Smith Wary of Any Reallocation to Eliminate Terrestrial HD
Initial discussions by some at the FCC of moving TV stations off HD signals to standard definition in order to reallocate spectrum for wireless broadband are a “non- starter,” NAB President Gordon Smith said. “We will fight that fiercely,” he told a Media Institute lunch in Washington Tuesday. Stopping HD would be like going back to analog over-the-air TV, he said. “Stay tuned” for the NAB’s position on the issue, since the commission has yet to publicly promulgate a radio wave reuse proposal, Smith said.
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Executive Director Blair Levin of the Omnibus Broadband Initiative has floated such plans with broadcasters (CD Nov 2 p1). “Broadcasters are using their spectrum” for mobile DTV and other free services, a market that will grow, Smith said. “I know how to win this fight” by fashioning TV as a free service, versus subscription products, he said. Attempts to reallocate TV spectrum “run into political reality, and the political realities in this one are huge,” Smith said in a Q&A session. The Omnibus Broadband Initiative looks “forward to exploring ways of addressing the public’s unprecedented demand for mobile wireless broadband, while also providing for the needs of broadcasters and their over-the-air viewers,” an FCC spokesman said.
In one of his first speeches since taking the job last month, Smith discussed spectrum use, indecency and radio performance royalties. Attempts by other industries to get hundreds of megahertz of spectrum from elsewhere don’t seem politically palatable, he said. “I think I know how that argument turns out politically.” While the First Amendment must be balanced with the need for broadcasters to compete with other media, existing technologies including the V-chip, 5-second tape delays and content ratings can avoid objectionable content, he said earlier at the luncheon. “But stuff happens. Things are said. Wardrobes malfunction.”
Although “lawmakers have forgotten” broadcasters by taking them for granted, they'll be reminded of the industry’s relevance by radio and TV stations in their districts, Smith said. “There is for broadcasters a grassroots army that can be mobilized” as “lawmakers need to be reminded of [the industry] over and over again,” he added. “Broadcasters need to do that, perhaps better than they've been doing that.”
Smith said he couldn’t participate in a meeting Tuesday afternoon on Capitol Hill between representatives of record labels and broadcasters because he failed to get an ethics waiver. (See separate report in this issue.) A request from key lawmakers for his attendance was “essentially an invitation for me to commit a federal crime” without an exemption, he said. “What I hope it will convey is there’s no more money” for labels, he said of the royalties.
Labels’ efforts to get royalties from terrestrial radio are “born of the same victimization of many forms of media,” Smith said. “The Internet broke that model. Radio didn’t break that model.” His message to labels: “There is no more money” to pay them, Smith said. “If you want proof of that, you can buy radio stations all across this country for a dime a dozen.”