Update: FCC Officially Releases Pre-Auction Technical Certification Form, Reminds TV Licensees of Pre-Auction Licensing Deadline

Our regular readers know that the FCC has developed - and obtained OMB approval of - Form 2100, Schedule 381. That's the form that will have to be completed and filed, at some point in the upcoming months, by (a) all full-power and Class A TV licensees entitled to mandatory protection in the upcoming incentive auction as well as (b) those with Commission-afforded discretionary protection.

Schedule 381 started to take shape last December, when the FCC sought comment on it - even though the draft of the form about which comments were sought was a bit hard to track down. (When we managed to get a copy of the draft, we provided a link to it for everybody's ease of access.) As we reported last month, the Office of Management and Budget signed off on the form in late March, but still the only available copy of the form appeared to be the Word version buried on OMB's website.

That's changed. The FCC has now formally released Form 2100, Schedule 381. And it did so in connection with a public notice reminding full-power and Class A licensees of the upcoming May 29 Pre-Auction Licensing Deadline.

We, of course, had already reminded our readers of that deadline, but an extra heads-up never hurts. That's especially true in view of the importance of both the May 29 deadline and the Certification Form. (Take a look at our last post on the topic if you're unsure of what's involved here.)

And we'll take this opportunity to again urge anybody who expects to be filing Form 2100, Schedule 381 to review the form carefully NOW and to take any steps NOW that might be useful to insure that, when the time comes to file it, there will be no problems in getting it accurately completed and filed. The form will be due 30 days after the FCC releases its "Eligibility Public Notice" listing the facilities eligible for both protection in the repacking process and relinquishment in the reverse auction. That list will be based on the technical information on file in the FCC's database as of May 29, 2015. While the precise date of the Eligibility Public Notice has yet to be announced, we do know that it's expected shortly after the May 29 Pre-Auction Licensing Deadline, which obviously is right around the corner.

Consider yourself reminded.