‘Myths’ Pervade NAB Arguments on Hard DTV Deadline, CEA Says
Despite a “myth” that broadcasters seek a “prompt end” to analog broadcasting, broadcasters really “have deployed their immense lobbying resources against every attempt to regain the analog spectrum.” That was the broadside from CEA Pres. Gary Shapiro in a new letter to House Commerce Committee Chmn. Barton (R-Tex.). CEA’s latest salvo continues an increasingly nasty war of words with the NAB over a hard DTV transition deadline.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
With the deadline debate shifting from the FCC to Capitol Hill in anticipation of a Barton DTV bill, Shapiro intensified his attack on the NAB. He refuted NAB allegations about “wildly inaccurate claims” by CEA on the DTV transition in an earlier CEA letter to Barton. Because broadcasters are spending such a “significant portion of their vast resources” to fight a hard date, Shapiro said, “they make virtually no attempt to educate their viewers about the DTV transition.” He dared committee members to recall the last time they saw a broadcaster-sponsored public service announcement about DTV. Shapiro warned Barton that “the fight for a hard analog deadline will be a tough battle against entrenched legacy interests.” Nevertheless, recovering the analog spectrum “is the right thing to do” for consumers, innovation and national security, Shapiro said.
In a rebuttal differentiating what he called myth from “fact,” Shapiro sought to debunk NAB claims that as many as 19% of U.S. households rely solely on over-the-air TV broadcasts. That’s higher than the 13% CEA says would be disenfranchised if analog were shut off today a fraction CEA says is shrinking significantly each year. “NAB’s numbers are undercut” by an FCC estimate of 14.86% and NAB members’ own numbers, Shapiro said. For instance, Disney pegs potential disenfranchisees at 9.1% in N.Y. and 15.3% in L.A. “NAB can shuffle its numbers,” but can’t escape the fact that over-the-air broadcast “is the choice of a small and rapidly declining minority of American households,” Shapiro said.
As for an NAB claim that 1,500 stations are on the air with digital and HDTV programming, only 35.5% air a full-power DTV signal, Shapiro said, citing FCC statistics. The majority(52%) transmit low-power signals that “fail to replicate” their analog service areas, while 12.% have no DTV signal at all, Shapiro said. Eight years into the DTV transition, he said, “an astonishing 64.5% of commercial broadcasters still fail to offer a digital signal to all the viewers within their analog service areas.”
Another myth holds that broadcasters do not profit from the DTV transition, Shapiro said. The “loan” of more DTV spectrum was “the greatest transfer of public to private wealth” in U.S. history, he said: “With their intransigence over a hard deadline, NAB now seeks to transform the loan into a permanent gift.” Another example of NAB misrepresentation: that “the indefinite maintenance of analog broadcasting is critical for public safety,” Shapiro said. Last week’s White House and Capitol evacuations drove home that “the gravest threat to our national security is another national calamity” like 9/11, Shapiro said: “Again, we are reminded that the 700 MHz spectrum band held by the broadcasters will be necessary to allow a swift and effective response by police, firefighters and other first responders.” He said that was why the Assn. of Public Safety Commissioners recently urged a hard analog cutoff date and slammed “NAB’s cavalier dismissal of public safety needs.”