Fox to participate in major airwaves sale

Television stations owned by 21st Century Fox are planning to put some of their spectrum, which carries wireless signals, up for sale in an auction next year.

“We plan to be active,” John Nallen, Fox’s chief financial officer, said at a conference in California, according to a Wednesday report from Bloomberg.

{mosads}He reportedly said the company would keep its stations broadcasting but on new frequencies.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the agency running the auction, has said that it will relocate stations that wish to sell some of their spectrum but stay on the air. That could entail sharing a place on the airwaves with a second station. Congress has set aside money to help fund the transition to the new frequencies.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said at a trade show on Wednesday that James Murdoch, son of 21st Century Fox Chairman Rupert Murdoch and the company’s CEO, had told Wheeler the company would participate and that he believed other broadcasters would follow suit.

“I’ve talked to most of the CEOs of the major broadcast organizations, and I think they’re going to show up,” Wheeler reportedly said.

During the auction, the broadcasters will first sell their spectrum to the FCC. The FCC will then hold a second auction with wireless carriers.

If all goes according to plan, the auction could generate billions of dollars in revenue for the government and present a new way to free up and redistribute spectrum. It could also help wireless carriers meet what they say is significant demand for spectrum as more consumers adopt smartphones. But if broadcasters show up in limited numbers, it will hinder the later sale to the wireless providers and tamp down profits.

The involvement of Fox could be a good sign for the FCC. The company controls 28 stations across 17 markets — meaning that they have more than one station in certain markets. Several of those duopolies are in major markets like New York and Los Angeles, according to the company.

Wheeler and FCC staffers have been aggressively pitching companies on the idea of participating in the auction for months — and are expected to continue as the scheduled March 29, 2016, start date for the sale approaches.

The team running the auction will hold workshops in the coming months to assist companies with the application process and later hold a mock auction to acclimate them to the bidding process. Wheeler has repeatedly called it a “once in a lifetime” opportunity for broadcasters.

Companies will be able to apply to participate in the auction starting this fall, Wheeler said last month.