[opendtv] Re: News: The Winds of Spectrum War
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:43:15 -0400
At 6:31 PM -0400 10/24/09, Albert Manfredi wrote:
Craig Birkmaier wrote:
Sounds like the battle lines are being drawn.
Broadcasters may have one last chance to feast at
the public trough, essentially letting those who
need the spectrum they occupy to pay them to
vacate.
Right. Let's build those condos on the Grand Canyon.
Get real Bert.
The REAL issue here is that broadcasters were allowed to establish
ownership rights in a public resource. The FCC and the politicians
screwed up early in the last century allowing a market to be created
for broadcast licenses. Over the decades broadcasters established
billions in "book value" in the spectrum that they were either GIVEN
by the government, or purchased from a broadcaster that was given the
spectrum. In the last decade many broadcasters and the media
conglomerates have started to write off the value of THEIR spectrum
assets.
A "deal" that would allow the broadcasters to be compensated for
vacating some of the spectrum they occupy could SAVE free-to-air
broadcasting, providing the necessary financial resources to build
out an appropriate new transmission infrastructure and pay off the
tremendous debt burdens that many broadcasters are now saddled with.
So the real issue becomes what is the most appropriate use of the
spectrum that broadcasters would still use.
In my opinion, it should be a service that delivers EDTV (e.g. 854 x
480) quality to fixed and mobile receivers. Better than the NTSC
service that has now been retired, but less capable than the MPVDs
that will deliver HDTV for the next few years until the Internet
scales up to replace them.
After all is said and done, it looks like John Shutt may have been
right all along.
Way back at the start of the digital transition, we were arguing
about what some FCC order or other was trying to get across, and
John said that there was nothing in that FCC order that required
broadcasters to continue transmitting even just the primary TV
stream on their allocated frequency channel, AFTER the transition
was finished. They could do something totally non-TV with their
spectrum, as the order was worded.
I do not believe this to be true. But there is no question that the
broadcasters do "own" the spectrum they use, and this must be undone.
The revenues from the spectrum that is freed up can be used to
compensate broadcasters for a portion of the value they still have on
their books for their broadcast licenses. When all of the broadcast
license holders have been compensated, they should pay to use the
spectrum like everyone else.
If the economics work out FTA broadcasting will survive. Maybe the
public broadcasters should be responsible for operating the
transmission infrastructure, although I still prefer the spectrum
utility idea.
Regards
Craig
Hmmm. How very prescient. I'm impressed.
Bert
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