Following a long weekend and with an increase in the number of bidding rounds per day, the Federal Communications Commission’s Auction 96 continued to generate wild fluctuations in bids per round and roll up funds for the country’s treasury.
Before the day began, the FCC announced it was increasing the number of rounds per day from seven to nine, with each round taking just 15 minutes.
Bidders were all over the map (literally) on Tuesday, with the number of new bids placed ranging from 84 bids during round 81 to just six new bids during the day’s finale in round 87. The nine rounds of bidding drew an average of 27 new bids, down from the average of 33 new bids placed during the seven rounds of bidding the two previous days.
The overall auction haul grew more than $65 million over the most recent rounds, with the auction total standing at $1.467 billion at day’s end. The total continues to creep ever closer to the $1.56 billion minimum bidding amount agreed to by Dish Network for all of the H-Block licenses. Dish is participating in the auction under the American H Block Wireless entity. Winning bidders will not be known until the auction concludes, which will happen when a round does not receive any new bids.
As in recent rounds, most of the activity continued outside of the more expensive of the 176 economic area licenses up for bid, with the priciest markets gaining a new bid today including Little Rock, Ark. (No. 35), and New Orleans (No. 36). Both markets had new potential winning bids of around $7 million. The New York-area EA license remains the most expensive to date at $217 million, followed by the Los Angeles-area license at $167 million and the Chicago-area license at $87 million.
The EA license covering North Platte, Neb./Colo., which had its earlier bid withdrawn, received considerable action today with five new bids placed today on that license, driving its potential winning price to $217,000. All 176 licenses up for bid currently have at least minimum bids.
The auction is set to continue on Wednesday with nine new rounds of bidding and no clear end in sight. The auction will end once a round does not receive any new bids.
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