roundtable: $100 Billion Giveaway

roundtable: $100 Billion Giveaway

$100 Billion Giveaway

Benton Foundation (benton@benton.org)
Wed, 11 Oct 1995 16:37:12 -0400 

Date: Wed, 11 Oct 1995 16:37:12 -0400
Message-Id: <v0211010caca1a277c909@[204.245.149.10]>
To: benton-compolicy@cdinet.com, roundtable@cni.org
From: benton@benton.org (Benton Foundation)
Subject: $100 Billion Giveaway


Earlier today the Benton Foundation convened a press briefing on the 
public interest issues surrounding a huge giveaway of public property: 
the impending allocation to broadcasters of 6 MHz of spectrum in the 
name of "Advanced Television" (ATV).  The briefing coincides with the 
release of Benton's latest working paper entitled "Pretty Pictures or 
Pretty Profits: Issues and Options for the Public Interest and Nonprofit 
Communities in the Digital Broadcasting Debate."  The paper addresses 
the risk that publicly owned spectrum -- valued at as much as $100 
billion -- will be given away to incumbent broadcasters with no 
compensation to the public.

Until now, there has been little public attention to this matter -- and
scarce input from public interest groups.  As a result, we are now on the
verge of superhighway robbery.  It is time to get the public involved and
for policy makers to hear from a wide variety of perspectives.

Broadcasters are attempting to obtain vast additional amounts of a scarce,
extremely valuable public resource in exchange for providing absolutely
nothing.  Congress and/or the FCC have a choice - they can either give 
this new spectrum away, or they can make sure the public gets a dividend 
of service and resources.  The allocation of this spectrum could lead to
increased diversity, true public access, and increased funding for
noncommercial public interest programming.  Those who still care deeply
about these goals now have a critical opportunity to realize them.

The Benton Foundation invites you to visit our World Wide Web site at
http://cdinet.com/Benton and read "Pretty Pictures or Pretty Profits."  We
will also be sending this paper to 300 hundred nonprofit organization
leaders, foundation executives, policymakers over the next few days to put
the issue on their radar screens.  The Benton Foundation encourages you to
read "Pretty Pictures or Pretty Profits" and to participate in creation of
the rules that will govern broadcast television for the next 100 years.

Any new spectrum allocation plan must include protecting the public
interest.  The public owns these coveted airwaves and for the government 
to give them away with no additional public interest safeguards and no
compensation to the American taxpayer is scandalous.  Right now the owners
of the airwaves -- the public -- are in a once-in-a-lifetime position to
define what "in the public interest" will mean in the age of digital
television.

*************************************************
Benton Foundation
Communications Policy Project      1634 Eye Street NW, 12th Floor
benton@benton.org                  Washington, DC 20006

phone: 202-638-5770                http://cdinet.com/benton
fax: 202-638-5771

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