Media Access Project: Eleven Things the N.A.B. Won't Tell You About Ditigal Television

Eleven Things the N.A.B. Won't Tell You About Ditigal Television

Digital TV Main Page

April, 1996

The National Association of Broadcasters (N.A.B.) has conducted a massive lobbying and public relations campaign against auctions of the broadcast spectrum, which, for the first time, would require broadcasters to pay for the use of this valuable resource. Broadcasters have used their own stations to broadcast hundreds of thousands of dollars of free air time urging viewers to call Congress to oppose auctions.

It is now time for other viewpoints to be presented in this debate. The following are the things the NAB won't tell you about digital television.

I. This Debate Is NOT Just About Balancing the Budget.

Many policy makers and members of the public are advocating spectrum auctions not just for deficit reduction, but because they are concerned that valuable public airwaves will simply be given away to broadcasters without compensation for the public. They and others are concerned that broadcasters are demanding this huge windfall while resisting entreaties to provide free air time for political candidates and three hours of children's informational programming each week.

II. Free Over-the-Air Broadcasting is NOT Threatened By Spectrum Auctions.

Spectrum auctions can be structured to preserve free over-the-air broadcasting. For example, an auction winner can be required to provide "must carry" (like cable TV) to the local station that cannot afford to bid for digital spectrum. The British Government has adopted just such a system.

III. A Digital Spectrum Auction Would NOT Be a "Tax" on Broadcasters.

Despite claims in the NAB's "commercials" carried free of charge by its members, the airwaves belong to the public. Rent for using public property is no more of a tax than paying a fee to visit a national park. Cellular telephone providers did not claim that they were being taxed when they paid for the spectrum they use.

IV. Broadcasters Do NOT Need Six Megahertz of Spectrum to Provide Digital TV.

To provide one free over-the-air channel of so-called "Standard Definition" digital TV (SDTV), broadcasters would need less than one-third of the capacity of the 6 Megahertz of spectrum they are currently demanding. SDTV produces a digital picture approximately equal in quality to today's TV, and CD-quality sound. Only High Definition Television (HDTV) necessitates use of nearly all of the spectrum's capacity.

V. The FCC Never Promised Broadcasters Free Spectrum to Provide Multiple Services.

In 1992, the FCC tentatively agreed to give broadcasters spectrum to provide full time HDTV, but it never agreed to permit broadcasters to provide multi-channel non-HDTV. It was the broadcast industry that reneged on its agreement to provide HDTV by asking for "spectrum flexibility" instead.

VI. Few Broadcasters are Planning to Carry Any HDTV.

For the past several years, broadcasters have asked Congress and the FCC for "spectrum flexibility," a scheme that permits TV stations to provide at least one SDTV "channel," while allowing them to use the remainder of their spectrum for multiple pay services, like telephone, paging and pay-per-view. "Spectrum flexibility" is antithetical to the provision of HDTV, which uses most of the spectrum.

Comments filed at the FCC last fall evidence broadcasters' lack of desire to provide HDTV. Three of the networks offered to provide no more than five hours per week. The NAB opposed any mandatory minimum HDTV requirements.

VII. HDTV is NOT A Critical Technology for the American Consumer.

HDTV may be the highest quality television available, but Americans have often abandoned the "best" technology for a technology that is merely good but is a better value - witness the failure of Betamax and the popularity of PCs over Apple. Indeed, to receive the benefits of HDTV, consumers will have to spend thousands of dollars - because the improvement in picture quality over SDTV is only perceptible to the untrained eye on a television set 42 inches or larger. The Japanese HDTV experiment is instructive here - since 1991, just 30,000 HDTV receivers have been sold at $6000 each.

VIII. Many Broadcasters Do NOT Want to Convert to Digital.

Broadcasters do not universally agree that they should transition to digital television. Many smaller broadcasters are perfectly content with their analog systems. And even some larger broadcasters have expressed skepticism about the need for the digital spectrum. Broadcasting pioneer Stanley Hubbard, creator of USSB (a digital DBS service), believes that conversion to digital television could hurt broadcasters, especially those in small markets.

IX. The Grant of New Spectrum is NOT a Mere "Loan" to Broadcasters.

Grant of the digital spectrum is not a loan, because broadcasters don't want to give it back. They oppose setting a firm date for returning their current analog spectrum. If it is a "loan," it is an interest free loan at the public's expense.

X. Even if Broadcasters are Required to Give Back Their Analog Spectrum Soon, Poor and Rural Americans Will NOT be Left Without Free TV.

Broadcasters have strong incentives to ensure that all Americans can afford digital TV. Broadcasters must tell advertisers that they can reach 100% of the viewing audience, lest advertisers buy time on cable television. Broadcasters cannot afford to let advertisers abandon them.

XI. Broadcasters Have NOT "Already Paid" for their Analog Spectrum.

When current broadcast licensees paid entrepreneurs for their licenses, all they bought was the remaining license term of a temporary license (once three, and now eight years long) from a private party. But they did not buy the "spectrum;" the public owns the airwaves. Payments made to private parties do not compensate the public.

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