Clyburn: Spectrum auctions moving forward

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Mignon ClyburnFCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn appeared on C-SPAN’s Communicator series. She is confident the FCC will be successful in getting its incentive auctions rolling in the television space, which has a target date of 2014.


According an article in The Hill, Clyburn believes that there will be value attached to the project that will attract willing participants on both sides of the auction table.

She also said that there is no “plan B” – she said that the FCC is doing all it can do to make sure the necessary synergies and market forces are in place to make participation a worthwhile investment for interested companies.

She refused to speculate on the identity of a new FCC chairman should Mitt Romney will the election and put a Republican in the White House.

She did note that she has been nominated for a second term by current President Barack Obama and is awaiting Senate confirmation.

RBR-TVBR observation: We haven’t seen any speculation, but we would be very surprised if current ranking commissioner Robert McDowell did not get the nod for the chair. He is professional, well-spoken, collegial and possesses a strong free-market philosophy that would fit mesh well with what we believe are Romney’s priorities.

But you just never know. Romney may already have a particular someone in mind, or McDowell may be ready to head for the private sector. And of course, it may all be idle speculation depending on the election results. You can stay tuned, but it may only be for another day or so.