free ota threat

What some broadcasters seem to be saying is that every broadcasters needs all six megahertz all the time or the business model falls apart. That is certainly not evident when you look at the actual behavior of broadcasters. It is certainly not evident when you look at various revenues streams.

So, we are trying to figure out a number of different solutions, not just with broadcast spectrum. But none of the plans that we have we think threatens the future of over-the-air broadcasting. Rather, we think it provides some options for those broadcasters who feel they don't need all the spectrum all the time.

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One of the interesting things was that the broadcasters in a meeting said that one of the errors in my thinking was I did not understand the importance of having the entire six megahertz for the purpose of obtaining retransmission consent revenues.

And what I said was that, based on what I understood from my time on Wall Street, what really drove those revenues was not the quality of the picture that was over the air as much as the quality and the desirability of the content, which is why some networks are able to obtain such fees and other folks aren't.

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The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and the Association for Maximum Service Television (MSTV) say taking away spectrum to give to wireless ignores the public service aspects of broadcast. Quoted in Broadcast Engineering, the associations say, “core public interest goals, like providing local news, emergency information, universal service and educational programs, must be taken into account.”
Another issue is the hefty cost of the recent switch to digital programming. “Consumers have spent more than $25 billion in HDTV receivers and more than $2 billion dollars – subsidized by government coupons – on DTV converter boxes. Additionally, broadcasters have invested billions in converting their infrastructure to support DTV,” say the NAB and MSTV.
Nevertheless, Wigfield says the FCC isn’t taking away spectrum. “Nobody is talking about taking away spectrum from TV, we want to find out how they can be fairly compensated for spectrum they’re not using.”

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Splicer said:

Are you thinking that our OTA stations are going away? I for one am not too concerned IF that is what this is what the articles are about. There is ample spectrum out there for everyone, thanks to the advances in compression technology.

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