Spectrum of Greed

You find out how tough your adversaries are when they are backed into a corner.  Such is the place that the NAB finds itself these days, as the FCC works to strip valuable spectrum from the punch drunk broadcast companies and award it to the up and coming challengers in the broadband space.  Gordon Smith started his early rounds with the FCC hearings asking for an objective review of all spectrum, including federal government bands, asking that utilization be carefully reviewed as well.  That was December.  (continue reading…)

There are lots of opinions flying around about delaying the final cut over to digital TV on February 17.  Many, including President-elect Obama suggest a 3 month extension would be prudent, citing a backlog of 2 million people that requested but didn’t receive set top box coupons and more people leaving cable and satellite TV with our economic downturn that will now go without television if additional steps aren’t taken.

Not to take anything away from the politicians, bloggers and reporters that are lamenting the stories of those who will no longer be able to watch Opera, Jerry Springer or Geraldo, but I do not share the opinion that life is not worth living with out TV.  In fact, I would be willing to bet that many in this country today would prefer a faster internet connection to TV if given the choice.  While I realize that a younger generation has been at least partially snared by Lost, 24, and other tv programming, they also use Tivo to watch it when it is convenient to them, or even find the sessions on disk or online. (continue reading…)