LAS VEGAS -- Broadcasters are optimistic about ownership deregulation and concerned about tariffs, while NAB is looking to broaden the NAB Show’s appeal, according to speeches and interviews at NAB Show 2025, which kicked off Saturday and runs until Wednesday. The show is set to feature almost no FCC presence compared with previous years, as only Commissioner Anna Gomez planned to attend.
LAS VEGAS -- A proposal to use ATSC 3.0 stations to create a U.S. backup to GPS is more about justifying a speedy transition to the new standard than directly monetizing it, broadcasters and broadcast engineers told us at the NAB Show 2025. The U.S. is the only major power without a backup solution for GPS, and the Broadcast Positioning System proposed by NAB and Sinclair is the most promising candidate in two decades, said Patrick Diamond, a member of the National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation and Timing Advisory Board. For the proposed BPS system to work optimally, “the more towers, the better,” said Tariq Mondal, NAB's vice president-advanced technology.
5G broadcast supporters say HC2’s petition to allow low-power TV stations to transmit in that standard and reach mobile devices could represent a lifeline for an LPTV industry in distress, while some critics say it appears to be aimed at allowing low-power TV owners to get out of the broadcast business.
The FCC should use a still-open 2017 proceeding to eliminate the national ownership cap, NAB said in a letter to the agency Wednesday. The rule bars any single TV broadcaster from owning stations that, as a group, reach more than 39% of the total number of U.S. TV households. “This outmoded rule prevents broadcasters -- but not any other video service providers -- from competing for audiences and vital advertising revenues across the county,” NAB said.
Broadcasters attending the 2025 NAB Show in Las Vegas will be discussing industry competition, rising prospects for ownership deregulation, the potential of the FCC’s “Delete” docket, and their perennial hopes for monetizing ATSC 3.0, broadcasters, brokers and broadcast attorneys told us. The show runs from Saturday until Wednesday, April 9. There are “increasing drumbeats from every direction” pointing to ownership deregulation and the potential for station deals, Tideline Partners media broker Gregory Guy said in an interview. “I fully expect that 2025 will be the most important year this century for broadcast, radio and television.”
A White House executive order issued Thursday ends federal employee union bargaining rights at a host of federal agencies, including the FCC, citing national security concerns. Laws that allow for collective bargaining enable “hostile Federal unions to obstruct agency management. This is dangerous in agencies with national security responsibilities,” said a White House fact sheet on the order.
A wave of retirements has hit the FCC, likely owing to a combination of early retirement offers, the transition in administrations, return-to-office requirements and increased pressure on federal workers, according to interviews with FCC employees and union officials.
A broad swath of commenters from all over the political spectrum condemned the FCC’s news distortion proceeding as unconstitutional in comments filed by Monday’s deadline, while the complainant, the Center for American Rights, insisted the proceeding against CBS is justified. The FCC should use the Skydance/Paramount deal to “address the deeper disease” of “relentless bias” by CBS, CAR said.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said Friday that the FCC won’t approve mergers and acquisitions for companies with diversity, equity and inclusion policies, according to Bloomberg. He also met with a conservative influencer Wednesday who has been involved in online campaigns against corporate diversity policies.
The FCC’s Wireline Bureau released a series of orders on delegated authority Thursday with the goal of making it easier for carriers to move away from legacy copper networks, said a news release and a number of filings. Outdated agency rules “have forced providers to pour resources into maintaining aging and expensive copper line networks instead of investing in the modern, high-speed infrastructure that Americans want and deserve," said Chairman Brendan Carr in the release.