Lake Sees ‘Healthy’ Broadcast Industry After Voluntary Incentive Auction

That future means TV stations thinking of themselves “as providers of content, what, where and when a consumer wants to see it,” Lake said. Remarks at the Las Vegas convention by his boss and by NAB President Gordon Smith reflect a “growing consensus that broadcasters need to embrace new technologies,” Lake said. Many stations are “aggressively exploiting new technologies” including mobile DTV, he noted. Lake also cited efforts by NAB’s lab and the Advanced Television Systems Committee’s ongoing work to develop a new 3.0 standard, and the work on an international move to “convergence of over-the-air standards worldwide” by a consortium of regional groups calling itself the Future of Broadcast Television initiative. “Some TV broadcasters have noted that since the present ATSC standard was developed,” U.S. wireless carriers have “cycled through” several standards, Lake said. “These are industry initiatives, not a matter for regulators, at least” not now, he said.

Not all stations are “sharing” in the improved financial circumstances of the industry since the Great Recession three years ago when the industry was “at its nadir,” Lake said. “Economic conditions vary very widely” among stations with some “strong” and “others that are struggling,” including independent stations facing “a much harder reality,” he said. The auction is an opportunity for a TV station that’s “struggling today and does not see a clear path” to becoming a more attractive property, Lake said. Speaking of the financial details station owners will need to decide on participation, Lake said, “We are committed to making that information available as we go forward” so that stations can choose if they want to volunteer to sell all or part of their spectrum and share proceeds with the government. NAB is “cautiously optimistic” broadcasters will be healthier post-auction, a spokesman said.

Also forthcoming from the bureau are the commission’s overdue video competition report and an order ending the quadrennial media ownership review, Lake said. The order was due in 2010. The video competition report should be released “very soon,” Lake predicted in a Q-and-A. “It’s partly useful because you haven’t seen a report of that sort in several years.” The last report was released as Kevin Martin stepped down as chairman and covered the 52 weeks through June 2006. The forthcoming report doesn’t make any conclusions about the state of competitiveness of the market for video, Lake said. That was expected (CD March 18/11 p5). The FCC is working on a quadrennial review order “as quickly as we can” and isn’t “going to let that rest,” he said. The work is proceeding on the assumption that a broadcaster challenge to the last order won’t be granted review by the Supreme Court, Lake said.

Lake said he agrees with Smith that broadcasters’ greatest challenge is to “challenge ourselves,” as the NAB head said at the convention (http://xrl.us/bm45yi). The industry isn’t expressing “paranoia” in thinking rivals are out to eat their market, Lake said. “Competitors are always out to get you -- that’s the nature of competition,” he continued: “Broadcasters are moving with the technology today” including social media and other new platforms and by innovating with over-the-air transmissions.