TV Broadcasters Await Spectrum Valuations From FCC

For years, the broadcast station industry generally greeted the idea of selling off their spectrum warily, if not with outright hostility, but the Federal Communications Commission’s planned auction is changing the equation.

Broadcasters who choose to relinquish their spectrum -- which would then be sold off to wireless carriers -- could come away with a cut of up to 85% of revenue from the auction, FCC and industry sources say. The preliminary estimate is that the auction could bring in $45 billion. Larry Patrick, who heads a broadcast industry-focused brokerage, said in some cases the FCC’s valuations for spectrum are twice what the station owners had been hoping for.