Over the past year, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) held a voluntary auction to purchase the right to use broadcast spectrum from commercial and public broadcasters across the country with the goal to re-sell that spectrum to wireless providers for the benefit of creating more bandwidth for mobile broadband and other wireless services. Commonwealth Public Broadcasting Corporation, known in central Virginia as the Community Idea Stations, participated in this auction by offering two channels the corporation controlled in the DC area, WNVT, Goldvein, Va and WNVC, Fairfax, Va. These stations overlap the WETA and Maryland Public Television viewing areas and run international news and other international programming rather than PBS content. The goal was to sell these two non-PBS stations and use the potential money to further our core mission in the Commonwealth.
The FCC recently completed this national auction of broadcast spectrum, and the Community Idea Stations will receive a one-time infusion of capital of nearly $182 million as a result of its participation. This is wonderful news, and will give us even greater opportunities to serve our community.
We will use a portion of the proceeds to focus even more on local content that tells the rich stories in history and showcases the arts in our community. We will build and enhance our news-gathering operations. We will broaden our community engagement to ensure maximum local impact. And, we will leverage our experience in producing award-winning radio and television content to enhance digital-first production capacity.
In order to preserve this one-time infusion of capital, the majority of the funds will be used to create a Foundation to protect and grow the principal. The dividends will be used to provide resources to produce new public media content for the benefit of Central Virginia, as well as the Commonwealth at large, long into the future.
http://ideastations.org/spectrumauction