NAB

The National Association of Broadcasters took the gloves off in a recent meeting with FCC engineering staffers over TV white spaces — the use of broadcast spectrum for unlicensed uses like wireless broadband — calling it a failing experiment.

He will move to an advisory and advocacy role beginning next year. The former senator has led the broadcasters’ group for more than a decade. He’s being succeeded by NAB’s COO Curtis LeGeyt.

Broadcasters are telling the FCC that using a popular method of determining signal reach could undo the good work the commission has done to help them better serve the public. It is the latest volley in the battle between broadcasters and computer companies — specifically Microsoft — over opening up the TV band for more unlicensed (so-called TV white spaces, or TVWS) broadband use.

It may be a new, Democratic-led FCC, but broadcasters and cable operators are fighting the same retrans and media ownership battles. On March 16, representatives of the American Television Alliance met with a top FCC staffer to argue that the current media ownership rules allow broadcasters to skirt limits and create triopolies and even quadropolies, loopholes they argued should be eliminated. Only a few days later, representatives of the NAB met with a different FCC staffer to talk about the same issues, but from quite a different perspective.

NAB President Gordon Smith says the organization is shifting into offense with the new Democrat-led FCC, pairing with newspaper publishers for an antitrust exemption in dealing with Big Tech along with pressing for a relaxation of antiquated TV ownership rules. Note: This story is available to TVNewsCheck Premium members only. If you would like to upgrade your free TVNewsCheck membership to Premium now, you can visit your Member Home Page, available when you log in at the very top right corner of the site or in the Stay Connected Box that appears in the right column of virtually every page on the site. If you don’t see Member Home, you will need to click Log In or Subscribe.

Broadcasters want to get a cut of those billions of dollars in the Emergency Broadband Benefit established by legislation passed last December. The bill provides for $3.2 billion in subsidies to be handed out by the FCC over a six-month period. The FCC has been seeking comment on how to set up that program, including how best to promote awareness of the program in the community. NAB is telling the FCC that TV and radio advertising is particularly effective both because they are ubiquitous and because over-the-air broadcasting over-indexes for the eligible population — households with incomes below $50,000.

The National Association of Broadcasters said it has done research that shows there is growing sense that the 2021 NAB Show could be an in-person convention this October. Not surprisingly, NAB said that the availability of a vaccine for COVID-19 will be the biggest influencer (for three in five respondents) in whether to attend an in-person event.

It’s time to stop fueling President Trump’s lie that the election was rigged, and broadcast needs to play an important role in doing so. The NAB must cut off support to the lie’s congressional enablers, talk radio must sever ties with hosts fueling the lie and TV stations need unequivocal language to characterize it for what it is.

The National Association of Broadcasters joined in a letter from a coalition of news organizations to federal law enforcement agencies Thursday, saying they wanted more information about the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol as well as the potential for further violence around the inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

Broadcasters are telling the Supreme Court that a lower court’s rejection of the FCC’s broadcast dereg decision was a recipe for “judicial intervention run riot” and that diversity alone cannot be invoked to block deregulation of rules that marketplace changes have rendered unsupportable and no longer necessary in the public interest.

The National Association of Broadcasters has joined the COVID Collaborative, which comprises groups and experts working on a unified approach to the COVID-19 pandemic. NAB President Gordon Smith will serve as a member of the collaborative’s advisory council.

The National Association of Broadcasters is applauding the inclusion of new help for TV stations in the COVID-19 Emergency Relief Act of 2020 that appears headed for passage and to the president’s desk for a signature.

The FCC is seeking comment on a National Association of Broadcasters petition to clarify the application of the FCC’s ATSC 3.0 (NextGen TV) rules to multicast streams. Those are the extra channels broadcasters got in the switch to digital.

The former CFO of the Associated Builders and Contractors is tapped to succeed Trish Johnson.

As they transition to ATSC 3.0, the Next Gen TV transmission standard, broadcasters want the FCC to clarify/modify the TV station license framework for simulcasting to extend to multicast streams. The FCC is allowing stations to partner on distribution arrangements so that broadcasters can continue to deliver a primary stream in ATSC 1.0 given that ATSC 3.0 is not backward compatible with current sets. The NAB, in a petition for declaratory rulemaking, wants the FCC to declare that various multi-station arrangements for hosting and originating multicast streams in ATSC 1.0 and 3.0 are OK.

