Pre-Auction Technical Certification Form Approved

In late 2014, we first mentioned to readers that the FCC had submitted an important pre-auction technical certification form to the Office of Management and Budget for approval.  Per the FCC’s Incentive Auction Report & Order, all full power and Class A television stations will have to file this form before the incentive auction in order to certify their technical facilities to the FCC.

If you are a full power or Class A television station, before you do anything else, click here and print/save a copy of the form.  Then, review it.  As you will see, the instructions and the form itself direct precisely the type of information stations will need to obtain in order to complete and file the form.

There is no filing deadline yet, but given the detailed nature of some of the information requested, now is a very good time to gather this information for your station.  We estimate (but are only guessing) that the FCC will soon announce a deadline for this form to be filed, and believe it is very likely that the deadline will be sometime this summer.

As mentioned in earlier stories about this schedule, it will be submitted through the FCC’s new LMS using the new Form 2100.

Why is this form, and its accurate and timely filing, so important?  Well, the FCC plans to use it to identify/value the facilities to be sold or protected in the reverse auction, and for those not sold, to do the repack.  Some of the information will also help the FCC become informed on the types of equipment in use for relocation reimbursement purposes.  So accuracy is paramount.