FCC Commissioner O'Rielly: Eliminate Dynamic Reserve Pricing

Commissioner Michael O’Rielly of the Federal Communications Commission said that he opposes the FCC plan to use dynamic reserve pricing (DRP) in its bidding for TV spectrum in the incentive auction in 2016.

“I’m against it,” he said. “I want to see it eliminated in a simplification of the commission rules…. It complicates things unnecessarily and also can short-change broadcasters in the value of their stations.” But Commissioner O’Reilly is just one of four votes at the FCC. “I don’t know where we are on winning the day on that.” DRP, which FCC officials believe is necessary to prevent some broadcasters from getting overly generous payouts due a lack of bidding competition from other broadcasters, particularly during the auction’s opening rounds, would clear the way for the FCC to ask stations to accept a lower price than they had agreed to take in a previous round.