The FCC Chairman says that for mobile DTV to thrive, broadcasters will need some of the broadband spectrum that his incentive auction will provide.
NAB 2013
Genachowski: Mobile DTV Needs Spectrum
Outgoing FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said today at the NAB Show that the incentive auction is not “a zero-sum game” and that resisting the reallocation of spectrum from broadcast to wireless broadband may not be in broadcasters’ best interest.
“Mobile is an exciting new opportunity for exactly what broadcasters do — produce great local and national content,” he said at sparsely attended session.
Broadcasters should embrace mobile broadband just as they did cable after initially resisting it. “Ultimately, cable was a tremendous boon to broadcasting. There’s every reason to believe the same thing will happen with mobile.”
However, the impediment to broadband mobile being a “major economic opportunity” for broadcasters is insufficient broadband spectrum. “If we don’t solve that, the opportunity to take advantage of interactive video on the mobile platform won’t be there.”
Genachowski said his comment should not be taken as an argument against mobile DTV, an incipient mobile service that makes use of broadcast, not broadband, spectrum. “I think mobile is great,” he said. “We have done a lot at the FCC to facilitate it over the past few years. The market will be the judge of the role mobile DTV plays.”
Comments (2)
Joanne McDonald says:
April 10, 2013 at 3:59 pm
I’m seen to know how to understand the entire spectrum situation. I would take a bet that Daystar, Trinity, Ion and all the other religious and minor broadcast network plus all the diginets multicast networks would round up being regulated to cable only network that would be made available to customers with FTA systems and be made available on all cable systems as well as on both Directv and Dish Network and also be allowed to stream their programming online for internet users at no cost. It would likely force the majority of the stations mainly in all the highest ranked markets and mid size to small size markets in which for example NBC stations on 1080 HDTV share their channel with Telemundo on 480 in widescreen or 1080 HDTV , CBS stations on 1080 HDTV with CW 702 or 1080 in widescreen, FOX stations on 720 sharing with MyNET on 720 in widescreen, Univision and UniMás share a channel together on either 480, 720, or 1080 in widescreen, and ABC would continue to not have to worry about sharing their stations with another network or another station and still on 720 in widescreen, but could likely share it with other network affiliated channels on either 480, 720, or 1080 in widescreen. The stronger PBS stations would end up sharing the channel space with the weaker PBS stations in markets where there are multiple PBS affiliates in the same market. PBS stations would likely be forced to merged and share it’s stations on the same channel frequency and still be able to transmit in 1080 widescreen. The mid-sized and smaller TV markets could end up carrying 2 to 3 subchannel feeds in widescreen SDTV or HDTV on the same channel frequency. There may be a time in which a broadcasting station could be able to transmit 3 HDTV channels feeds in either 720 or 1080 in a single 6 megahertz channel all at the same time within a few years. I would recommend that all the TV stations that are now on the UHF 14-51 band in digital that were on 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13 in analog be forced to move on 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13 in digital and all the TV stations that are now on the UHF 14-51 band in digital that were on 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, and 30 in analog be forced to move back to those channels in digital plus all the TV stations that are now on the VHF 7-13 high band with different RF physical channel numbers on the VHF high band in digital that were on 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13 in analog to be forced to move back to those channels in digital as the best way to not mess up on frequency assignments in the future maybe by around 2020. I like the idea of all the TV stations be allowed to transmit all HDTV and SDTV as well as mobile programming in the MPEG 4 format in the future maybe by around 2020. I like the idea of both IVI TV and FilmOn HDi be allowed to go in business again and be able to transmit all the local stations to the viewers on the net for free without any interference from the government for violating any copyright laws with benefits for online viewers that want to watch their favorite stations programming such as local news and shows even after the spectrum auction and plan becomes very mandated and very hard for TV stations to be able to stay on the air without being able to stream all their programming online to the viewers online. Me wanting IVI TV and FilmOn HDi transmitting the locals online for free to the viewers on the internet would be very beneficial when it comes to very severe weather outbreaks and breaking news that the viewers would want to be very informed the sooner and the better as a public service to all online users and all television stations in the future. I’m afraid that my take of what channels the TV stations ought to be on with the planning of an spectrum auction. Thank you for my understanding to this crisis in the TV business lately as it relates to the spectrum crunch going on right now.
Christina Perez says:
April 10, 2013 at 4:12 pm
Steal broadcast TV stations’ spectrum and then sell it back to them — BRILLIANT!