NAB

National Association of Broadcasters President Gordon Smith said the government should start applying a public interest standard to Google and Facebook and other Big Tech titans. That was in an interview for C-SPAN’s Communicators series.

Every five years, satellite operators ask Congress to renew the law that gives them the right to import network affiliated broadcast signals into “white areas” where subscribers cannot get local affiliates off air. And every five years, the operators and their cable allies try to dirty the bill with provisions that will make it more difficult for broadcasters to negotiate for retransmisson consent fees. NAB’s job is clear: Convince Congress to kill the renewal legislation or pass a “clean” bill and make it permanent.

The association’s director of media relations, Zamir Ahmed, is promoted. He will shape messaging for NAB communications in the public policy arena and serve as an occasional spokesman in dealing with trade and consumer press.

In addition, Emily Barr becomes TV chair and David Santrella was elected radio chair.

When it comes to those opposing modifications to the FCC’s media ownership rules, the National Association of Broadcasters is not holding back in its most recent comments. The organization wrote that comments submitted in opposition to reform are “fundamentally backward” in this new media marketplace.

She is promoted from vice president to succeed the retiring Marcellus Alexander as head of the NAB Leadership Foundation.

While most broadcasters and equipment vendors still view the annual NAB Show as an essential stop, attendance and exhibitors have declined the past few years. Show organizers are being proactive by tweaking the schedule of next year’s show in an effort to attract fresh traffic.

Broadcasters have told the FCC not to pay attention to the tech companies seeking to harpoon the great white (spaces) whale by preventing broadcasters from using vacant channels to help in the transition to next-gen ATSC 3.0 TV transmissions. That came in a call this week between NAB execs and officials at the FCC’s Media Bureau and Incentive Auction Task Force.

Broadcasters and satellite operators are at odds over who would be burdening whom under a new carriage election proposal the FCC is considering. The NAB and NCTA have joined in proposing changes to the carriage election — must carry or retrans — process, which the FCC is looking to streamline as part of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s deregulatory weed-whacking initiative.

Broadcasters, led by the NAB, are urging lawmakers to let the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act Reauthorization, or STELAR, expire on Dec. 31. STELAR is at the top of NAB’s legislative hit list in part because it has morphed into a tool that one company in particular — DirecTV — has been using to bypass stations and retransmission consent fees in up to a dozen markets. But of larger concern is that cable and satellite operators will use the legislation as a vehicle to weaken broadcasters’ retransmission consent rights.

The new exhibit area will offer educational sessions and live demonstrations that showcase content development, delivery and monetization opportunities related to connected vehicles.

A new date pattern shifts the exhibit floor opening to Sunday from the traditional Monday.

Broadcasters are telling the FCC its proposal to open up the 6 GHz spectrum for unlicensed wireless is not ready for prime time, and may never be. Broadcasters use the band for auxiliary (BAS) operations and NAB says the FCC’s proposed interference protections — limiting it to lower-power, indoor operations — miss the mark, particularly since some camera transmitters used to relay footage back to stations also operate indoors and at low power, so they would be in the interference line of fire even with those limitations on unlicensed devices.

The National Association of Broadcasters continued to lead the industry’s lobbying charge in 2018, spending $14.16 million on lobbying efforts last year, according to an Inside Radio review of disclosure filings. That represented an 8% decline compared to what the NAB allocated to lobbying in 2017. The reports also show the NAB reduced its lobbying spending by 23% from 2016 to 2018.

The National Association of Broadcasters’ “We Are Broadcasters” initiative will host a Twitter Chat Jan. 15 at 1 p.m. ET on the role of Spanish-language broadcasting. Online to chat about the “explosion” of Spanish-language broadcast content will be Fernando Pizzaro, Washington correspondent for Univision, and former Univision journalist Maria Elena Salinas.

NAB has called on the FCC to recognize the important role C-band plays in content delivery for radio and television stations, MVPDs and OTT operators, to be judicious in the way it makes decisions about reallocating part of the band for wireless use and not to take steps that will degrade C-band satellite service by allowing shared use in the non-reallocated part of the band.

NPG is partnering with the NAB and Pearl TV alliance of broadcasters to launch the new 3.0 standard in Santa Barbara on ABC affiliate KSBB. The test is designed to allow broadcasters in the nation’s mid-to-smaller markets see exactly how next-gen TV will enhance services for local viewers and for broadcasters.

The honor is in recognition of her 10 years on daytime television and 33 years in broadcasting. She will also participate in a featured main stage keynote session at NAB Show New York with Lionsgate’s Debmar-Mercury Co-Presidents Mort Marcus and Ira Bernstein.

The president of Meredith Local Media succeeds the now-retired Paul Karpowicz. As president, he oversees Meredith’s 17 local TV stations that reach more than 11% of U.S. households. McCreery also oversees MNI Targeted Media, which joined Meredith’s Local Media Group after the acquisition of Time Inc.