Editorial: Helping Hand

Digital broadcasters may have pivoted away from a hard-line stance against an early 2016 incentive auction, but they video already instrumental in helping make the AWS-3 auction such a success, which in turn should allow the FCC the financial leeway to make the broadcast spectrum auction a success for all.

Broadcasters got more love last week for helping AWS-3 raise more money than any previous auction. In a letter read into the Congressional Record, Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Calif.) said broadcasters played “an important part in growing and investing in the nation’s airwaves.”

It was broadcasters’ agreement with the Department of Defense to share ENG spectrum that helped free up the spectrum that earned the FCC and Treasury almost $45 billion. Matsui was applauding that effort, and rightly so.