ABC’s new scheme to waste spectrum
July 13th, 2007ABC plans to transform its low-profile broadband news channel into a full-blown cable network, according to TVNewsday. In its latest vision for ABC News Now, the network would partner with affiliates to offer local segments every half-hour. Station owners might love the idea, but it’s a raw deal for the public.
When ABC News Now launched on a test basis in 2004, it was available free over the air for several months on local multicast DTV channels. We won’t see that again, apparently—and it gets worse:
In addition to supplying the local news segments, the ABC affiliates would be expected to integrate the local and national feeds and distribute the package to local cable operators via a fiber or microwave link or by broadcasting it in encrypted form over a digital channel.
Because of the encryption, viewers with digital TVs would not be able to receive the service off the air.
The network hasn’t announced anything, so we don’t know if this will come to fruition. But to use the public airwaves as a private transmission system for pay-TV programming would be a shameful waste of valuable spectrum.
As part of the digital TV transition, the FCC gave each station the ability to offer five or six channels instead of just one. Those channels should be used to serve the public—and if broadcasters don’t want to do that, the FCC should take the spectrum back. Make it unlicensed spectrum, available to the public directly. Or auction it off to an entity that will serve a public purpose.
Next year, in preparation for the DTV changeover, the FCC will auction off part of the broadcast airwaves. We’ve seen much hand-wringing about the prospect of telecom companies bidding for spectrum and then warehousing it so as to protect their existing franchises. To prevent such a scenario, the FCC should carefully structure the auction rules. But almost no one seems concerned about the huge quantity of prime spectrum wasted by broadcasters today. They warehouse channels that could be used for multicasts (or more HDTV), and local affiliates waste spectrum on network programming—duplicated hundreds of times throughout the country—that should be sent straight to cable systems in the first place.
Related:
• Analog airwaves and the public interest
• Are affiliates necessary?
• DTV multicasts: Spectrum is going to waste
• Free cable coupons: A disruptive innovation
• Will TV networks use VOD to bypass affiliates?