A union, two media diversity groups and a small cable channel want U.S. regulators to block Comcast’s proposed purchase of control of NBC Universal. Concern over preventing broadcast and cable programming from being more widely distributed online is a key factor in the opposition, representatives told reporters Wednesday as some previewed their testimony on Capitol Hill. Comcast said the “nascent” market for online video is “highly competitive” and FCC officials said the agency is just beginning its review.
“I don’t know that we're ready to declare victory” about digital radio’s going mainstream, “but we're certainly getting close,” CEO Bob Struble of iBiquity Digital told us Monday. The licensor of HD Radio technology to stations and device manufacturers is “getting closer” to shipments of 3 million units annually, though reaching that would be “a stretch for this year,” he added. “It’s within sight. … We've been on a very nice growth path.”
Commercial and public radio broadcasters got much of what they sought from an FCC order Friday allowing most FM stations to increase digital power 300 percent from the current limit. A Media Bureau order seemed, as expected, to largely hew to a compromise on power levels reached late last year between iBiquity Digital, the licensor of HD Radio tuners and station gear, and National Public Radio (CD Nov 10 p8).
Two smaller chains of TV station owners sought a “market-based approach” to repurpose radio waves, as almost all other broadcaster replies discussed the CEA and CTIA’s spectrum-saving proposal. “A Commission-sanctioned, market-based approach for reallocating unused and underutilized broadcast spectrum deserves serious consideration,” by the FCC, said Communications Corp. of America and Granite Broadcasting. They cited comments by the top FCC staffer reviewing TV spectrum that a voluntary approach is preferred (CD Jan 19 p10). Both CEA and CTIA have backed such a tack.
A single-frequency network proposal that CEA and CTIA say will save spectrum was panned by the five TV industry officials who responded to our survey about whether switching to a low-power model using more and smaller antennas is practical. They said the SFN distributed transmission system (DTS) sought by the cellular and consumer electronics industries to free up radio waves for wireless broadband (CD Dec 24 p1) is largely untested. DTS has primarily been used by individual broadcasters to fill in coverage areas after they've lost part of their signal contour from the DTV transition. Broadcasters also haven’t embraced a newer idea of using multi-frequency networks (CD Jan 27 p3).
Taking a cue from the wireless industry, multi-frequency networks may increase spectral efficiency of TV stations by allowing them to use current allocations to transmit additional programming plus online applications, said an upstart company about to test the technique. CTB Group executives told us that the company’s networks hold promise for the TV industry by letting it essentially broadcast online content while continuing to transmit conventional video. FCC broadband staffers have said they're interested in CTB’s technology (CD Jan 19 p10) as they look to reassign radio waves. They had no further comment Tuesday.
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.
The FCC should continue to treat broadband as an information service and not put it under common-carrier regulation, as the agency studies options should it lose a court case over its authority (CD Jan 21 p1), Commissioner Meredith Baker said. It would be “a step backwards” for the FCC to handle broadband under its Title II authority instead of Title I, as it has been, she said Thursday at a Media Institute lunch in Washington. Baker said she hopes any net neutrality rules allow content protection, so media companies can protect against infringement online. Media including newspapers are grappling with declines in their conventional ad revenue, she noted. (See separate report in this issue.)
The FCC program access order may get a 4-1 vote at this Wednesday’s meeting, with Commissioner Robert McDowell dissenting, knowledgeable agency and industry officials predicted. His long-held skepticism about extending the commission’s authority in areas such as under Section 628 of the Communications Act will manifest itself in a “no” vote, they said. After considering whether Congress gave the agency room to expand a prohibition on withholding channels affiliated with cable operators from subscription-TV rivals to content not distributed by satellite, he concluded it didn’t, they said.
The TV industry could best help the FCC craft a spectrum proposal in the National Broadband Plan by providing a wide array of information including the industry’s response to several plans for low-power stations, a commission broadband official told us. A proposal from CEA and CTIA, which they say will free up as much as 180 MHz of spectrum by having broadcasters use lower-power and gear similar to cell sites and technology from CTB Group (CD Dec 24 p1) for low-power broadband, was mentioned by Scenario Planning Director Phil Bellaria of the National Broadband Task Force. He oversees the commission’s broadcast spectrum reclamation efforts.