Shapiro Chides Smith Over Auction Remarks
TVNewsCheck,
May 1, 2012, 12:22 PM EDT
CEA President Gary Shapiro says NAB CEO Gordon Smith should refrain from his public statements about the FCC's proposed spectrum auction, calling them "inconsistent with the goals of Congress."
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Executive Session with john hane
Here's What’s Next For The Spectrum Auction
TVNewsCheck,
Feb 27, 2012, 8:19 AM EST
Washington communications attorney John Hane walks us through how the just-authorized broadcast TV spectrum auction may play out. He explains what the FCC has to do, how it may proceed, the vagaries of the whole process and points out what broadcasters should be wary of.
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Jessell at Large
Fox Knows What Genachowski Should
TVNewsCheck,
Feb 10, 2012, 3:10 PM EST
That’s the value and power of over-the-air television broadcasting. The Fox plan to invest millions of dollars into the launch of MundoFox, a new
broadcasting network for Hispanics, makes hash out of the FCC chairman’s contention that broadcasting is an obsolete medium and that its continued use of spectrum is of a waste or at least the underutilization of a precious natural resource.
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Spectrum Auction Bill Advances In House
TVNewsCheck,
Dec 14, 2011, 6:43 AM EST
A Republican-backed payroll tax and jobs bill with TV spectrum auction language attached won House passage last night. But many hurdles still stand in the way of it becoming law. President Obama has said he would veto the legislation as it now stands. Still, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, who has championed the reallocation of TV spectrum to wireless broadband, called the House vote a "major achievement."
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NAB, CTIA Jointly Oppose Spectrum Fees
TVNewsCheck,
Oct 12, 2011, 5:34 PM EDT
The two groups are joined by three others in a letter to the congressional Super Committee charged with reducing the federal deficit, asking it to reject a provision in the jobs bill that would empower the FCC to impose more than $4 billion in new spectrum user fees over 10 years.
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Budget Panel Seeks More Gov't Spectrum
TVNewsCheck,
Oct 7, 2011, 3:20 PM EDT
Members of Congress' deficit reducing Super Committee tell Obama that he needs to find more government spectrum that can be auction to wireless broadband operators. The spectrum that Obama has already identified, including portions of the TV band, is not enough, they say.
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NAB Spectrum Letter Creates Backlash
National Journal,
Oct 7, 2011, 1:38 PM EDT
Groups backing efforts to give the FCC authority to auction TV spectrum to wireless broadband operators lashed out at the NAB for suggesting in a letter to Congress' deficit-reduction Super Commitee that there is no spectrum shortage and so no need to auction TV spectrum.
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NAB's Smith Keeps Up Defense Of Spectrum
Washington Times,
Sep 30, 2011, 7:43 AM EDT
NAB President Gordon Smith says the FCC's TV spectrum grab could be “catastrophic” for the industry and could mean the loss of free, local programming for tens of millions of viewers. “We’re just like a pinata that everyone’s always banging, and we’re saying, ‘Enough already.’ “
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Analysts: What Spectrum Shortage?
ReadWriteEnterprise,
Sep 27, 2011, 3:28 PM EDT
A study by Jason Bazinet and Michael Rollins of Citi Investment Research & Analysis seems to undermine FCC's claim that reallocating spectrum from broadcast TV is urgent. The study concludes that only about 35.7% of spectrum set aside for wireless communications is being used for that purpose. What's causing the spectrum problems, Bazinet and Rollins believe, is not how much spectrum is being consumed but
where it falls on the map, and
who owns it.
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Jessell at Large
A Plan For Spectrum Peace In Our Time
TVNewsCheck,
Aug 19, 2011, 2:54 PM EDT
The fight between the NAB and the FCC over spectrum auctions is ugly. The two groups should be working together for the common good — that is, enhancing broadcasting as a strong, free and universal service and, at the same time, freeing up some additional spectrum for wireless broadband. Let me offer a compromise, a new National Broadband/Broadcast Plan. The NAB and the FCC would persuade as many stations as possible to give up their channels with the promise of a big pay day. And then the FCC would use a portion of the freed up spectrum — let's say about a third — to improve broadcasting by giving the remaining stations more room to breathe.
