Channel Sharing Can Break the Wireless Logjam

[Commentary] If you want to see the future of both the broadcast television and wireless industries, look to two TV channels in Los Angeles. That's where KJLA and KLCS are launching a pilot project to put both broadcast stations on a single channel, thereby freeing up spectrum for wireless broadband use.

Channel sharing is crucial to the success of the Federal Communications Commission’s incentive spectrum auction. It shifts the auction dynamic from a binary choice for broadcasters in which participating in the auction equals closing a station and sitting it out means staying in business. By contrast, channel sharing would create a middle path that allows broadcasters to partially monetize spectrum, thereby freeing up spectrum for new uses, while also providing a mechanism for stations to continue to operate -- delivering programming and serving the public -- with new efficiencies on a shared swath of spectrum. This middle path best serves the FCC's dual interests: ensuring the most efficient use of spectrum while also preserving stations and promoting programming choices in the market. Neither the FCC nor the public are served by an auction that becomes a zero-sum game.

[Dodson Greenberg and Smith are partners in the media transactions practice at Paul Hastings]