What Broadcasters, Cable and SES Told the FCC About Upper C-Band Costs
Eight comments on the FCC's draft upper C-band Cost Catalog. SES and cable and broadcast groups say it prices feeds, receivers and satellites too low.
What Broadcasters, Cable and SES Told the FCC About Upper C-Band Costs
Eight parties commented on the draft list of costs that Auction 115 winners will reimburse. Every filer that proposed its own prices said the draft runs low where it looked, and as of 26 October the wireless carriers expected to bid had filed nothing.
8
Filings on the draft Cost Catalog by the 20 October deadline; none from a wireless carrier as of 26 October
$166–349
The draft’s price for a Ku-band receive feed; NCTA’s members put it at $2,000 to $5,000
$240M
The draft’s top price for a new satellite, which SES says sits nearer the low end of what it expects to pay
9 Nov
Reply comments due; the final catalog follows by about 24 January 2027
On 20 October the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) closed comments on its preliminary Cost Catalog for the upper C-band, the schedule of costs that the winners of Auction 115 will reimburse when SES, Eutelsat and Telesat move their services out of 4.0 to 4.16 GHz and the owners of 13,860 registered earth station antennas follow them. Eight parties filed: SES; the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB); the cable industry’s association, NCTA; ACA Connects, which speaks for smaller cable operators; iHeartMedia; the receiver maker MediaKind; the video distributor LTN Global; and Summit Ridge Group, an advisory firm that has run a reimbursement clearinghouse before and intends to bid to run this one.
What did commenters tell the FCC about the upper C-band Cost Catalog?
Every comment that put forward its own prices said the draft catalog runs low in the places it examined, and each came from a party that will claim the costs or sell the equipment. SES said the catalog’s top price for a new satellite, $240 million, sits nearer the bottom of what it expects to pay. NCTA’s members put a Ku-band receive feed at $2,000 to $5,000, against $166 to $349 in the draft. iHeartMedia said SES has told it that radio syndication on SES-11 will be split across two polarizations, so stations taking programs from both groups would need dual-polarization receive equipment, which NAB says the draft does not price; SES’s own transition plan, due 5 November, is the primary source. NAB, NCTA and Summit Ridge Group asked the FCC to publish how it built the lump sums that earth station owners can take instead of claiming actual costs. As of 26 October, Eutelsat, Telesat, CTIA and the wireless carriers had filed nothing. Replies are due 9 November, and the final catalog by about 24 January 2027.
The remaining four sections are free with an email address.
No payment, no card. An email address unlocks the rest of this analysis and everything after it. If you already have an account, sign in and the page opens where you are.
- 02What a draft price list decides
- 03The radio affiliate’s problem
- 04The cable headend’s problem
- 05What SES said, and who stayed quiet
Independent weekly intelligence on the satellite communications sector, written from the ground segment up. Unsubscribe in one click.
