Man-of-Leisure What happens when the FCC inevitably decides to auction the rest of the UHF channels?
Doubtful, FCC would reallocate all 23 remaining UHF OTA 6Mhz RF video channels at once. The last 3 reallocations were 14, 18, and 15 UHF OTA channels each. There are still 13 VHF OTA video channels as well. Being that ATSC 3.0 also supports HEVC, many more video streams per 6Mhz channel can be supported vs the MPEG2 used in ATSC 1.0, so not as many physical channels are needed anyway.
The FCC would have to post a notice and allow for public comment. Many commercial providers and EAS supporters that still rely on OTA will chime in, complicating any reallocation. IF the FCC is waiting for all ATSC 1.0 to move to 3.0, then an auction, it’s several years away at best because it will further complicate reallocation. Carr won’t even be involved. There will still be OTA video broadcasts for at least another decade, probably two, even more if data casting catches on.