FCC Sets $900M As Top Price For Broadcaster To Go Off Air

The FCC chairman called the setting of the bid prices “a watershed moment”.

Broadcasters in most cases will be paid less than the opening bid in the so-called reverse auction because the offering price falls in each round of bidding. The prices are based on a formula developed earlier this year that takes into account population and interference, among other things. The chart also includes several stations with the designation “not needed”, which officials said means the government can meet its clearing target for open spectrum without having to purchase those particular airwaves. “There is a lot of money to be had by each individual broadcaster”, said an FCC official briefing reporters. Dana McClintock, a CBS spokesman, declined to comment Friday as did Dennis Wharton, a spokesman for the National Association of Broadcasters trade group.

To participate, a full-power station will have to file an application from noon ET on Dec. 1 to 6 p.m. ET on Dec. 18. After the application deadline, the FCC staff will review the applications for completeness and accuracy. Broadcasters can apply for the auction between the 1 and 18 of December and have until the 29 March to commit to a sale of their spectrum, arrange a channel sharing move, or move from UHF to VHF. More spectrum allows for faster speeds and more devices to connect.

In September Wheeler told the crowd at a wireless conference in Las Vegas he was confident the auction would be “supremely successful”, and that the heads of numerous U.S.’s broadcasters and wireless carriers had already assured him they will likely participate, including 21st Century Fox.

In response to the recent Federal Communications Commission’s Public Notice regarding the upcoming Spectrum Auction, which will impact television broadcasters across the country, WOSU Public Media is posting the following statement from The Ohio State University, which owns our broadcast license.

Senior FCC officials said Friday they believe the auction may take as little as two to three months, with the auction closing in the second or third quarter of 2016. Cellular providers say they need access to more of the radio spectrum to build out next-generation mobile data networks. Smaller markets are priced lower, as we would expect, and the major urban markets are valued the highest.

Fox has said it intends to sell TV-station airwaves and continue to broadcast but on other frequencies.

The top 10 markets have spectrum that covers around 70 million POPs.