Reverse Auction Accelerates; Upfront Payments for Forward Auction Due July 1
Upfront payments for bidding in the TV incentive auction are due at the FCC by July 1, the Wireless Bureau and Incentive Auction Task Force said Wednesday in a public notice. To become qualified to bid in Auction 1002, an…
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applicant must have an application that has been deemed complete and must make a timely and sufficient upfront payment, the notice said. The FCC provides guidance on how to calculate the amount of an upfront payment, detailed wire transfer instructions and instructions on completing and faxing Form 159 for each upfront payment. The FCC advised potential bidders to pay close attention. A second document provided information on upfront payments and minimum opening bids for every market. The highest numbers, not surprisingly, are for New York City, with an upfront payment of $67.5 million and opening bid of $135 million. That's followed by Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and Baltimore/Washington, D.C. For America Samoa, the upfront payment is $2,500, the minimum opening bid $5,000. The IATF also announced a new accelerated bidding schedule for the ongoing reverse auction, moving to three rounds a day from two. The new bid schedule will begin Monday. Starting Wednesday, the IATF also changed the dollar amount that can be entered as a proxy bidding instruction. Previously the dollar amount for proxy bids couldn't be less than 75 percent of the price offer for the station's currently held option, but now it can't be less than 50 percent, the IATF said.