Spectrum price hike. (Federal Communications Commission revises estimates for value of digital broadcast spectrum)(Brief Article)

Broadcasting & Cable, August, 1995

Digital broadcast spectrum could be worth more than the FCC originally thought. The commission earlier this year sent the Senate a guesstimate of $11 billion, based in part on a prospectus placing the value of New York's WNYC-TV at $65 million. Because the UHF station has little in the way of tangible assets or brand identity, the commission figured it offered a good gauge of what a broadcast license alone brings on the open market.

Last week the license brought $207 million from ITT and Dow Jones. Using the sale price to calculate the value of digital spectrum yields an estimate closer to $35 million. "It's a real-world valuation of TV spectrum today," an FCC source said.