Short-circuiting conventional Paperwork Reduction Act requirements, the Office of Management and Budget has signed off on the strict auction-related rules just in time for the upcoming Broadcast Incentive Auction. The FCC’s Incentive Auction Report and Order, released June 2, 2014, included anti-collusion provisions forbidding– as of the close of the reverse auction application window (i.e., January 12, 2016) – communications relating to incentive auction participation and bidding strategies between or among pretty much anybody. (The limited exceptions involve communications between any two or more full power TV or Class A TV licensees that share common ownership, officers, or directors or have a channel-sharing agreement in place – but even folks who think that they fall within the exception would be wise to doublecheck before they open the conversation.) The new anti-collusion prohibitions, spelled out in Section 1.2205(c) and (d) of the FCC’s…
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