I want to focus on three opportunities: the opportunities to provide over-the-top services built around news and information; the opportunities inherent in the Incentive Auction; and the opportunities created as we contemplate a transition to new TV sets using OFDM [orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing].
I believe that broadcasting is positioned to be not only the reluctant object of competition, but the instigator as well. We are at an inflection point where broadcast licensees can move from being the disrupted, to being the disruptor. When I look at broadcasting I see the traditional public trust where you received spectrum and in return provided important public benefits. But I also hope we can see local broadcast licensees as a growing source of competition in the digital market.
Your content represents far more than the potential for retransmission fees. It can be the basis for a fixed and mobile-delivered cable-like service. The open Internet represents the same kind of expansive opportunity for local licensees. Essential to the open Internet are the concepts that a network provider -- and here we are increasingly talking about your cable friends -- cannot block lawful content or unfairly target content and other edge providers. The open Internet rules should be seen as an Open Sesame for the expansion beyond your local license; to move from the “television” business to the “information” business. But your window of opportunity won’t stay open forever. The cable and Internet companies are all are embracing something new that looks startlingly like your model. Again, that’s why the open Internet initiative is important.
Of course, there is the pesky little matter of how you pay for this kind of pivot. Here, again, the ongoing policy activities of the FCC can be helpful. Which brings me to the second big opportunity I wanted to highlight -- the Incentive Auction. An under-considered and under-appreciated aspect of the Incentive Auction is the idea of spectrum sharing. Spectrum sharing will allow you to maintain your existing business while taking home an auction check.
The third opportunity I want to talk about is using a new television standard as the entry point to the broadband economy for broadcasting. As NAB correctly says, broadcast licensees are “licensed to serve.” This means that when it comes to broadcast licensees our job is to fulfill the instructions of the Congress to promote competition, diversity, and localism.
That is the root of our recent decision on JSAs [joint sales agreements] and SSAs [shared service agreements]. Simply put, where sidecar agreements serve the public interest by advancing the goals established by Congress, they are appropriate. When entanglements between separately owned stations serve as end runs around our local television rules, however, it is appropriate to push the stop button.
