Americans for Tax Reform joined a coalition of 16 organizations in a letter to the FCC opposing broadcast TV mandates. Currently, Next Generation Television (Next Gen TV) operates on what is known as the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) 1.0 to ATSC 3.0.
The National Association of Broadcasters has submitted a petition to force competitors into using the more updated ATSC 3.0 rather than letting market forces determine what technology is used. This coalition urges the FCC to reject this petition as needless overregulation already strangles the broadcasters.
NAB petitioned the Commission to mandate the adoption of Next Generation Television (Next Gen TV) with Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) standards, despite widespread adoption already. Next Gen TV is already operating on ATSC 1.0 to ATSC 3.0 technologies available for broadcasters and multichannel video programming distributers (cable and satellite) should they choose to use it.
The adoption of ATSC 3.0 is already well underway, with 75% of Americans already having access to ATSC 3.0. Intervention to force the adoption of ATSC 3.0 is unnecessary while the market is naturally adopting this technology without mandates.
The Commission should maintain its voluntary, market-driven adoption policy that has reached the vast majority of Americans, not embrace a mandate just to reach the small minority of markets broadcasters have struggled to penetrate. NAB effectively asks the FCC to do their job for them by mandating ATSC adoption in the remaining markets to reach the untapped 25 percent or so of the population.
This coalition believes the FCC should acknowledge the decades of regulation already impacting broadcasters and turn the page to a new chapter of deregulation for the industry, allowing market competition to determine what technologies are used and what is left behind.
Broadcasters do labor under outdated regulations, some of which date back to World War II, which have inhibited their growth. The solution is the kind of deregulation FCC Chairman Carr has been pursuing, not yet more regulation.
Read the full letter here.