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Jessell At Large
Delay On Spectrum Models Raises Suspicion
TVNewsCheck,
Aug 5, 2011, 3:44 PM EDT
This is getting ridiculous. The FCC was supposed to make public its technical models for its proposed spectrum reallocation that would make its proposed auction plan possible. Broadcasters are still waiting. It keeps promising, but it never delivers and that's straining the commission's credibility. Until the modeling is made public, broadcasters should remain skeptical — and wary — of the anything having to do with incentive auctions. And Congress, too.
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cash for spectrum
In Spectrum Battles, Mom & Pop TV Loses
GigaOM,
Aug 5, 2011, 3:02 PM EDT
The FCC has been pushing for a while to get some 120 MHz of spectrum from the TV broadcasters and it sell it to the highest bidder. The NAB is opposing these plans and warning that it could lead to the closure of some 210 of its member's stations. But the impact could be even greater on the country's low-power TV stations, some LPTV operators fear. Close to 3,500 LPTVs would be affected by the spectrum changes, according to NAB estimates.
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cash for spectrum
TV Escapes Spectrum Auction In Debt Deal
TVNewsCheck,
Aug 1, 2011, 2:57 PM EDT
The congressional agreement to raise the debt ceiling did not contain language proposed by Democratic Senate Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) that would have granted the FCC authority to hod incentive auctions of broadcast TV spectrum with limited protections for stations operators that choose not to participate. But, industry-watchers caution, auctions are not dead yet.
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cash for spectrum
Debt Fight Could Bring Spectrum Auctions
Associated Press,
Jul 29, 2011, 6:08 AM EDT
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's current debt ceiling plan would direct the FCC to auction off highly valuable television spectrum to wireless carriers desperate for more airwaves.
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cash for spectrum
NAB Runs Full Court Press On Auction Action
TVNewsCheck,
Jul 28, 2011, 3:55 PM EDT
Sen. Harry Reid’s debt reduction proposal would permit the FCC to conduct incentive auctions of TV spectrum and share the proceeds with broadcasters who give up spectrum, but doesn’t have safeguards that broadcasters want. NAB is lobbying against the plan, calling it “about as big a threat as there is in terms of the future of our business.”
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NAB's Smith: Spectrum Bill Good, But ...
TVNewsCheck,
Jul 15, 2011, 3:15 PM EDT
NAB President Gordon Smith gave his blessing to the House incentive auction bill, but said he'd prefer stronger language that would require the FCC to preserve stations' current coverage to "the maximum extent possible." Smith would also like the final bill include a requirement that the FCC use the same signal protection criteria that it did when it shifted broadcasters to digital service two years ago.
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TVNewsCheck Focus on Washington
Just How Voluntary Is Senate Spectrum Bill?
TVNewsCheck,
Jun 29, 2011, 7:44 AM EDT
The Senate bill authorizing FCC TV spectrum auctions is raising red flags after an amendment was added that makes it unclear that such auctions be entirely voluntary for broadcasters. Another is that the FCC is not required to protect sufficiently those broadcasters that choose to hang on to their spectrum from increased interference and loss of service area.
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cash for spectrum
Congress May Fast-Track Spectrum Auctions
TVNewsCheck,
Jun 23, 2011, 8:29 AM EDT
It’s looking increasingly likely that Congress may authorize the FCC to hold incentive auctions as soon as this summer as part of debt-ceiling legislation now in the works. NAB says it is “working hard to ensure that spectrum-related provisions would include replication and interference protections for the vast majority of TV stations that will choose to remain in business.”
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Italy's $3.5 Billion Spectrum Sale At Risk
Bloombert,
Jun 14, 2011, 1:38 PM EDT
Italy, trying to cut its deficit, may be thwarted in a bid to raise €2.4 billion ($3.5 billion) by auctioning frequencies, as broadcasters and phone companies resist the “chaotic” sale. Local television channels, which occupy most of the frequencies to be sold, say they may refuse to free the spectrum if the government doesn’t offer higher compensation. Mobile phone operators, the likely buyers, say the frequencies aren’t worth the price if the broadcasters don’t allow immediate access.
