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THE NOT GOOD ENOUGH PLAN RANT
THE SIDECAR SHAM ERA IS OVER!
IN ONE SIMPLE STATEMENT CHAIRMAN PAI ENDS THE ERA OF THE FULL POWER TV STATIONS ABUSING THE SIDE CAR THING
AND WHY DID THE BIG DOGS AT SBGI AND TRIBUNE FAIL TO SEE THIS COMING? DID THEY REALLY BELIEVE THE PROPOSED DIVESTITURES WOULD HAVE CLEAR SAILING, OR DID THEY BELIEVE THEIR OWN REPORTING THAT AN ALL REPUB GOVT WOULD PASS ANYTHING THEY PROPOSED? SHAREHOLDER REVOLT IN PROCESS AT BOTH COMPANIES, ALTHOUGH ANALYSTS ARE TALKING ABOUT A HUGE UPSIDE IF A REARRANGED DEAL CAN BE PUT BACK TOGETHER.
COALITION COMMENTARY
Now don't get me wrong. I do think that the TV broadcasters need to scale up quickly to make NextGen TV work, and work fast. In reality each of the top mobile carriers are valued more than 20x greater than the largest TV station group, including the proposed Sinclair/Tribune merger. And compared to the tech companies, that goes to about 100x. But this is no reason to use smoke and mirrors, slight of hand, and outright cheating on the rules to make up for this built in handicap. And don't get me started with the crazy proposal to lift the national ownership cap by that equally crazy UHF discount comedy show.
No, what is needed is a real plan of divestiture and separating of the control and operations of these proposed fixes. And why do we care about this issue? Well, that UHF discount proposal literally stopped any and all primary full power stations from considering LD LPTV as well as Class A stations for coverage. If there is no corporate welfare must carry and retrans, then the station groups are not interested. Even though we now find out that NextGen TV will require far more spectrum and 6 MHz coverages than anyone thought. And that is where LPTV LD and Class A spectrum can become key to all future NextGen TV deployments.
Many engineers at the major station groups are now figuring out that LPTV and Class A spectrum would be perfect for the 3.0 testing and initial roll-outs. And they can acquire it for very reasonable prices compared to the corporate welfare spectrum. And we urge the FCC to consider this issue and how LPTV can play a key role in encouraging TV station groups to achieve scale to compete.
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