MSTV

With the merger finalized, four of MSTV’s five employees have joined NAB, including Victor Tawil and Bruce Franca.

Reacting to last week’s Jessell At Large column, the head of the NAB’s Science and Technology department says broadcasters should be applauding NAB’s moves to absorb MSTV and expand its technology expertise and “not get misguidedly drawn into the realm of uneasiness that dominates the tone of…[Jessell’s] article.”

The FCC plan to reclaim a big block of broadcast spectrum is the most critical issue facing broadcasters in the past three decades. So it’s perplexing that they chose this time to shut down MSTV, their longtime spectrum policy lobby, and to diss NAB’s top tech exec. Those moves raise the stakes in NAB’s hiring of a new EVP of technology. The right person keeps broadcasting in the game. The wrong person puts it on the same grim road as newspapers.

As TVNewsCheck reported on Monday, the board of directors of the Association for Maximum Service Television (MSTV) voted unanimously today to approve merging MSTV with the National Association of Broadcasters. NAB’s Television Board had previously voted in favor of the merger proposal. MSTV said the legacy of MSTV’s 54 years of TV spectrum protection and technology policy advocacy will be continued under the consolidated leadership of NAB President-CEO Gordon Smith. This action also complements the NAB board’s moves to elevate the focus on technology issues within the organization.

Sources say the trade group’s board will vote on Wednesday to shutter the Association for Maximum Service Television, feeling it has become unnecessary given the NAB’s deeper involvement on technical issues vital to broadcasting.

The National Association of Broadcasters and the Association of Maximum Service Television asked a federal appeals court on Monday to hold off on ruling on their appeal of the FCC’s white spaces decision until the commission finishes hearing more challenges to those rules.