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Senate Commerce Passes Spectrum Bill
TVNewsCheck,
Jun 8, 2011, 1:11 PM EDT
The Public Safety Spectrum and Wireless Innovation Act authorizes broadcasters and other spectrum licensees to voluntarily return unused portions of the airwaves. The freed-up spectrum would be re-auctioned for commercial wireless broadband use in exchange for a portion of the proceeds through “incentive auctions.” The bill now heads to Senate floor.
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Ellis: TV Chips Should Be Required In Phones
B&C,
Jun 2, 2011, 1:53 PM EDT
Veteran Broadcaster Bert Ellis says the FCC should make putting TV tuner chips in handsets the price of entry for wireless companies in an incentive spectrum auction, and for approval of the combo of major wireless players AT&T and T-Mobile. Ellis, currently president of Titan Broadcasting, says he may well sell some of the spectrum from some of his stations under the right conditions.
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Senators Pushing Safety/Spectrum Bill
TVBR,
May 19, 2011, 6:11 AM EDT
It has been to goal of Congress to establish a national emergency interoperable communications system for first responders, ever since the events of 9/11 exposed the weaknesses in the system. A new bill will address that issue, and provide for the voluntary auction of spectrum by willing TV stations. NAB was conditionally pleased with the bill.
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analysis by David Lieberman
Who Will Blink First Over TV Spectrum?
Deadline.com,
Apr 19, 2011, 8:29 AM EDT
I'm of the opinion that there isn't that big a divide between the FCC and NAB's positions. And I think all the posturing and threats will end as soon as Genachowski and the NAB can agree on how much stations owners should receive for giving up their claim on what used to be thought of as the public's property.
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Jessell at large
Genachowski’s NAB Speech A Wasteland
TVNewsCheck,
Apr 15, 2011, 3:42 PM EDT
The FCC chairman's speech to advance his plan to move TV spectrum to wireless broadband fell on mostly deaf ears. Genachowski recognized broadcasters' concerns, but really didn’t address them. What he did make clear is that he views wireless broadband as the big game and that it is his job to feed it with as much spectrum as he can find. In his mind, broadcasting is nice; broadband is “essential.”
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cash for spectrum
Full Court Press On TV Spectrum Hits The Hill
TVBR,
Apr 14, 2011, 6:05 AM EDT
CEA and CTIA are composing letters, commissioning surveys and writing white papers. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is giving speeches at NAB 2011 in Las Vegas. And various individuals are testifying on Capitol Hill. They all have the same objective — the capture of 120 MHz worth of television spectrum to repurpose for wireless broadband. On the Hill, WGAL Lancaster, Pa., Chief Engineer Bob Good mounted a defense.
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nab 2011
State Broadcasters Meet With Genachowski
B&C,
Apr 13, 2011, 7:18 PM EDT
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski met with most of a hundred state broadcasters out in Las Vegas this week to talk about the FCC's spectrum auction plan, according to an FCC official familiar with the meeting. The chairman was there to address the NAB Show on that very topic.
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Nab 2011
NAB's Smith Draws The Line On Auctions
TVNewsCheck,
Apr 12, 2011, 3:46 PM EDT
The NAB president says that an FCC spectrum auction must be totally voluntary, and even at that there need to be assurances that it “doesn't harm another station that wants to stay in business and is excited about the future.”
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Nab 2011
Genachowski Preaches To The Unconverted
TVNewsCheck,
Apr 12, 2011, 2:42 PM EDT
The FCC chairman tries to reassure broadcasters that any incentive auction plan of TV spectrum would be voluntary, saying it’s “essential that broadcasters be treated fairly.” He reinforces his claim that such action is needed to meet a growing need for wireless broadband services, saying, “If we wait until there’s a crisis to reallocate spectrum, we'll have waited too long — for consumers, for our global competitiveness — and, I believe, for broadcasters.”
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NAB 2001
CEA Throws An Elbow At Broadcasters
Adweek,
Apr 12, 2011, 6:45 AM EDT
Just as the NAB opened its annual convention in Las Vegas on Monday, the Consumer Electronics Association released a survey purportedly demonstrating that Americans want spectrum devoted to wireless Internet and not television. The timing of the release of the CEA-commissioned survey was no accident; it was meant to rile broadcasters as they fight to hold on to spectrum.
