Dish Gets $6.2 Billion of Licenses in Incentive Auction, Comcast $1.7 Billion
Among incentive auction results drawing analyst interest shortly after the FCC identified winning bidders were Dish Network winning 486 licenses for $6.2 billion through ParkerB.com Wireless and Comcast getting 73 blocks and $1.7 billion in licenses through CC Wireless. Our earlier bulletin incorrectly listed the winning totals for those two companies.
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A total of 50 wireless carriers bid $19.8 billion in the TV incentive auction, the FCC said Thursday. Among other big winners, T-Mobile won 1,525 licenses for $8 billion, according to results. AT&T was a smaller player, winning 23 licenses for $910 million. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai called the conclusion of the first-such auction a "major milestone."
"There are three big surprises here," MoffettNathanson's Craig Moffett emailed investors. "Comcast bought less than expected, Dish Network bought more, and Verizon bought nothing at all."
Other analysts said similar. Dish spent twice what New Street Research expected, Comcast half as much, and T-Mobile about what the analyst firm expected, wrote Jonathan Chaplin. "We would expect investors to react negatively to the DISH spend and positively to the Comcast spend; all else should be in-line." Comcast stock was little changed, while Dish was down 1.7 percent to $62.88 at around 3 p.m.