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FCC airwaves auction goes tepid as bids fail to match broadcaster supply

  • The FCC's broadcast incentive wireless spectrum auction is winding to a close -- and it's a less ambitious close than expected, as the agency has been lowering the price and size of the sale with bidders in short supply.
  • The agency will now pay no more than $10B for some local broadcast licenses. That's vs. a reverse auction price set at $86.4B by the FCC last summer. So the auction may be successful in repacking spectrum for better use, but broadcasters hoping for a windfall might end up sorely disappointed.
  • “It’s simple: The broadcasters showed up, and the carriers didn’t,” says TV station rep Preston Padden.
  • Today brings a fourth round of bidding, but if demand doesn't match license supply (as it hasn't recently), the round could last just a few hours. Conversely, bidders who have been hiding their cards may act, with the prospect that the forward auction could close in this round.
  • The last round of bidding ended with $19.7B in bids, about half of what the FCC needs to close the sale.
  • Spectrum players: VZ, T, TMUS, S, DISH, SBGI, EVC, CMCSA, CHTR, NXST, CBS, MEG

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