Broadcast Bankruptcies: The Solution to the Spectrum Crunch?

[Commentary] Do the serial bankruptcies of multiple television broadcasters hold the answer to the broadband spectrum shortage? With almost 100 television stations now in bankruptcy and giant Sinclair Broadcasting warning its 30 stations may be there soon, the banks and hedge funds that own the broadcasters' debt will soon be the proud license owners of beachfront spectrum. It's hard to imagine they'll be content to sit on that beach. What if...the new owners just sold the spectrum directly to a wireless carrier? Or perhaps ran their own auction? The beauty of digital television is that in most markets the major broadcast outlets can be squeezed into one or two license allocations. This would assure continued access for the 10 percent of homes without cable or satellite connections while making the newly vacated spectrum available for sale. What if...the new broadcast owners could themselves provide mobile services based on the new ATSC-M/H standard for delivering video to handheld devices? It is not hard to imagine "mobile Hulu (News - Alert)" or a subscription service for time-shifting current programs for a fee. But, of course, the broadcaster will need someone with a subscriber billing arrangement to realize on that opportunity. That brings us back to the mobile carriers. What if...the local broadcasters offered their excess spectrum on a "carrier's carrier" basis? They wouldn't have to worry about subscriber relationships, just lease access to their capacity to wireless carriers the same way they lease access to their towers for wireless antennas. What if...a consortium of banks and hedge funds decided to pool their assets to create a nationwide footprint for any of the above options? Delivering national coverage of major population centers would mean the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. The valuation multiple of such a footprint would justify the major effort this would require.