Fisher Sees No Interest in Spectrum Auctions

Wall Street analysts appear to have a lot more interest in the Federal Communications Commission’s spectrum auction plans than do publicly traded broadcast companies.

Analyst Barry Lucas of Gabelli & Co., whose funds hold lots of Fisher Communications stock, raised the issue, but found President-CEO Colleen Brown cool to the auction idea. First off, Brown noted the complexity of the auction process, with a reverse auction and then a forward auction. And for Fisher’s markets, mostly in the Northwest, there’s the added issue of spectrum allocation treaties with Canada.