FAB Telemedia: GAO Should Push for FCC LPTV Impact Data

FAB Telemedia, the LPTV owner that has filed a new challenge to the FCC's auction, has reached out to the Government Accountability Office asking it to push the FCC for info on the impact of not including most LPTV stations in the spectrum auction.

In a letter to GAO, FAB said that "for two years now the Congress and public have asked for a sizing of potential spectrum clearing impacts the auction will have on these many licensees. The FCC has been silent, including deflecting direct Congressional information requests made informally and by official letter."

FAB told GAO not to get "stonewalled" by the FCC, as it suggested both Congress and the public had been. An FCC spokesperson had no comment.

Reps. Joe Barton (R-Texas) and Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) sought the GAO report back in October 2014.

FAB has also taken aim at other portions of the FCC auction in the D.C. federal court. Oral argument is scheduled for May on that challenge, but the court denied its request to stay the auction start pending that argument.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.