While a number of broadcasters have reported their takes from the FCC’s incentive auction this week after the commission lifted its “quiet period,” E.W. Scripps Co. just announced it’s not one of them.
“We pursued several channel-share arrangements with ourselves and other broadcast partners that would have allowed us to continue to operate our stations and serve our local communities while supporting the government in its attempt to recapture some broadcaster spectrum,” said Brian Lawlor, Scripps SVP, broadcast.
However, none of the spectrum we or our partners offered was selected during the auction process because the prices available in the auction fell below the value we ascribed to it. Scripps will continue to serve each of our local communities using our full spectrum capacity as allocated by the FCC.”
WKBW-7 will remain on UHF, somewhere from channels 14-36. [Note: stations that did not participate in the FCC reverse auction can still be relocated to another channel but not to another frequency type (UHF ↔ VHF).]
WNED-17 will not comment publicly at this time--translation: it participated in the auction, if their bid was accepted it will result in one of the following: (1) move to a low VHF frequency (2) move to a high VHF frequency (3) surrender its license and piggyback with a remaining station All public broadcasting stations must remain broadcasting O-T-A by agreement with PBS.
WNYO-49 + WUTV 29 Sinclair Broadcast Group sold off spectrum for $313 million in markets where they own 2 stations. If Buffalo is affected, frequency, location and reception quality is 'to be determined'. O-T-A Programming on both stations would not be affected as they would piggyback onto one frequency keeping their separate virtual station i.d..
WBNF-CD-15 Hedge fund HME EQUITY FUND II, LLC was expected to participate in the auction; will cease broadcasting with-in 39 months if their bid was accepted.