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Nab 2011
Frank: FCC Auction Plan Like ‘Leno In Prime’
TVNewsCheck,
Apr 12, 2011, 6:17 AM EDT
As part of an NAB Show panel on the FCC’s spectrum plans, Post-Newsweek President Alan Frank says the proposal to auction spectrum to aid broadband is not so much how such a voluntary auction will affect the minority of broadcasters who choose to participate in it, but rather how it will affect the majority who choose not to. And then there’s that word “voluntary.” “I had the honor of serving in the Army and I understand voluntary,” Frank said. Responding was FCC Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake, who promised that it was not the FCC’s intention to degrade TV service in any way.
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cash for spectrum
Economists Plug Auctions For White House
Television Broadcast,
Apr 6, 2011, 2:41 PM EDT
The Obama Administration's campaign to reassign broadcast spectrum for wireless broadband is now focused on securing congressional authorization for incentive auctions. The White House today hosted an summit on the issue, inviting a bevy of economists, FCC Chief Julius Genachowski and no broadcasters.
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cash for spectrum
FCC To Move On Auctions 'Promptly'
CommLawBlog,
Apr 1, 2011, 7:39 AM EDT
Proving yet again that where there’s a will, there’s a way, the FCC has announced that it is proceeding with incentive auctions “promptly”. This is noteworthy, of course, because Congress still hasn’t gotten around to authorizing the sharing of auction proceeds — and the conventional wisdom has been that, without such authority, incentive auctions were a non-starter.
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Jessell at Large
NAB Needs To Get Spectrum Act Together
TVNewsCheck,
Mar 11, 2011, 1:25 PM EST
The FCC plan to reclaim a big block of broadcast spectrum is the most critical issue facing broadcasters in the past three decades. So it's perplexing that they chose this time to shut down MSTV, their longtime spectrum policy lobby, and to diss NAB's top tech exec. Those moves raise the stakes in NAB's hiring of a new EVP of technology. The right person keeps broadcasting in the game. The wrong person puts it on the same grim road as newspapers.
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cash for spectrum
Smith on Spectrum: We Won't Be Rolled
B&C,
Mar 4, 2011, 5:53 AM EST
The NAB president says broadcasters are willing to volunteer spectrum, but won't be put in a degraded position on the TV band.
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cash for spectrum
Kerry-Snowe Introduce Incentive Auction Bill
B&C,
Mar 3, 2011, 5:51 AM EST
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), chairman of the Senate Communications Subcommittee, and Rep. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) introduced a bill that would authorize incentive auctions and require the FCC and NTIA to conduct a spectrum inventory. It would allow the FCC to determine how much to compensate broadcasters for giving up spectrum, but would also try to prevent speculation in those licenses.
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NAB's Smith: Dish, TWC 'Hoarding' Spectrum
TVNewsCheck,
Mar 1, 2011, 8:50 AM EST
The charge against the cable and satellite operators comes in a letter to key members of Congress. The NAB president also calls for a government investigation into “spectrum hoarding and/or spectrum speculation.”
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cash for spectrum
Spectrum Holdouts Could Be Charged Fees
Broadcast Engineering,
Feb 21, 2011, 9:40 AM EST
Buried in President Obama’s 2012 budget is an item that could alter the way people look at the term “voluntary,” at least when it comes to the proposed spectrum auctions for broadcast spectrum. “To promote efficient use of the electromagnetic spectrum, the administration proposes to provide the FCC with new authority to use other economic mechanisms, such as fees, as a spectrum management tool,” the budget says. “FCC would be authorized to set user fees on unauctioned spectrum licenses and could be used in instances where incentive auctions are not appropriate.”
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Cash For Spectrum
Dingell Likens FCC Spectrum Plan To 'Holdup'
TVNewsCheck,
Feb 18, 2011, 3:15 PM EST
The congressman grills FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and isn't satisfied with the chairman's answers on just how voluntary FCC's proposed spectrum auction plan for broadcasters is. "I have dark suspicions," he says.
