Public TV stations and noncommercial stations should be “held...

Public TV stations and noncommercial stations should be “held harmless” in the post-incentive auction repacking, said PBS, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Association of Public Television Stations in joint reply comments ((http://bit.ly/RrJwk9)filed in response to the Widelity report (http://bit.ly/1piNbdY) Tuesday. Public television stations’ “procurement processes, unique organizational structures, public oversight, and applicable grant restrictions may significantly increase the time such stations will need to complete the transition,” said the joint filing. The repacking is also likely to be substantially more expensive and take more time than estimated by the FCC and the report, the joint filing said. “The estimated costs do not account for the basic economic principle that prices increase when there is greater demand for equipment and services and scarce supply,” said the filing. “There simply are too many bottlenecks and unknowns outside of broadcasters’ control to conclude that stations will not experience much longer transition times than the Report estimates.")