Free Press Takes Aim at Incubator Plan, New Entrant Standard
Bidding credits for new entrants in FM auctions have been “a poor tool” for increasing participation by women and minorities and shouldn’t be used as evidence to support using the new entrant standard for an FCC incubator program, Free Press…
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said in an ex parte filing in docket 17-289. Comparatively few women or minorities received construction permits through new entrant bidding credits, Free Press said. It also opposed the FCC’s proposed incubator program in general. “There is no reason to expect, even were the incubated licensee a woman or a person of color, that the incubation would lead to actual ownership,” Free Press said. The planned program would reduce the number of independent stations and increase station ownership by larger “conglomerates” by granting them waivers, Free Press said. “Incubators will do nothing to solve the challenge of independent access to capital.”