FCC Unveils List of Winners in TV Incentive Auction
A total of 50 wireless carriers bid $19.8 billion in the TV incentive auction, the FCC said Thursday. The FCC said 175 broadcasters elected to participate in the auction -- of those, 30 stations will get money for agreeing to move to a lower channel and 133 others will give up their licenses. The FCC also announced new channel assignments, and effective dates, for 957 nonwinning stations that must change channels as a result of the auction, with the first phase of stations set to relocate by Nov. 30, 2018. The largest payout for a single TV station was $304 million.
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Among the bigger winners, T-Mobile won 1,525 licenses for $8 billion, according to results. Dish Network wins 486 licenses for $6.2 billion through ParkerB.com Wireless and Comcast gets 73 blocks and $1.7 billion in licenses through CC Wireless. AT&T was a smaller player, winning 23 licenses for $910 million. The largest noncommercial education station payout was $194 million, the FCC said. Also, 36 winning stations received more than $100 million, and 11 noncommercial stations received more than $100 million.
“The conclusion of the world’s first incentive auction is a major milestone,” Chairman Ajit Pai said in a statement. “Consumers are the real beneficiaries, as broadcasters invest new resources in programming and service, and additional wireless spectrum opens the way to greater competition and innovation in the mobile broadband marketplace.”
The agency said the auction brought in $7.3 billion for federal deficit reduction. The auction also cleared 70 MHz of spectrum, the “largest amount of licensed low-band spectrum ever made available at auction” and makes 14 MHz available for wireless mics and unlicensed use, the commission said.