The FCC Media Bureau can't approve a waiver allowing Nexstar/Media General to complete their $4.6 billion deal because it “has no delegated authority to waive spectrum auction rules,” said the American Cable Association in a letter filed in docket 16-57 Tuesday. “Rather than file their request for waiver with the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau -- which has delegated authority regarding spectrum auctions, Applicants wrongly filed their request for waiver in the docket for the Media Bureau’s review of the transfers of control of Media General’s broadcast television licenses to Nexstar,” said ACA. The cable association also objected to granting the transaction on any bureau's delegated authority, because of the uniqueness of Nexstar's request. “Given the unprecedented situation Applicants’ request presents, sound policy requires a decision to be issued by the full Commission,” ACA said. The association also filed in opposition to aspects of Nexstar/Media General itself, seeking conditions on the combination to prevent it from affecting retransmission consent negotiations (see 1611250042). Nexstar and the Media Bureau didn't comment.
The FCC incentive auction “quiet period” has stretched on 10 months, longer than most TV broadcasters expected, squashing dealmaking and making it difficult for lawyers to serve their clients, broadcast attorneys said in interviews last week. With the auction widely forecast to stretch into 2017, some broadcast industry officials are seeking relief. The quiet period was expected to make dealmaking difficult (see 1411280041). The Incentive Auction Task Force said it will consider ending the communications prohibitions after the auction's final stage rule has been satisfied to give broadcasters more time for the repacking. It's the dampening effect on transactions that's the real difficulty of the quiet period, said broadcast attorneys and BIA/Kelsey Chief Economist Mark Fratrik.
Charter Communications and T-Mobile were among those spending much more on lobbying in Q3 than a year earlier. Charter's lobbying expense was $1.99 million, vs. $980,000. Charter successfully acquired Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks in the interim. T-Mobile spent $2.17 million, up from $1.4 million.
The FCC spent just more than $100 million on spectrum auctions in FY 2015, said a report released by the agency Tuesday. The biggest expense, $56 million, was “other contractual services,” followed by personnel costs at $27 million. FromFY 1994-2014, the FCC said it spent $1.42 billion on auction, bringing in an average $4.3 billion per year in cash receipts including receipts from FY 2015.
Commissioner Ajit Pai said the FCC should get tough on siting issues as carriers get set to deploy 5G, in a keynote at the Competitive Carriers Association meeting, live-streamed Wednesday from Seattle. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler told the CCA Tuesday there's broad support among the commissioners for tackling siting issues (see 1609200058). Pai also endorsed Wheeler’s calls for a new mobility fund. Commissioner Mike O’Rielly also spoke Tuesday on zero-rating, though not at CCA.
Correction: Jonathan Cohen of Wilkinson Barker was part of the FCC team that designed the early spectrum auctions in the 1990s, but was not an adviser to the agency on the incentive auction design (see 1608300064).
Stage two of the TV incentive auction will start Sept. 13, with a second reverse auction, the FCC said Wednesday, the day after stage one closed (see 1608300064). The FCC has a 114 MHz clearing target for stage two, which would yield 90 MHz of spectrum for wireless broadband. Industry analysts and observers say they don’t expect the FCC’s price target to drop substantially from its goal of $88.4 billion in stage one or for the auction to end in the next stage. Carriers and other bidders in the forward auction made $22.45 billion in net bids since the forward auction started Aug, 16.
Stage one of the forward part of the TV incentive auction closed Tuesday, at $22.4 billion in net proceeds. Supply and demand hit an equilibrium in the largest markets, triggering the FCC bringing the stage to a close, under rules approved for the auction, in the final round of the day. The auction had slowed considerably in recent days. A stage closes when there's no more excess demand for Category 1 blocks in the top 40 partial economic areas (PEAs), the size of the license being sold in the auction.
The FCC approved by 5-0 Thursday most of Chairman Tom Wheeler's proposal for opening high-frequency spectrum for 5G. The order and Further NPRM got a few tweaks -- the agency will now ask about spectrum bands above 95 GHz -- but it largely tracks the proposal laid out in a June fact sheet (see 1606240026). All commissioners said the order puts the U.S. ahead of the rest of the world in the race to 5G.
The launch of 5G could start a new “Golden Decade” for the information and communications technology (ICT) sector, former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt said in a letter to the agency. Hundt said the U.S. had the first tech boom after Congress authorized spectrum auctions in 1993. Average income, productivity, GDP and labor force participation increased, he said. “Everything that was supposed to go down went down: unemployment, monopoly rents, and the federal deficit,” Hundt said. “Between 1995 and 2003 American investors put almost $1 trillion into a total rebuild of the communications platform in America.” The spectrum frontiers order before the FCC is critical, as is finding new ways to facilitate spectrum sharing, he said. “It is not inconceivable that 5G can jumpstart a similar wave of investment, innovation, and economic success,” Hundt said. "Even secular stagnation, the bête noire of macroeconomists today, can become another worry allayed. Once again ICT can lead the way to an increasing standard of living for all Americans, and from this heartland of creative destruction waves of economic growth can spread around the world.” The filing was posted in docket 14-177. The spectrum frontiers order is scheduled for a vote at the FCC's July 14 meeting (see 1606240026). Hundt has done work for Ligado Networks, which is seeking to convert satellite spectrum to terrestrial use for wireless broadband.