Don’t ‘Sacrifice’ TV in Spectrum Repurposing, NAB Chief Says
The FCC ought not to “sacrifice TV for the sake of a mobile phone” as the agency considers spectrum repurposing proposals as part of the National Broadband Plan, NAB President Gordon Smith said Friday. If the commission “becomes so activist” that such a sacrifice becomes palatable to make Wi-Fi universally available, that’s a non-starter, he said in a C-SPAN interview to have aired this weekend. TV “ought to have a bright future,” he said.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
“After all the billions have been spent [on DTV] I think it would be politically impossible for them to sell on Capitol Hill a proposal” that would take away a large amount of radio waves used by broadcasters, Smith continued. He again criticized (CD Nov 18 p2) what he called “trial balloon” proposals from the commission that would leave TV stations without enough spectrum to broadcast HD. Such plans would “ultimately destroy the high definition broadcast signal” and “take away the multichannel availability -- it will eliminate the future of mobile TV,” Smith said. “Digital TV shouldn’t be sacrificed on the altar of the digital divide.”
FCC broadband task force members most recently have expressed interest publicly in proposals that would let TV stations continue to broadcast, but more efficiently use air waves through spreading out antennas or other means. Spectral ideas are a “moving target” until Smith sees an actual FCC proposal, he said. “We're not saying ‘no, blanketly,’ we're saying ‘let us see the proposal and we'll try to calculate it.’ The problem however is these are not straight lines in spectrum -- it’s sort of a blanket quilt” with usage varying by market. “Until I see their proposal I don’t know whether or not it’s technologically feasible.” A spokesman for the FCC broadband task force said he couldn’t respond right away.
The CTIA “adamantly” disagrees with Smith’s comments about wireless spectral efficiency, said Vice President Chris Guttman-McCabe. He pointed to findings by third-parties that wireless is the most efficient user of spectrum. “The spectrum inventory is an important step where all the spectrum -- from wireless to broadcasters to government -- needs to be put on the table for review,” Guttman-McCabe said. “Other countries that have far less wireless subscribers than the U.S. have recognized the need for additional spectrum for wireless broadband use and have set aside hundreds of megahertz of spectrum to meet the surging demand.”
Relaxation of FCC rules on common ownership of a radio and TV station and daily newspaper in the same market or of TV duopoly rules “makes a lot of sense and some of our members, our affiliates, don’t like some of this, and some of them do,” Smith said. “What people are beginning to realize is that legitimate journalism, good investigative journalism costs money” and spreading out costs by combining radio, TV and newspaper news gathering makes sense when many are “simply failing financially,” he said. “Perhaps we ought to re-look at some of this and say there are simply economics of scale that newspapers, radio and television can enjoy together. That means perhaps some relaxation of ownership rules or allowing some vertical integration in communities. … I'm not necessarily advocating it, but I am saying that is a better option than the federal government subsidizing newspapers when newspapers are supposed to be the watchdog of government.”