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.
EXCLUSIVE
MSTV Poised To Shut Down After 54 Years
The Association for Maximum Service Television’s 54-year history of working in Washington to preserve and improve the technical quality of full-power TV stations appears to be coming to an end.
According to industry sources, the board of the trade group is expected to vote to close the doors this Wednesday at a meeting in Washington. However, the sources say, there is some chance that members seeking to save the organization could prevail.
MSTV President David Donovan declined comment. MSTV Chairman Rob Hubbard, of Hubbard Broadcasting, was not available for immediate comment.
Given MSTV’s mission, it seems an odd time to put it out of business. With the backing of the White House and key members of Congress, the FCC is pushing a plan to recover about 40% of broadcast spectrum in a way that could significantly reduced the coverage and over-the-air performance of all TV stations.
Founded in 1956, MSTV (formerly the Association of Maximum Service Telecasters) took on lawmakers and FCC regulators to strengthen over-the-air broadcasting and ward off actions that would degrade it in any way.
In recent years, MSTV has taken a particularly active role on the DTV transition, working with the FCC on channel allocations and assignments, interference protections and the technical aspects of the digital-to-analog converter boxes. It also took the lead on the reallocation of ENG spectrum and on combatting the FCC white spaces initiative to allow shared use of some broadcast spectrum.
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Despite all that and the spectre of the broadcast spectrum reallocation plan, sources say, MSTV board members advocating the shut down felt the overlap between NAB and MSTV had become too great and that the smaller organization was no longer necessary.
Last week, TVNewsCheck reported that NAB had begun a search to fill the newly created post of executive vice president of technology. That hiring should raise the profile of the technology issues at the NAB.
According to its tax return for 2009, the most recent available, MSTV was just short of a breakeven organization for the year, reporting revenue and expenses of around $2.5 million.
Membership dues ($2,444,268) accounted for nearly all the revenue. The biggest part of the expenses was the salaries and benefits of MSTV’s professional staff: Donovan ($453,214), SVP Victor Tawil ($284,182) and VP Bruce Franca ($232,071).
The organization also reported net worth at the end of 2009 of nearly $3.5 million, with $439,005 in cash and $3,299,563 in savings and investments.
Comments (6)
Wolfgang Paul says:
February 28, 2011 at 2:26 pm
Amazing. Sad. Unfortunate. Who’s going to do battle on the OTA front now?
Ellen Samrock says:
February 28, 2011 at 3:24 pm
Yes, it seems that this is the worst possible time for MSTV to shut its doors. Perhaps the organization can redirect its energies and serve as advocates for the Class A, LPTV and translator community. At the very least, MSTV should consider staying until Obama and his cronies are out of office, that is to say, at least until the end of 2012.
Sheena Bailey says:
February 28, 2011 at 5:00 pm
It seems like this article is misleading. Last I heard there would be a merger between MSTV and the NAB.
Let’s not slant this to look like MSTV has been mismanaged. This is a typical knee-jerk reaction. MSTV has long been our watchdog organization for the FCC and their complete mismanagement of everything.
Please don’t kick the good guys. They will be just fine.
Sena Mourad says:
March 2, 2011 at 4:48 pm
Mr. Barrett is right on target. The MSTV guys have been doing a hell of a job for years and years. They now have the guts to say that they want to combine with the NAB who has also taken up the task. These guys have done and are doing the right thing.
Eugene Thompson says:
March 3, 2011 at 2:25 am
Efforts to maintain free OTA broadcast television must remain a priority. http://www.HearTVInCars.com
Sheena Bailey says:
March 3, 2011 at 2:57 pm
Allen- You are right on target. My fear as a Market 13 Director Of Engineering for a Top 2 Station that worked through the DTV Transition and the sprint Nextel debacle is that the people that are being disenfranchised by this are the poor and the old. Believe me, my station engineers field over ten thousand people in the year before and after the Transition. There should have been an antenna program but I don’t believe that the FCC ever had any intention of keeping over the air TV.
The biggest issue being, “what happens in the event of a national disaster?” we have learned from Katrina and even SMALL power outages and storms in the NW that you will not get the information that you need from Cell Phone providers because they are maxed out instantly when there is an emergency of any size Cell sites are only capable of eighty concurrent streams.
My Passion is around the emergency alert system and news. We have worked closely with MSTV and NAB to Provide a new platform in the Open Mobile Coalition that has been met with skepticism from the FCC because they want us to give up more Bandwidth. They want to sell it to Mobile carriers because they have no foresight and in my opinion simply want everyone to move to Cable, Satellite and Internet. Costly at best. Genakowski is a bean counter and has no business making the decisions he has been entrusted with. This is the Louisiana purchase all over again. Why sell the bandwidth? Why not lease it and get recurring revenue?
The Bottom line is that in my DMA of 3 million there are approximately 128,000 people that have been or will be cut off completely in an emergency because the don’t have Smart Phones, internet or even basic cable.
This is more people than were in the streets of Egypt protesting just to give you some Idea of the scope just in the Seattle Tacoma DMA. Stand Beside MSTV and The NAB they are right and they will fight until the Federal Crooks Commission finds a way to shut them down.