthy, complex new rulemaking process,” CEA’s motion said. “No adequate substitute is available for the spectrum to be auctioned, and delays increasing the availability of unlicensed spectrum and in putting these licenses to work expanding mobile broadband threaten CEA’s members’ ability to continue bringing innovative products to market. Thus, CEA and its members would be aggrieved by reversal or modification of the Commission’s order and are entitled to intervene as of right."