KOCE-TV Channel 50 announced it will use a portion of the $49 million from the auction of its portion of the broadcast spectrum to increase spending on the Public Broadcasting Service and other programming.
The proceeds from the Federal Communications Commission’s Broadcast Incentive Auction will also be used for content production and broadband services that reach more audiences via mobile sources and the internet, restructuring debt and creating an investment fund that generates annual revenues, station President and CEO Andrew Russell said.
Through a channel-sharing agreement with the multicultural independent station KSCI-TV Channel 18, KOCE was able to retain most of the stations’ combined spectrum, which is used for digital channels providing additional programming, Russell said.
“Our priority as the primary PBS station for Greater Los Angeles is to ensure we can deliver PBS programs to the 18 million people across the six counties in our region well into the future,” Russell said Thursday. “We retained the bandwidth necessary to accomplish that.
“The one-time auction revenues allow us to achieve another important objective — to invest in expanding our mission by providing more services to more people across the region.”
—City News Service