As it prepares to lobby in a potentially re-regulatory Democratic administration, and still facing the ongoing impact of the pandemic, the National Association of Broadcasters is going to have to hit up its members, themselves hard hit by the economic impact of COVID-19, for more money. The NAB board has voted unanimously to approve a one-time extra charge equivalent to a year’s dues and payable over the next three years.

The commemoration of broadcasting’s centennial will spotlight legendary journalists and will feature Ted Koppel, Carol Marin, Soledad O’Brien and Robert Siegel. The program will also include a visit to the grounds of the old Westinghouse Electric works in Pittsburgh where the National Museum of Broadcasting has recreated the tiny rooftop shack that housed KDKA’s transmitter and studio on the night of its historic Nov. 2, 1920, broadcast of the election returns of the presidential race between Warren Harding and James Cox.

Broadcasters have scored a victory in the debate with Microsoft over how the FCC should allow for more unlicensed broadband in the so-called white spaces between TV channels.

When it comes to the deployment of ATSC 3.0 and the new services that it can provide to broadcasting and beyond, the NAB tells the FCC it should take a “light regulatory touch.” On a call on Oct. 1, NAB spoke with the FCC Media Bureau on its Notice of Ex Parte Communication that deals with potential ATSC 3.0 regulations, specifically regarding new services that broadcasters could offer the public with the NextGen TV standard.

The National Association of Broadcasters has launched a campaign to celebrate the 231st anniversary (Sept. 25) of the passage of the constitutional amendments that became the Bill of Rights, particularly the First Amendment that guaranteed free speech and a free press. The campaign focuses on the key role broadcasters play in upholding those freedoms, coming at a time when broadcasters are taking an economic hit.

The online event this week underscored 2020’s biggest TV tech trend — moving on-premise broadcast workflows and vendor products to the cloud — while anticipating 5G’s potential use in remote production. Above, a 5G-enabled camera used in a BBC-led trial exploring multi-camera synchronization.

NAB CEO Gordon Smith: “The pandemic remains a significant threat and the evidence suggests it will be well into next year before it could be under control in the U.S. We have decided to move the 2021 NAB Show, previously scheduled for April 11-14, to October 9-13, 2021, in Las Vegas. With a new date set for the 2021 NAB Show we are looking at the entirety of the calendar next year with fresh eyes.”

In comments to the House, the association’s CEO Gordon Smith says the digital giants’ dominance of advertising marketplace, control of online content put radio and TV broadcasters at competitive disadvantage.

The kind of programming offerings attendees get at the annual NAB Show will no longer be contained to a week in Las Vegas, as the organization has announced plans to launch NAB Amplify, a year-round digital platform designed to extend the impact of the NAB Show throughout the year.

Facing 5G wireless buildouts, broadcast NextGen TV buildouts and the C-band transition, communications associations are pushing Congress to pass legislation to help train the workforce that is needed for those infrastructure deployments.

Tuesday night, NAB President-CEO Gordon Smith suffered a stroke and was admitted to the hospital. According to NAB, he “is responding well to treatment, is stable and alert, and is resting comfortably. His prognosis is good, and he is expected to make a full recovery.”

The National Association of Broadcasters has asked the FCC to give stations in markets 61-100 more time before they are made subject to the FCC’s video description rules, which were mandated in the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010. The organization cited the pandemic’s effects on some stations in mid-markets.

Broadcasters are pushing back on cable arguments that leased-access rules represent an infringement on cable’s First Amendment rights, and for good reason. If broadcasters want to preserve their cable carriage mandate, which they definitely do in a world where most broadcast viewing is over cable and satellite retransmissions — the cord-cutting trend notwithstanding — they want to nip the First Amendment challenge to that other carriage mandate in the bud.

Broadcasters are telling the FCC that the pandemic makes it that much more important to streamline reviews of foreign ownership in broadcast properties, in part because pandemic-hammered stations may need to convert foreign debt into equity to avoid defaulting on the loans.