FCC Incentive Auction results released

[Garrett Wollman]

The FCC has now publicly released the results of the TV band-clearing
"incentive auction" process and announced the new channel assignments
and phasing for the TV repacking.

The following Boston-market stations are getting large sums of cash to
relinquish their UHF channels assignments:

payout	old RF
($MM)	chan.	station
-------	-------	-------------------
162.1	41	WLVI (56 Cambridge)
161.7	19	WGBH-TV (*2 Boston)
135.0	47	WYDN (*48 Worcester)
 93.6	18	WMFP (62 Lawrence)
 80.4	36	WYCN-CD (13 Nashua)
 68.1	35	WBIN-TV (50 Derry), as already reported
 63.9	24	WFXZ-CD (24 Boston)
 43.4	40	WDPX-TV (58 Vineyard Haven)

All of the stations listed here filed for channel sharing agreements,
if I'm understanding the FCC's release correctly -- even WBIN.  That
does not necessarily mean that they will be able to actually execute a
channel-sharing contract with one of the surviving stations.  See the
full listing for all markets at
<https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-announces-results-worlds-first-broadcast-incentive-auction-0>

The repacking goes like this:

Station			Changing	Phase	Linked
WGBH (2 Boston)		19 -> 5		4	Yes
WBZ-TV (4 Boston)	30 -> 20	4	Yes
WCVB-TV (5 Boston)	20 -> 33	4	Yes
WHDH (7 Boston)		42 -> 35	8	No
WMUR (9 Manchester)	9 -> 9		-	N/A
WENH (11 Durham)	11 -> 11	-	N/A
WPXG-TV (21 Concord)	33 -> 23	4	Yes
WFXT (25 Boston)	31 -> 34	4	Yes
WUNI (27 Worcester)	29 -> 19	4	Yes
WSBK (38 Boston)	39 -> 21	8	No
WGBX (44 Boston)	43 -> 32	8	No
WWDP (46 Norwell)	10 -> 10	-	N/A
WNEU (60 Merrimack)	34 -> 29	4	Yes
WUTF (66 Marlborough)	27 -> 27	-	N/A
WBPX-TV (68 Boston)	32 -> 22	4	Yes

The "linked" column indicates that these stations are part of a group
of multiple stations that must all shift channels at the same time (or
in a specific order) -- for example:

* WPXG -> 23 before WCVB -> 33 before WBZ -> 20 before WEDH -> 30
* WGBH -> 5 before WUNI -> 19 before WNEU -> 29 before WFXT -> 34 before
  WCSH -> 31

The deadline to begin testing new facilities for phase 4 is June 22,
2019, and the deadline to complete construction is August 2, 2019.
For phase 8, the deadline to begin testing is January 1, 2020, and
to complete construction is March 13, 2020.  Stations which do not
meet the construction deadline must go off the air (or may request
special temporary authority to operate on a different channel or share
a channel).

-GAWollman