Approve Repacking Costs Now, Supplement Shortfalls Later, Sinclair Asks FCC
The $1.75 billion repacking reimbursement fund should cover broadcasters' costs, including headroom -- “reserved excess transmission capacity” -- in their post-incentive auction facilities, Sinclair said in meetings with aides to Commissioner Mike O’Rielly and Chairman Ajit Pai last week, recounted…
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an ex parte filing posted Monday in docket 16-306. Broadcasters “commonly” build headroom into their designs, “to ensure performance reliability and longevity and the ability to maximize in the future,” Sinclair said. But the FCC has “informally signaled” it won't treat inclusion of headroom as an “essential and reimbursable” part of broadcasters creating “comparable” facilities to what they had before the incentive auction, the owner of TV stations said. The current FCC approach “risks leaving stations with facilities inferior to what they have today,” the company said, saying "the FCC may be taking this approach to artificially reduce the cost of the repack.” Despite speculation the reimbursement fund will be insufficient to cover the repack, the agency shouldn’t start limiting what can be reimbursed, but should instead approve all “reasonable” costs “without regard to potential limitations of the fund” and then work with Congress and broadcasters “to supplement any Fund shortfalls in the future," Sinclair said.