NAB

NAB President and CEO Curtis LeGeyt says he’s “tremendously frustrated” with the FCC’s late December decision to reaffirm and tighten its regulations on broadcast ownership. So, what’s the organization’s next move? A full transcript of the conversation is included.

On Monday, broadcasters made three separate presentations to FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez’s policy aides on the need to protect the regulatory status quo at a minimum regarding TV station ownership. The National Association of Broadcasters went a step further in calling for relaxation of a rule that limits combinations among the most popular stations in a local market.

An organization supported by traditional pay TV providers is pushing back on the idea that local TV station mergers won’t lead to higher cable and satellite TV bills. While TV stations continue to push for ownership deregulation at the federal level, the American TV Alliance (ATVA) predicts that control of TV stations by just a few owners will increase the retransmission consent fees that cable TV and satellite TV providers pay broadcasters.

The National Association of Broadcasters continues to press for TV station ownership deregulation, saying a federal rule that bars the common ownership of some of the most successful TV stations in a market needs to go. NAB lawyers made their latest appeal for a market-driven ownership approach in a Nov. 30 meeting with an aide to FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel. A federal appeals court has ordered the FCC to finish its TV station ownership review by Dec. 27.

He joins the association from the office of Rep. Darren Soto (D-Fla.), who serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

The program honoring broadcasters’ public service will air on 700-plus stations nationwide beginning Monday, Nov. 27.

The consumer technology veteran will succeed Chris Brown on Jan. 1, overseeing NAB Show, NAB Show New York and NAB Amplify.

In the letter, 20 senators express concern regarding their constituents’ continued ability to access programming from local broadcast television stations on digital streaming platforms. The senators urge the Commission to reexamine its proceeding, first opened in 2014, that solicited comments about whether federal regulations governing pay TV providers such as cable and satellite providers should extend to streaming platforms that offer linear programming.

Members of Congress have long said they see a unique role for local broadcasting, not only providing free entertainment to Americans but also ensuring they have access to local emergency alerts. National Association of Broadcasters President Curtis LeGeyt thinks it is time to put those positive words into actions that will help local radio and television stations survive as the industry finds itself on lopsided playing field with big tech.

“Her wealth of experience in telecommunications policymaking will help the FCC address the critical issues facing radio and television broadcasters,” reads part of the statement from NAB President and CEO Curtis LeGeyt.

Curtis LeGeyt, president and CEO of the National Association of Broadcasters, will be the Featured Speaker at The Media Institute’s “Free Speech America” Gala on October 19.  The event will take place in person at The Four Seasons Hotel in Washington, D.C.

Luke Dembosky, a partner at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, former U.S. Justice Dept. prosecutor and investigator, and one of the nation’s preeminent cybersecurity attorneys, will lead an interactive workshop on the latest trends in cybercrime, the state of the art in incident response, his ransomware playbook and more at TVNewsCheck’s Cybersecurity for Broadcasters Retreat on Oct. 26 at NAB Show New York. Register here.

The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and the Library of American Broadcasting Foundation (LABF) will host a webinar on the importance of documenting and preserving broadcast history for future generations. The webinar will air on August 23 at 2 p.m. from NAB’s state-of-the-art studio in Washington, D.C.

The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences will honor the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) with the Philo T. Farnsworth Corporate Achievement Award at the 75th Engineering, Science & Technology Emmy Awards on October 18, 2023, in Los Angeles, Calif.

Among other remarks, the organizations’ joint statement said: “Meta – a nearly trillion-dollar company – repeatedly chooses to restrict news content for its users to avoid compensating news producers for the value it gains on their vital journalism. These retaliatory tactics demonstrate Meta’s monopolistic dominance over the advertising marketplace and its ability to dictate how radio and TV broadcasters, newspapers and others can reach audiences online.”

Speaker proposals are being accepted about the business and technology of SVOD, AVOD and FAST for the Oct. 24-25 event in New York.

The public service announcements are recorded in NAB’s state-of-the-art studio.

Attendees will then call on legislators to talk about broadcast television programming on streaming platforms as well as the importance of AM radio.

Broadcasters — including their primary lobby group in Washington and affiliate associations — have told the FCC that if it does not extend its waiver of the requirement to provide oral descriptions of weather radar and other visual emergency information, they may have to cut back on those graphics for everyone.

Broadcasters are trying to get the FCC to complete its long-delayed 2018 quadrennial review of broadcast regulations. The National Association of Broadcasters has filed a writ of mandamus with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. circuit, which is a request for it to compel the FCC to wrap up the review. “The commission cannot continue to ignore its clear duty under the law,” said NAB President Curtis LeGeyt following the filing.

The NAB contends that the proposed ban on noncompete agreements is far-reaching and oversteps the FTC’s jurisdiction. Broadcasting presents a unique case for reasonable noncompete clauses due to the substantial investments broadcasters make in promoting on-air talent.

Curtis LeGeyt, CEO of the National Association of Broadcasters expressed alarm at the “needlessly prolonged” regulatory review of Standard General’s proposed acquisition of Tegna. After more than a year, the FCC’s Media Bureau referred the transaction to an administrative law judge, a move that will delay potential approval of the deal and possibly kill it.

ATSC 3.0 has hit a sludgy stretch of path toward its end goal of broad U.S. adoption and providing new content services. It will take many hands — a potential FCC task force, station group cooperation and an elongated pipeline for receivers included — to get the standard’s implementation flying again.

The deputy chief of staff for former Sen. Cory Gardner succeeds Ann Marie Cumming in leading messaging strategies to further NAB’s initiatives and advocacy issues before Congress and the administration. He will also be the chief spokesperson for NAB and a key adviser to the association’s senior leadership.

The association’s SVP of communications is exiting on Feb. 21 after more than 20 years. She’s becoming the executive director of the Congressional Club Museum and Foundation in Washington.

The commission should heed broadcasters’ request to prioritize the ATSC 3.0 standard and launch a task force to concentrate the agency’s resources in getting it unstuck. Broadcasting’s future wellbeing may depend on it.

The National Association of Broadcasters is suggesting the FCC is putting the 2018 quadrennial review cart before the 2022 quadrennial horse, asking the agency to finish its 2018 review before starting the next one.

The National Association of Broadcasters said that without some action by the FCC, including sunsetting the requirement to broadcast in both the current and next-generation transmission formats, that next-generation format — the ATSC 3.0 transmission standard — is “in peril,” and with it broadcasters’ future.

The Justice Department is apparently giving broadcasters some help with one of their top Washington priorities — Big Tech’s dominance as an ad platform. As expected, the DOJ on Jan. 24 said it was filing an antitrust suit against one of the biggest of Big Tech — Google parent Alphabet — over its online ad practices, a move that could lead to Google divesting its ad business and aid TV stations in what the NAB Broadcasters has called Big Tech’s “stranglehold” on digital advertising and ad rates.

Plans include an interactive website, a story sharing campaign and special events.

Following President Joe Biden signing the Low Power Protection Act into law on Jan. 5, the NAB has issued a statement applauding the new law, which provides eligible low-power television stations an opportunity to obtain interference protections.

The National Association of Broadcasters is looking to get the FCC to classify over-the-top video services as multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs), making them subject to carriage and program-negotiation obligations.

The NAB New York Show will be back at the Javits Center after a long pandemic hiatus. Following a strong showing at IBC earlier this month, expectations around it are rising.

Pilot, the National Association of Broadcasters tech innovation arm, has tapped the Google News Initiative for a program to help broadcasters protect their advertising competitiveness by mastering use of first-party data and engagement within direct-to-consumer models.