Scripps Reveals No One Bought its Spectrum in FCC Auction

By Kevin Eck 

The E.W. Scripps Network has bucked the national trend and didn’t sell any bandwidth during the FCC’s spectrum auction.

“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, svp of broadcast for Scripps. “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.”

The total announced so far by Sinclair Broadcast Group, Fox TV Stations, Gray TV and Tribune from the proceeds of the spectrum auction for commercial TV station groups has reached almost $943 million.

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