In a Public Notice released this afternoon, the FCC waived certain quarterly Transition Progress Report requirements for stations in Phases 3, 5, and 8 of the post-auction repack process.
As subscribers to Pillsbury’s legal advisories are aware, stations that were assigned a new channel as part of the post-Incentive Auction repacking process must file Transition Progress Reports on FCC Form 2100, Schedule 387, at various times throughout the transition process. Along with other reports closer to phase completion, stations must file a report every quarter (“Quarterly Report”) and a report ten weeks out from a station’s phase completion date (“10-Week Report”).
However, as many observers have pointed out, the deadlines for the Quarterly Report and 10-Week Report often fall within days of each other, meaning that a transitioning station would have to expend time and energy on filing one report, only to have to file a near-duplicate report a few days later.
To address this inefficiency, in today’s Public Notice the FCC waived the filing of the April 10 Quarterly Report for Phase 3 stations, the July 10 Quarterly Report for Phase 5 stations, and the January 10, 2020 Quarterly Report for Phase 8 stations. These stations will still be required to timely file their 10-Week Reports.
This late reprieve may not offer much solace for Phase 3 stations that were already set for their dual Transition Progress Report filings on April 10 and April 12, but better late than never.