NAB Ready to Challenge Auction Order if ‘Necessary,’ Smith says

The NAB will go to court to prevent the coverage areas of its members from being reduced by the FCC’s TVStudy software “if and when that is necessary,” association President Gordon Smith told us Wednesday in an interview to be aired over the weekend on C-SPAN’s The Communicators. Along with the incentive auction, Smith discussed broadcasters’ win in the Aereo case (see separate report above), politics at the FCC and the commission’s ownership policies.

The TVStudy software, which will be used to repack stations, will severely affect the coverage area of close to half of all broadcasters, Smith said. NAB has used language in several filings implying a possible legal challenge to the auction order, and many industry observers have predicted a court battle is likely (CD May 19 p1).

Smith said he’s aware of only 70 stations with plans to participate in the auction, a number that he said isn’t sufficient for the auction to be successful. The FCC should not rush to hold the auction, because the money to fund the FirstNet public safety network will likely come out of the AWS-3 auction proceeding. “The FCC shouldn’t be in a hurry to get this rushed through when the pressure is off financially,” he said.

Broadcasters’ win against Aereo left Smith “smiling,” he said, saying the Supreme Court affirmed the copyright holders’ control over their content. Though he said NAB would oppose an attempt by Aereo to lobby for copyright rule changes, broadcasters aren’t necessarily against a review of copyright law, he said: “Copyright law is extremely difficult to do."

Aereo’s success offering broadcast content online doesn’t necessarily mean that broadcasters aren’t doing enough in that arena themselves, Smith said. He said the effort to create a new ATSC 3.0 standard needs to move more quickly, affirming Sinclair’s recent push to hasten the new standard. Sinclair “was right,” Smith said. A new standard would greatly improve broadcaster options for delivering content to mobile devices, he said.

Many NAB members believe that recent ownership policies by the FCC are designed to force them to participate in the incentive auction, Smith said. Though he said he didn’t agree, he was becoming “more convinced.” By changing the rules governing TV station sharing arrangements -- a change currently facing an NAB court challenge -- FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler “changed rules in the middle of the stream,” Smith said.