NBC Affiliates Concerned About Simultaneous Spectrum Auction

In meetings with Federal Communications Commission officials members of the NBC Television Affiliates board -- led by president/chairman Jordan Wertlieb of Hearst and Ralph Oakley, vice chairman of the affiliates group and president of Quincy Newspapers -- said they were concerned that if the FCC conducts simultaneous incentive auctions, "there will be no safety net available in the event that the predictive engineering models have miscalculated the amount of spectrum actually necessary to repack the remaining television stations" consistent with the statutory mandate to preserve coverage areas and populations. They told the FCC officials that such preservation must be in fact, not simply in theory. They also called for a fair, transparent and "technically sound" auction process, all of which the FCC has pledged to do.

While they were there, the affiliates also talked about what they said were their other issues of greatest concern. Those were that the retransmission consent regime is working and that government intrusion would unfairly benefit Pay TV operators, and that the FCC needs to relax media ownership rules.