The April 12 session in Las Vegas will feature discussions on new competition, growth opportunities for local and network television on new digital devices and government efforts to reclaim additional television spectrum.
The group’s president, Gordon Smith, cites a press account of the cable operator’s acquisition of spectrum that it has no plans to sell or use and urges Congress to get a “full and accurate accounting of spectrum users and spectrum warehousers.”
While praising the president’s plan to focus attention on expanding wireless broadband to rural America, NAB CEO Gordon Smith also urged Congress “to consider a holistic approach to the wireless broadband issue, including passage of spectrum inventory legislation that fully identifies fallow or warehoused airwaves.”
The broadcasting lobbyist says that Consumer Electronics Association President Gary Shapiro’s opening speech accusing TV broadcasters of “squatting now on our broadband future” misses the mark. “He simply sees a world of wireless broadband, and that’s just not what the future holds,” Smith said. And the NAB chief also accused Shapiro of being out of touch: “He apparently was writing a book and missed the cord-cutting phenomenon.”
If the government injects itself into the “private business negotiations of retrans,” says NAB President Gordon Smith, it could ultimately mean the flight of the Super Bowl from free TV.
