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IS THERE A MARKET FAILURE OR SOME VITAL NATIONAL INTEREST AT STAKE?
RE-RIGGING THE RIGGED BROADCAST ECONOMIC MODEL
THERE IS A DIRTY LITTLE SECRET BEHIND THE FCC'S MOVE TO ALLOW THE UHF DISCOUNT TO RETURN. LIKE SURVIVAL OF THE SPECIES.
Now, you do know that the major wireless carriers are 10x bigger than the major broadcast television companies? And, that what is really behind the FCC's decision to reinstate the UHF discount is to allow the broadcasters to achieve scale in another round of M&A activity, with many flush with cash from the auction? And that Wall Street will not let these broadcasters buy any LPTV spectrum because it is secondary? Well, with all of that as the background, this is nuts!
Is this a failed marketplace which needs government intrusion? NO! Is allowing an obvious re-rigging of the system for the corporate interests of a few mainstream media outlets for the good of the republic, HELL NO! Is there a failed marketplace? YES, but not the rigged one, but the unrigged one, ours. So, the FCC fails in these three most basic tests.
Or is this a sidestep, a shuffle step, that little hop, skip, and jump you do when you set up to hit the ball? Just maybe it is. The system is so rigged you gotta rig it some more to undo it. What? No, I do not buy that, but if you have painted yourself into a policy corner like the UHF discount and national ownership limits you gotta figure out something.
But hear this commregville, it may be "anti-competitive" to the rest of us tv broadcasters to reinstate the rule, as it eliminates a market driver for LPTV license and permit liquidity. Got that? Reinstate the rule and the primaries will have much less reason to buy us for next gen, so that they can buy each other for more rigged economic activity, and more rigging to stick it to the MVPD. Of which they are the biggest owners of anyway. So the consumer gets screwed yet again.
Yah mon, I like this angle, the anti-competitive, market rigging UHF discount. Sounds good, gives us new economic populist constituencies to tap into. The dirty little secret is though, that, the primaries will cannibalize each other, and pay many millions to gain must carry and more retrans. And that may satisfy their bean counters and the street, but it will still leave them woe, did I say woefully short on 6 MHz densification and coverage extension opportunities. And that by not buying LPTV licenses for next gen spectrum uses, they will help create a lean mean innovation machine ready to rumble and bit wrangle a whole lot of business from them.
The FCC can change the UHF discount with a vote, but they can't undo the law of physics.
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