The longtime Allbritton executive joins the Sinclair-Coherent Logix joint venture that’s developing a next-generation TV broadcasting standard.
Jerry Fritz Joins ONE Media As Legal EVP
ONE Media, the joint venture of Sinclair and Coherent Logix, today named Jerald Fritz executive vice president for strategic and legal affairs, saying Fritz will play a key role in shaping ONE Media’s next-generation broadcast platform.
“ONE Media is focused on developing a new standard for broadcast transmissions — lowering barriers of entry into mobile broadcasting while also providing other services such as ultra high definition,” said Tommy Eng, ONE Media president. “Providing programming to viewers on all their devices without a need to be tethered to a cable or data plan is a unique capability that only broadcasters have. We want to make that new platform available to broadcasters and viewers as soon as possible.”
Until recently, Fritz was the long-time SVP for legal and strategic affairs for Allbritton Communications Co. and its affiliate, Politico LLC.
“Jerry is the complete broadcaster,” commented Eng. “He’s been involved in all aspects of the business for decades and understands the vision and need for broadcast to evolve and how the development of a new flexible broadcast transmission standard can help our industry meet changing market needs and remain competitive.”
Joining Allbritton in 1987 after serving as chief of staff to FCC Chairman Mark Fowler and as a primary architect of deregulatory efforts in the broadcasting and telecommunications industries, Fritz helped develop Allbritton into one of the country’s leading broadcasters. He has been intimately involved in the expansion of traditional lines of business for broadcasters, including the formation of NewsChannel 8, the independent 24-hour local cable news service, new webcasting platforms and Politico.
Fritz has helped to craft major telecommunications legislation as well as FCC regulations involving media ownership, content regulation and competitive carriers. He has lectured extensively and testified before Congress and the FCC on communications law, policy and the future of the telecommunications industry, including program ownership rights, distribution platforms and copyright relationships.
BRAND CONNECTIONS
“ONE Media is on the cutting edge of what the next-generation broadcast platform can accomplish. It delivers what we had all hoped for with the conversion from analog to digital broadcasting by expanding flexible broadcasting services to local markets,” Fritz said. “By developing a broadband broadcast platform that equally supports fixed and mobile services, ONE Media is redefining and developing an advanced and flexible future for broadcasting. Rather than deconstructing the broadcast business, One Media is on the forefront of dramatic expansion.”
Comments (2)
Don Thompson says:
September 9, 2014 at 6:37 pm
Not surprisingly, I have wonderful news to relate. While at Allbritton, Mr. Fritz filed a totally frivolous complaint on behalf of WJLA (ABC in D.C.) against American Cable Association member Shentel, alleging violations of the FCC’s retransmission consent good-faith bargaining rules. Shentel, rare among cable operators, actually had the right to carry a different ABC station, which alllowed Shentel to sidestep WJLA’s price-gouging 500% retrans fee hike. In the end, the FCC tossed out Allbritton’s complaint as being very light on protein:
Here is ACA’s statement from July 6, 2012. Please attribute to ACA President and CEO Matthew M. Polka:
“ACA commends the FCC’s Media Bureau for rejecting Allbritton’s frivolous claims of bad faith directed at rural cable operator Shentel, which had made clear all along that its priority was to shield its customers from paying the 500% retransmission consent fee increase sought by WJLA.
“Although Allbritton’s effort to gouge Shentel customers was unsuccessful, ACA Members around the country know very well that many broadcasters are relying on anticompetitive tactics to boost retransmission consent revenue, especially the well-documented practice of coordinated retransmission consent negotiating by separately owned TV stations serving the same local market.
“The absolutely wrong lesson to draw from Allbritton’s failed regulatory gambit at the FCC is that the 20-year-old retransmission consent regime is serving the public interest. On the contrary, retransmission consent is inspiring TV stations to collude at the bargaining table and rely on strategically timed blackouts to pressure pay-TV providers into paying far more than they should to allow their customers to access ‘free TV.’ ” ………………………….and Please follow me on Twitter @TedatACA
Wagner Pereira says:
September 9, 2014 at 10:36 pm
Everyone knows the 500% figures are BS in the grand scheme of things. When a MVPD has a $0.15 per sub fee from years ago that gets moved to $0.75 that reflects the current norm, it is comical how MVPDs and the ACA claim 500% or whatever…..If we could go back in time, the entire ESPN package only cost $4 when it removed from TWC years ago. Now it is $6.04 for ESPN alone, not to mention the add ons like 0.74 for ESPN2 etc. ACA and MVPD want to talk 500% instead of Apples to Apples. Just like ex-cable head, now convicted felon, Ray Nagin, conspiring to hide the truth ………………………….and Please follow me on Twitter @TedatACA