Clyburn Working to Promote DE Participation in Incentive Auction
FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said she hopes to see active designated entity participation particularly in the TV incentive auction expected to take place next year. Clyburn appeared Monday on SiriusXM’s “The Digital Show,” hosted by former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt. “I am definitely hopeful and am working behind the scenes, you probably have heard, to really ensure that the rules are in place in time enough for the auction,” Clyburn said of revised DE rules.
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In February, the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council asked the FCC to rework its DE rules to encourage more minority bidders to take part in the upcoming TV incentive auction (CD Feb 26 p1). “It’s imperative to reform the DE rules now to encourage meaningful participation and foster diversity and competition in the upcoming and future auctions,” MMTC President David Honig said Tuesday in response to Clyburn’s comments. “Too much is at stake in terms of revenue and economic opportunities for small and minority-owned businesses if the rules remain unchanged.”
Clyburn said she successfully pushed for smaller licenses blocks and license sizes for the AWS-3 auction. “Why I pushed so hard for that is I think that will lead to more consumer options and opportunities, more engagement by smaller and more competitive players,” she said. “A competitive ecosystem is best.” Communications is critical to the incentive auction, Clyburn said. “That is going to require us to continue to be open and cooperative with broadcasters and with the wireless providers and have a continual dialog about how best to set up this [auction] format,” she said.
Hundt suggested the FCC has grown more partisan. “One thing I've noticed at the FCC over the last couple of years is that, quite unusual for FCC history, Republican commissioners announce right at the beginning of any discussion that they're opposed to any outcome,” he said. “It’s not been this way for the 70, 80 previous years.” Clyburn disagreed. The five commissioner offices “have continual” discussions, she said. “There are times when we disagree on certain items,” she said. “For the most part what I have experienced is five people who really want to improve the regulatory regime ... and we're looking to work as cooperatively as possible to do that.”
Clyburn said she’s a big believer in the commission’s Connect2HealthFCC Task Force, unveiled by Wheeler in March (http://fcc.us/1jvmQGr). “This is an initiative that seeks to more efficiently bridge all of these incredible energies that we have in terms of looking at health and how can we better use technology,” Clyburn said. The USF has funded rural healthcare initiatives for a number of years, she said. “What we seek to do ... is to put all of that on steroids,” she said. “How can we expand on the great things that we have done to connect rural healthcare centers? ... What is the next series of steps that we can logically take?”
Clyburn also said being an FCC commissioner is not that different form being a state regulator in South Carolina, where she served for 11 years. “It is very much territorial, it is dynamic, it is sometimes emotionally charged,” she said of being a commissioner. “A lot of times I jokingly say the only difference is the number of zeroes. [Washington] is a bigger platform, a bigger universe, but a lot of the issues are the same. How do we connect communities?”