roundtable: Spectrum Giveway

roundtable: Spectrum Giveway

Spectrum Giveway

Faye M. Anderson (fmanders@CapAccess.org)
Wed, 8 Nov 1995 16:30:57 -0500 

Date: Wed, 8 Nov 1995 16:30:57 -0500
Message-Id: <199511082130.QAA29048@cap1.CapAccess.org>
From: fmanders@CapAccess.org (Faye M. Anderson)
To: roundtable@cni.org
Subject: Spectrum Giveway


Dear Colleague,

Attached is my op-ed piece regarding the broadcast spectrum giveaway
that I think you will find of interest.

Faye M. Anderson
Executive Director
Council of 100
<fmanders@CapAccess.org>


//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
TELEVISION BROADCASTERS:  THE NEW WELFARE KINGS
By Faye M. Anderson

Everywhere you look in Washington these days, you'll find someone who 
is out to end wPO`!1a

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
TELEVISION BROADCASTERS:  THE NEW WELFARE KINGS
By Faye M. Anderson

Everywhere you look in Washington these days, you'll find someone who 
is out to end welfare as we know it.  Problem is, the welfare programs 
that they want to reform tend to include just Aid to Families with 
Dependent Children (AFDC), the safety net for mothers and children who 
are living at or below the poverty level.  Well, there's a far more 
expensive and egregious AFDC program about which we hear precious 
little--Aid For Dependent Corporations.

The new welfare kings don't live in America's depressed urban and rural 
areas, and you won't see them at the bus stop.  No, these welfare kings 
wear a spit-shine on their polished wing-tips and whisk from one steel-
and-glass tower to the next in chauffeur-driven limousines.

And here's the kicker:  The new welfare kings are about to pull off 
their biggest scam yet--a $100 billion rip-off of additional broadcast 
spectrum in which the unwitting dupes are the American people who own 
the spectrum.

The story began a few years ago when the Federal Communications 
Commission embarked on a misguided industrial policy to promote a new 
kind of television that would offer crisper, more detailed pictures.  
Known as high definition television or HDTV, this television for the 
21st century will require new receivers so anyone who wants to watch it 
will have to buy a new television set that will cost around $2500.

To ease the transition for the nation's 'struggling' broadcasters (the 
four major networks posted revenues totaling $14.6 billion in 1994), 
the FCC decided to _give_ them a second chunk of broadcast spectrum 
equal in size to the spectrum that they already have.  The plan was to 
continue to use the old spectrum to broadcast with traditional analog 
technology while making the transition to HDTV.

We all know the line about the best laid plans of mice and men (No, 
I'm not referring to the Disney/ABC deal because there's nothing 
mickey-mouse about this giveaway).  As it often does, technology 
overtook public policy and rendered obsolete the FCC plan for HDTV.  
With the advent of digital compression technology, broadcasters 
discovered that they could use the new spectrum for purposes other 
than HDTV.  Instead of sending out a single HDTV signal, they could 
use the spectrum to transmit up to six channels of digitally-compressed 
broadcast or non-broadcast services (read:  six new revenue streams), 
or as many as 72 channels of CD quality radio.  So even though the 
original plan has been cancelled, the broadcasters are walking the 
halls of Congress saying, "I want my HDTV spectrum."

With the federal coffers bare and Congress calling for shared sacrifice 
to balance the budget by the year 2002, it defies common sense that the 
public interest will somehow be served by giving away a public resource 
estimated to be worth between $10 billion and $100 billion to subsidize 
some corporate fat cats.

If the new welfare kings don't ante up their fair share, the pending 
telecommunications legislation, intended to promote fair competition 
and job creation, will instead shut out new entrants to the digital 
broadcast market, stifle innovation and economic growth, and confer 
upon incumbent broadcasters an unfair and unearned advantage over 
small businesses, and women and minority-owned businesses who just a 
few months ago paid hundreds of millions of dollars for licenses to 
provide interactive and wireless communications services.  With their 
gift of new spectrum, broadcasters will be able to provide those same 
services with no upfront payment to the U.S. Treasury.

The members of Congress who are working on the telecommunications bill 
must protect the public interest and end the reign of the new welfare 
kings.  They must heed the clear message that voters sent in the 1994 
mid-term elections to end business as usual and to reform all welfare 
programs, including corporate welfare.  Otherwise, all the talk about 
welfare reform boils down to this:  The rich will get richer.  As for 
the rest of us, we'll get a prettier television picture.

__________________________________________________

Faye M. Anderson is executive director of the Council of 100, a 
national network of African American Republicans headquartered in 
Washington, D.C.

ous little--Aid For Dependent Corporations.

The new welfa
--
Faye M. Anderson
P.O. Box 65164
Washington, DC  20035-5164
(202) 775-5496 ~~ (202) 484-7029 fax

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