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cash for spectrum
CTIA, CEA: Spectrum Auction To Yield $33B
TVNewsCheck,
Feb 16, 2011, 2:46 PM EST
The CTIA-The Wireless Association and Consumer Electronics Association submitted a white paper to the FCC that says the commission's proposed TV spectrum auction will help balance the federal budget by contributing more than $33 billion.
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cash for spectrum
FCC Webinars To Tout Spectrum Reallocating
CommLawBlog,
Feb 14, 2011, 3:21 PM EST
As far as the commission’s concerned, it’s apparently all systems go and full speed ahead with the effort to encourage TV broadcasters to relinquish their spectrum so that it can be used to further the National Broadband Plan. The latest evidence of this is the commission's plan to offer webinars for stations to explain, it says, "the financial opportunities offered by voluntary incentive auctions" and answer questions, including ones on "the need to repack the remaining television channels following the auction."
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NAB's Smith Leads Stations In Spectrum Fray
Washington Post,
Feb 13, 2011, 10:37 AM EST
Veteran politician,businessman and now the top evangelist for broadcasters, Gordon Smith, the president of the National Association of Broadcasters, is telling his former Capitol Hill colleagues that the federal government's plan to bolster wireless networks could end up darkening signals for hundreds of stations around the country.
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cash for spectrum
President's High-Wireless Act Draws A Crowd
B&C,
Feb 10, 2011, 4:39 PM EST
Reaction poured in Thursday following delivery of President Obama's speech in Michigan promoting his national wireless plan, which aims to reclaim enough spectrum from broadcasters and others to get 4G wireless broadband service to 98% of America within five years. NAB won't oppose, but says broadcasters and viewers should be "held harmless."
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cash for spectrum
Obama To Unveil Wireless Internet Plan
Washington Post,
Feb 10, 2011, 2:47 PM EST
President Obama is to unveil a plan today to bring wireless high-speed Internet access to all Americans, a goal the administration says is key to the country's ability to compete globally in the years to come.
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commentary by Harold Furchtgott-Roth
FCC Confuses Expropriation With Incentives
Forbes,
Jan 28, 2011, 11:00 AM EST
the former FCC commissioner says that "incentive auctions are little different from expropriation of property, far worse than the usual government condemnation of property under eminent domain." He goes on to say "There is a better way: Simply rezone broadcast spectrum to permit other uses, and let anyone buy and sell it."
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Jessell at large
FCC's Two-Faced Stance On Broadcast TV
TVNewsCheck,
Jan 21, 2011, 11:48 AM EST
While the FCC under Julius Genachowski is actively moving to take spectrum away from TV stations, which the chairman calls an “obstacle” to America’s broadband future, its conditions placed on the Comcast-NBCU deal indicate just the opposite. The commission has decreed that NBC and Telemundo stations must produce an additional 1,000 hours of “original, local news and information programming” as groups. To me that shows that the FCC is implicitly recognizing the continued importance of broadcasting in the media mix.
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cash for spectrum
FCC Chief Uncertain Hill Will OK Auctions
The Hill,
Jan 13, 2011, 8:05 AM EST
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski voiced some doubts that Congress will approve spectrum auctions to open up more broadband airspace. Genachowski said at a Brookings Institution panel Wednesday that he won't make bets on Congress passing legislation on incentive spectrum auctions, a top priority of the FCC and a proposal that has bipartisan support on the Hill.
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cash for spectrum
Upton: Auctions Likely In Spectrum Bill
B&C,
Jan 12, 2011, 9:55 PM EST
House Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) said Wednesday that finding more spectrum to auction for broadband use will be "priority." He also said that it will "likely include voluntary incentive auctions," which will require Congress to authorize paying broadcasters and others to give up their spectrum.
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ces 2011
NAB's Smith Blasts Shapiro Over Spectrum
TVNewsCheck,
Jan 6, 2011, 3:36 PM EST
The broadcasting lobbyist says that Consumer Electronics Association President Gary Shapiro's opening speech accusing TV broadcasters of "squatting now on our broadband future" misses the mark. “He simply sees a world of wireless broadband, and that’s just not what the future holds,” Smith said. And the NAB chief also accused Shapiro of being out of touch: “He apparently was writing a book and missed the cord-cutting phenomenon."
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