NAB Concerned About Set-Top Proposal's Effects on Broadcaster Content, Smith Says

The NAB is concerned that the FCC's set-top box proposals could threaten broadcaster control over their content and copyright, said NAB President Gordon Smith in an interview on C-SPAN's Communicators scheduled for telecast Feb. 20. If the FCC proposals for set-top boxes become rules, tech companies such as Google could become “gatekeepers,” Smith said.

Under the FCC's set-top box proposals, it's not clear whether broadcasters would be compensated properly for the use of their content, Smith said. “How about my copyrighted material?” Smith asked. “Are they gonna sell ads on this?” Smith also conceded he understood FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler's rationale for examining the set-top box market and fostering competition.

The FCC under Wheeler has been one of the “more partisan” commissions Smith has seen, he said. Broadcaster issues should be nonpartisan, so a more-divided FCC is challenging for NAB, Smith said. The FCC didn't comment.

The current FCC also isn't as responsive to legislators as some previous commissions, Smith said. The legislative committees that oversee the FCC have written letters and requests to the agency “that in my day would have gotten a different response,” said Smith, a former Republican senator from Oregon. Legislators are doing their job, but the FCC's response has been questionable, he said.

It's unlikely that much telecom-focused legislation will be introduced in coming months because of the presidential election, Smith said. The pace will pick up during the legislative “lame-duck” session, Smith said. At that point, the dynamics on the Hill will depend on the winning party, he said. If legislators do get around to a Communications Act rewrite, Smith said it's likely to be “rifle shot rather than holistic” because of the subject's technical nature and its wealth of competing interests.

Smith said he doesn't know how many broadcasters will end up participating in the incentive auction, but he's concerned about participation on the wireless side. Since the FCC can't know the level of broadcaster participation either, it shouldn't assume that a 39-month deadline for the repacking effort will be sufficient, he said. Though he condemned the commission for sticking with that deadline, Smith said he took solace that Wheeler and every commissioner has told Congress they won't force off the air the broadcasters that don't meet that deadline.

The incentive auction's role as a revenue generator for the federal government is one of the reasons the agency won't budge on its vacant channel proposal, Smith said. Setting aside “a Google channel” doesn't match up with the original intent of the legislation that created the incentive auction, he said.