Television Broadcasters are Big Winners in FCC Reauthorization Approved by House Commerce Committee

The House Commerce Committee approved a bill that reauthorizes the Federal Communications Commission -- and includes a number of other bills, including an incentive auction fund increase. The committee unanimously agreed to allocate more money for TV stations for the post-incentive auction repack, as well as provide money to radio stations affected by the repack, and provide money for low-power TV stations and translators displaced by the repack. The money will be freed up if and when the FCC certifies to the Treasury that the current $1.75 billion repack relocation fund will be insufficient, which the FCC has already signaled is already the case, and certifies to the Congress that the money is necessary to reimburse "reasonably incurred costs." The bill's unanimous approval by the committee is not the end of the story, however. The appropriation must still be made. Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) promised that he would go to the leadership and appropriators "up and down the food chain," to secure commitments for the added funds for the repack.