WASHINGTON, D.C. — The FCC has been awarded a Technology & Engineering Emmy Award by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
Specifically, the Academy announced that it has bestowed the award for the creativity and engineering design of the FCC’s Broadcast Incentive Auction.
“The Incentive Auction provided significant benefits to broadcasters, wireless carriers, consumers and American taxpayers, and it is very gratifying that the Academy has acknowledged the creativity and success of the FCC’s effort by conveying this award,” said Jean Kiddoo, Chair of the Incentive Auction Task Force. “It is a real tribute to all of the dedicated public servants throughout the FCC who designed and implemented the first-of-its-kind, two-sided Incentive Auction. We greatly appreciate that this Emmy recognizes the lasting value of their effort.”
The Broadcast Incentive Auction cleared 84 MHz of spectrum and resulted in $19.8 billion in gross auction revenues. It provided $10.05 billion in payments to 50 winning broadcasters, while at the same time sending $7.3 billion to the U.S. Treasury to reduce the federal deficit.
The highly complex and carefully coordinated transition post-auction plan developed by the FCC enabled the broadcast spectrum to be cleared for winning mobile carriers in three years, and for the more than 1,000 stations who needed to change their over-the-air channels as part of the rearrangement to be fully compensated for their costs to do so.
