Mobile DTV Precludes FCC Spectrum Plan

At the NAB Show this week, I bumped into a prominent broadcast lobbyist. A skeptic about the FCC alchemy for transforming broadcast channels into broadband spectrum, he nevertheless offered Chairman Julius Genachowski some free advice for making it happen.

If the chairman really wants to kick-start a negotiation with broadcasters about their trading in some spectrum for a share of the proceeds from auctioning the spectrum to wireless broadband providers, he said, then Genachowski must first persuade three prominent Democratic senators to signal publicly that they would go along with the plan.

In other words, he needs to find three lawmakers willing to acknowledge that broadcasters deserve cash compensation for giving up spectrum, which most lawmakers believe the government has given them for free.

Only then will broadcasters begin to take seriously Genachowski's so-called cash-for-spectrum or "incentive auction" proposal.

Of course, the lobbyist doesn't believe that Genachowski will be able to find those senators. And that's one of the reasons why he and a lot of other broadcast reps think the voluntary aspect of the National Broadband Plan is hogwash and that Genachowski will just end up making a grab for the spectrum using his considerable FCC authority.

So far, FCC officials have been unable to allay broadcasters' fear that the chairman would take what he can't get through the incentive auction.

I'm not surprised. Broadcasters keep asking what happens if broadcasters don't voluntarily give back spectrum and they can't seem to get a straight answer.

"I don't believe it will come to that, or that our country can afford for it to come to that," Genachowski said in response to the what-happens question that he raised rhetorically in his NAB speech before several hundred broadcasters on Tuesday.

In essence, he said, the deal is so good that broadcasters would be nuts (and even a bit unpatriotic) not to go for it.

"I believe such a plan can and will produce a multi-level win for a series of great American industries -- including broadcasting, mobile broadband, consumer electronics and technology companies -- that it will empower new innovators and entrepreneurs, and that it will bring significant benefits to consumers and taxpayers," he said.

Genachowski also didn't help his argument that his plan is strictly voluntary by throwing this line into his speech: "[W]hatever we might think or hope, this issue won't go away, because the mobile Web -- and the opportunities it provides, and the data demand it will generate -- won't go away."

Phil Bellaria, one of the many authors of the FCC's broadband policy, gamely appeared on an MSTV-sponsored panel session earlier at the convention and gave the same non-answer.

There's no need to discuss involuntary approaches because the voluntary approach will undoubtedly work, he said.

He asked the broadcasters to think back to their wedding days. "At that time, were you thinking...who would you marry next? OK, so we are on our wedding day right now, and we are very confident that this marriage will work."

Rather than saying it was the dumbest analogy he had ever heard (I certainly wasn't feeling any love in the room), fellow panelist and Meredith Local Media Group Chief Paul Karpowicz dismissed it with a quip: "The reality is, 50% of the marriages don't work."

Back to the lobbyist. His advice to Genachowski about getting senators to stand up for incentive auction was right on, but I would also add a suggestion to Genachowski of my own: move fast.

Why? Because broadcasters are dead serious about mobile DTV.

This week, 12 of the most capable and financially strongest TV station groups, including Fox and NBC, announced that they are forming a joint venture with the intention of offering at least 10 channels of mobile service across as much of the country as they can.

It's an extraordinary development, not least of all because of the cooperation among groups whose stations are longtime rivals. News of the plan suddenly takes mobile DTV beyond standards-setting and technical and consumer trials to the real beginnings of a commercial service.

Underlying the venture is a clear message from the TV groups to the FCC: We don't want to give up any of our spectrum. In fact, we are likely to seek left-over spectrum from other broadcasters so that we can increase the number of channels and markets where we can offer service.

Harris and LG, two big tech companies that helped develop the basic mobile DTV standard, this week unveiled a variation on the standard. It would enable broadcasting of at least 16 mobile DTV services through one, fully dedicated 6 MHz channel.

I believe the system is designed primarily for Dish Network, which has a full 6 MHz channel just outside the broadcast band. I understand Dish intends to piggyback on the mobile DTV receiver universe the broadcasters create to offer a multichannel pay service.