Why I Will Participate in the Spectrum Auction

[Commentary] As the owner of KDOC-TV in Los Angeles, I believe the Federal Communications Commission spectrum auction will be very positive for consumers, as well as the broadcast industry. KDOC is able to participate in this auction, and sell back some of the airwaves, via a channel sharing arrangement with another Los Angeles-based television station — in this case, a major network affiliate. We will sell the spectrum of one of our two stations and continue broadcasting our same channel line-ups, without change, on the airwaves of the remaining “shared” station. Consumers won't even have to adapt to a new TV station.

Current technology will enable both TV stations to broadcast two separate full HD signals over one broadcast channel. Consumers will continue to see the programming from both stations via their existing “virtual” channels. After the auction, television viewers in Los Angeles will have to re-tune their TV sets once to accommodate the changes, but they will continue to view KDOC-TV and our sharing partner station on the same (separate) TV channels that they always have. We will invest our joint proceeds from the spectrum auction into better local entertainment, news and sports programming.

[Ellis is the chairman and chief executive officer of Ellis Communications and the owner of KDOC-TV in Los Angeles]