TV Dodged Spectrum Reallocation Debt-Cap Bullet, But Issue Not Going Away

Industry executives and lobbyists said they'll keep a close eye on spectrum in what’s called the normal order of business, since Congress approved on a fast track an increase in the debt-ceiling to about $14 trillion along with $1 trillion in spending reductions. Broadcasters had worried spectrum would become part of that fast-track solution. That was especially so after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., first introduced a long-term debt cap and deficit reduction bill that would have included it (CD July 28 p6). When the second version of Reid’s bill excluded it, broadcast executives said they breathed a sigh of relief.

They're not out of the woods. A spectrum bill (S-911) championed by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., doesn’t include interference and service-area protections and the money broadcasters believe they'll need to change channels involuntarily, industry executives noted. The budget committee being established under the bill Obama signed, to report later this year to Congress on ways to save additional money, could target spectrum, they said. And it’s possible other, future legislation also could look to re-allot TV stations’ airwaves for mobile broadband.

Lobbying efforts made by broadcasters in the past few weeks, while ultimately successful, will need to be repeated later this year as the committee works on its report and if S-911 or another bill looks like it will pass, lobbyists and executives said. “Obviously this is sort of the first period in what will be a longer-term game,” said New York State Broadcasters Association President David Donovan. “It’s important for broadcasters and members of Congress to work together to ensure that people who are reliant on over-the-air television retain access.” He noted that state associations coordinated their lobbying work with the NAB.

CTIA looks forward to working with legislators from both parties “to enact comprehensive spectrum legislation,” said Vice President Jot Carpenter. “More spectrum for the U.S. wireless industry will benefit” consumers and the economy, he added. The CEA, which also seeks voluntary incentive auctions, declined to comment. An NAB spokeswoman declined to comment.

Several state broadcaster groups got the word out to their congressional delegations about the harms the industry saw to TV channel reallocation without additional protections, industry officials said. The New York group, for instance, lobbied Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer, who played a key role in the Senate on the debt-cap issue, they said. The state group in Kentucky lobbied Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and the Nevada association reached out to his Democratic counterpart from that state, Reid. Executives at those two associations had no comment by our deadline.

Broadcasters had the wind at their backs in the days before Obama signed the bill because of reasons unrelated to the industry, too, executives noted. Reid’s original bill is said to have sought to reallocate the D block to public safety, instead of auctioning it as some GOP legislators sought. That’s said to have caused some Republicans, especially in the House, to have expressed concerns, and might have helped derail spectrum in Reid’s second try at the bill. As debt-cap talks between the parties advanced, industry executives noted that Republicans also became more focused on budget reductions in any short-term solution, and so spent less time on revenue enhancers like an incentive auction.

"At the end of the day,” the “congressional leaders were convinced that this complex issue should be resolved by the expert committees that Congress itself has established,” said General Counsel Jerald Fritz of Allbritton Communications. It owns about a half-dozen stations including in major markets like Washington where the FCC might want to auction spectrum. “This issue is too important to be held hostage to the congressional budgeteers,” might have been what many legislators concluded, Fritz said. The “professional staff” of Commerce and other committees and the members themselves “will think through those unintended consequences” such as loss of TV service that could come from broadcaster spectrum reallocation, he added. Fritz expects the industry to continue to argue that protecting stations that don’t try to auction their channels is an important spectral consideration, and such outlets ought to be fully compensated for any repacking costs.

Broadcaster pushback on spectrum was a “powerful force” on the Hill, but not the only consideration in play on the issue, said analyst Jeff Silva of Medley Global Advisors. “It may have been a little bit more multidimensional than just broadcast opposition, which I think was a significant” influence, he added. Key House members “have always wanted to auction” the D block, and “maybe felt like the way that the Reid plan was going wasn’t giving taxpayers the biggest bang for the buck,” Silva said: “I think that was probably in play there as well."

Even absent spectrum being an issue on the Hill, broadcasters have been working on ways to make their systems use frequencies more efficiently, said Advanced TV Systems Committee President Mark Richer. “This is kind of going in the natural course, which would be this direction anyway,” he said of ATSC efforts to add capabilities to its standards. Spectral efficiency will be a touchstone of the group’s version 3.0 standards, though such efforts may take years to complete, he said. “We're starting our efforts to have a completely new system. And naturally spectrum efficiency would be a part of that effort.” The time line to implement ATSC version 3.0 will be affected by “the regulatory environment, the technology progression as well as the business atmosphere,” Richer said. “I've been saying the schedule is 10 years plus or minus 11."