FAB Telemedia Files New Spectrum Auction Challenge

Free Access & Broadcast Telemedia (FAB), joined by other Low Power Television stations (LPTV) not getting to participate in the Federal Communications Commission's spectrum auction, have gone to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to file a new challenge against the auction. The petition comes a day before the spectrum auction officially begins March 29.

FAB et al. are challenging the FCC's order establishing the auction, and the rules regarding digital low power TV and translators that was published in the Federal Register Jan 29 and the Third Report & Order, published in the Federal Register on Feb 1. They say the orders are "arbitrary and capricious" and thus violate the Administrative Procedures Act. They argue that the orders failed to comply with the spectrum auction legislation's directive that the FCC not "alter the spectrum usage rights of low-power television stations," and violated the Regulatory Flexibility Act by "failing to describe feasible, efficacious steps the agency has taken, and each alternative considered, to mitigate the significant adverse impact of its rules on low-power television broadcasters as small entities. FAB has taken aim at other portions of the FCC auction in the DC federal court. Oral argument is scheduled for May on that challenge, but the court denied its request to stay the auction start pending that argument.