Broadcasters, Carriers, CE Remain Apart on FM Chip in Mobile Device Issue

Carriers and their cellphone providers don’t want to change the industry’s current plans of activating FM chips on some but not all models, participants said. Broadcasters want all mobile devices to be automatically able to receive terrestrial radio, executives said at the private meeting, officials said. That’s in keeping with the industries’ public positions.

The agency and industry didn’t schedule another meeting on the subject, participants said. Broadcasters contend terrestrial radio is a better way to get emergency alerts on cellphones and other devices than text messages, industry officials said. The CE industry continues to believe it’s a matter best left to the market, because there are many models of cellphones offered by major carriers that can get radio, a CEA representative said. A commission spokesman declined to comment.

Attending the meeting or participating by phone were representatives of the CEA, CTIA and NAB, some of those groups said. The NAB sent Chief Technology Officer Kevin Gage, a spokesman said, and CEA Vice President Julie Kearney said she went. Emmis Communications CEO Jeff Smulyan said he went. He said officials from the Media and Public Safety bureaus and other commission staff attended. Smulyan said AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel, Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile, Google’s Motorola Mobility and Sony also were represented. Representatives at those companies had no comment.

The meeting gave both sides a chance to continue to air their views, said executives from those wanting FM chips activated in every mobile device and those against any government-inspired or other changes. The CE and wireless industries were concerned two years ago when terrestrial broadcasters and record labels worked out a tentative deal to avert legislation requiring the first performance royalty for radio stations that included a requirement to let cellphones get broadcasts (CD Aug 16/10 p5). It’s cheaper for carriers and their customers and uses no wireless spectrum, which the industry says is in short supply for cellphones, to get radio broadcasts and not online streaming music, Smulyan said Thursday. A CTIA spokeswoman declined to comment.

Whether mobile devices have radio reception “is squarely in the hands of the marketplace,” Kearney said. “There are at least two dozen phones with an FM chip, and it’s there for consumers who desire the feature.” There are “self-help measures that the broadcasters can take” to promote that function, she said. “If they have a service that they wish to offer and they can promote it, they have every opportunity to do so,” she said. “They have a service they can offer, so they ought to be advertising it."

It’s “disappointing” that “CTIA and CEA would resist embracing an idea that can save lives,” an NAB spokesman said, “given the unreliability of cellphones in times of crisis. … We think it’s important to put public safety above profits, do the right thing, and voluntarily light up radio chips.” Surveys Harris Corp. did for the NAB show most Americans want radio in cellphones, he noted.

Broadcasters are willing to pay costs carriers might face in activating FM chips that are in most cellphones deployed in the U.S. but not capable of receiving service, Smulyan said. Carriers “are not negotiating” on that point, he said. “Broadcasters are really starting to coalesce around this issue -- it’s really the No. 1 issue for the radio industry,” said Smulyan, whose company owns about two dozen radio stations in major markets including Los Angeles. “We hope the commission will continue looking at this,” he said. “The more people understand this issue, the more people understand how clear cut this is.”