NAB and Sinclair filed a proposed joint briefing schedule for...

NAB and Sinclair filed a proposed joint briefing schedule for their court challenges of the FCC incentive auction order that would have final briefs in the case being filed in January, in a filing in U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Friday. Since all parties agree the case should continue to be heard on an expedited basis, oral argument in the matter would likely take place soon after the final brief is filed, an attorney experienced in such cases told us. The schedule would allow for the cases to be argued “ahead of the incentive auction, which the FCC hopes to complete by mid-2015,” the joint filing said. Under the briefing schedule, NAB and Sinclair would brief their cases separately, with NAB raising issues about the commission’s protections of broadcasters and OET-69, while Sinclair will argue that the commission violated the law through its incentive auction rules and by requiring displaced licensees to cease operating on their old channels within 39 months of the auction even if their replacement facilities aren’t usable, the filing said. It said the FCC doesn’t object to the proposed schedule.