Thursday, June 2, 2005 - The Progress & Freedom Foundation Blog

The DTV Transition - The Costs of Waiting

If anybody needed convincing, a new study demonstrates the enormous costs associated with the slow pace of the DTV transition. Coleman Bazelon of Analysis Group (in a study sponsored by Intel)estimates that the 60 MHz of spectrum that would be freed up would yield $20-$24 billion in auction revenues to the government - very similar to the $28 billion estimate recently published by William Zarakas and Dorthy Robyn of the Brattle Group (in a study done for QUALCOMM). More importantly, the Bazelon study finds that the consumer surplus associated with this spectrum - indicative of the very large benefits that would accrue to consumers from the new services that would be produced with the additional spectrum - is 10 to 18 times the auction revenue. Total social benefits, including auction revenues, consumer surplus and public safety benefits, are between $233 billion and $473 billion. Under any criteria, that's real money.

posted by Tom Lenard @ 5:03 PM | Digital TV , Spectrum