Incentive Auction Design Trumps Urgency, O'Rielly Says

Getting the incentive auction structured correctly is more important than holding the auction as soon as possible, FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said at an NAB State Leadership Conference Tuesday. Resolving questions about dynamic reserve pricing, interference, opening bid prices and repacking is “critical to any potential participation by broadcasters,” he said, according to prepared remarks. Eliminating reserved spectrum and limiting impaired markets will improve the forward auction and “ensure that we maximize revenues to compensate interested broadcasters,” he said. The commission should update the contest rule to let broadcasters post contest rules on a website, which makes rules more available in an Internet age, he said. Broadcasters have sought such changes (see 1502200035). Broadcasters also should be able to use the Internet to recruit more minority and female applicants, to comply with the commission’s equal employment opportunity rules, he said. Companies are forced to “duplicate their recruiting efforts using old-school methods like newspaper ads” because of 2001 estimates of Internet availability, he said. The commission should update its EEO rule to allow online dissemination of job vacancy information “combined with aggressive notification to candidate referral organizations,” he said. O'Rielly made a similar point in a blog last week (see 1502200054). The commission should adhere to updating media ownership rules every four years -- they haven’t been reviewed since 2006, he said. The commission repeals or modifies rules “no longer in the public interest due to increased competition,” he said. The 2010 quadrennial review wasn’t completed when the 2014 review started, he said. The industry is “saddled” with restrictions, including the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership rule, he said. O'Rielly encouraged commissioners to address consequential matters, not FCC staff. Documents should be posted in a transparent manner so the public is aware what issues are up for a vote, he said. He urged the commission to make all FCC items to be considered at open meetings public. Texts are circulated internally three weeks before meetings but “the public is left out of the loop,” he said. Some items are released by bureaus without notifying commissioners, he said. “Far from being a rare or isolated circumstance, commissioners must ‘vote on it before you can see what’s in it’ every single month.”