Comments on: Hey FCC, It’s Not The 1960s Anymore

By: kcgiants99@gmail.com

kcgiants99@gmail.com — Thu, 04 Jan 2024 05:26:06 +0000

The FCC is a joke this will go to the courts since Congress can pass a bill but the president would veto supporting the 3 members that are spineless and don’t know how things work with the outdated rules which is a abuse of power. And NAB will go to the courts which will be years before there is a final ruling. The 3 FCC members don’t care about local TV stations if they did they would relax the rules.

By: BeyondTheBeltway

BeyondTheBeltway — Wed, 03 Jan 2024 20:51:49 +0000

When local broadcast TV was rolling in money, their news operations amounted to little more then reading headlines. A vast wasteland that only looked like news. This current controversy is not about news, it is about greed and eliminating the competition via government regulators. Can anyone tell me what will happen to the local stations who would lose their network affiliations?

I am a proud Trump supporter, but the Dems at the FCC are right on this one.

By: Former Producer

Former Producer — Wed, 03 Jan 2024 16:28:18 +0000

Newspapers also enriched their owners through advertising revenue, specifically classifieds. The Internet came along and effectively eliminated classified ads as a solid revenue source. The newspaper industry managed to survive by adapting and evolving to the changing times. Yes, the industry took a beating, and many newspapers closed altogether. However, others saw the future of digital news and went with it.

What has the broadcast industry done to evolve with the changing times? Very little. You can have all the outstanding journalism on TV you want. But that doesn’t matter if nobody bothers to watch TV. Digital news and streaming video are the future. But the broadcast industry is hesitant to plan for the future because it is too focused on short-term profits that won’t last.

That’s the broadcast industry’s fault, not the FCC’s.

By: tvn-member-3112458

tvn-member-3112458 — Wed, 03 Jan 2024 15:55:21 +0000

I wouldn’t disagree with much of what you say here, but it’s unfair to lay the blame on consolidation or big corporations. As I said in the piece, in their heyday, monopoly newspapers enriched their owners and the public through outstanding journalism. And I believe in incrementalism. You don’t have to lift the local ownership cap in its entirety. How about allowing just common ownership of two stations per market?

By: Cosmo

Cosmo — Wed, 03 Jan 2024 15:52:13 +0000

It’s pretty obvious that the current Commissioner and her 2 cohorts hate local media. They much prefer national media with their party’s political bent that they can more easily control and direct.

By: tvn-member-3112458

tvn-member-3112458 — Wed, 03 Jan 2024 15:47:19 +0000

Thank you. Hope you are doing well.

By: Former Producer

Former Producer — Wed, 03 Jan 2024 15:00:51 +0000

Television broadcasting is on a slow and steady descent. I know many people here at TVNewsCheck want to blame that big evil FCC for the industry’s woes, but broadcasting companies deserve even more blame than some of you will publicly admit.

Broadcasting companies are focused on short-term profits and not long-term vision. Why else did companies like Nexstar buy so many TV stations over the past decade? To serve the public interest? Of course not! They wanted more leverage in order to squeeze more retransmission fees out of cable and satellite TV companies. Cord cutters have put that very revenue model in jeopardy. Even some smaller cable television companies are getting out of the business.

What’s going to happen when the retransmission fees dry up? I don’t think the broadcasting industry has an answer. I think the current industry executives are happy to keep kicking the can until they exit the business with a golden parachute and make the issue someone else’s problem. The result is an industry that is stuck to its old ways while everyone else is zipping off to the future. Broadcasters failed to innovate and remain relevant in a digital age. That’s not the FCC’s fault.

By: jcrollman

jcrollman — Wed, 03 Jan 2024 14:29:14 +0000

Broadcasters have spent the last 20 years stringing along consumers with retransmission fee battles, blackouts and lackluster content when they should have been focused on understanding and delivering on what consumers want. Sorry that the rules don’t serve your ability to make money anymore, but that’s sour grapes. Consumers have moved on from broadcast. And that’s 100% on broadcasters and their affiliates running short-term profit strategies instead of giving consumers what they want.

By: metrojoe

metrojoe — Wed, 03 Jan 2024 14:28:05 +0000

The Radio and TV platform’s in the United States have been the envy of nations around the world, it is worth protecting. Not allowing broadcast and newspapers to be co-owned killed the newspaper industry. The loss of newspaper journalism has weakened democracy, the FCC has weakened democracy again. Soon we will only have FOX News, MSNBC, CNN and social media to rely on and that will be the saddest day. Hopefully congress will override the FCC’s disastrous decision.

By: RustbeltAlumnus2

RustbeltAlumnus2 — Wed, 03 Jan 2024 14:16:06 +0000

Regulators are punching down at a former mass medium. Media consolidation only matters when the media still have much of an audience anymore.

By: AIMTV

AIMTV — Wed, 03 Jan 2024 14:11:33 +0000

But is M&A the solution or the problem? We’ve had 15-20 years of breakneck consolidation, fueled by pure speculation that the FCC didn’t intend to enforce rules already on the books. During this time, broadcasting companies have used every loophole to gain advantage to focus on exploiting as much retransmission money as possible to make their “numbers” for Wall Street masters while alienating former viewers who left and never returned; launched a plethora of flailing streaming services with a copycat, “spaghetti thrown against the wall” approach that has failed (with a couple of exceptions); treated additional spectrum (dig-inets as if it really was 1960 all over again with a lack of imagination and vision that is astounding; retained the glib “news on your side” “news you can trust” so-called “branding” that appeals to 65+ while doing almost nothing to appeal to younger news viewers. Sold their souls to get sports fronted by autocratic regimes because sports is now the new “save us please” until it isn’t (seen Liv Golf #s lately?). All the while, most big broadcasting companies hollowed out their ad sales teams by cutting pay, commission, and thus expertise at what once was one of the most coveted jobs in a given market to boost short-term profits while eliminating any chance of long-term growth. But I guess it would be so mid-2000s to blame the industry for the industry’s problems rather than the government. It’s 2023, after all. Oh wait, it’s 2024.

By: Adonis Hoffman, Esq.

Adonis Hoffman, Esq. — Wed, 03 Jan 2024 13:50:59 +0000

Bravo, Harry, for the clearest, most compelling statement on this issue so far.