October 13, 2011 – The Coalition For Free TV and Broadband is endorsing a broadcaster broadband plan which will raise an estimated $80 billion for the U.S. Treasury by 2023 and $125 billion by 2026 through an ongoing annuity. This compares to a one-time $25 billion in revenue through a spectrum auction. The Coalition For Free TV and Broadband will release the details of the plan during a news conference to be held on Wednesday, October 19th.
“We have delivered to Congress a robust plan that continues the broadcast industry’s decades-long record of serving our local communities,” states Mark Aitken, VP of Advanced Technology for Sinclair Broadcast Group. “A ‘Broadcast Overlay’ serves multiple objectives by delivering a solution providing wireless high data-rate capacity, continues to maximize the efficient use of broadcast TV spectrum, offers the public new wireless service choices, and creates an entirely brand-new revenue stream for the U.S. Treasury.”
The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the auctions authorized by Senate spectrum legislation would only net $6 billion. The Broadcasters Plan will allow for higher contributions to the Treasury than the expected auction proceeds in terms of the present value – and a continuing annuity.
Aitken continues, “The figures of $80 billion over 10 years, $125 billion over 15 years and a continuing revenue stream of more than $400 billion obviously dwarfs the amount policy-makers hope to receive from a spectrum auction — which the Congressional Budget Office scored at a meager six billion dollars — that offers no promises on how or when the spectrum would be used. Broadcasting is very much at the center of any plan for innovation.”
“There is now a clear choice for the Congress,” according to Jim West, a Coalition member and president of Legacy TV. “They can choose a plan that will further entrench wireless monopolies, destroy thousands of jobs and television stations, decrease competition and raise only $25 billion or they can choose a plan that will eventually raise significantly more money, increase competition and choices for the American public, create jobs and will continue to offer entertainment, news and information to the public through thousands of television stations.”
The CTIA, representing the wireless industry, continues to cry for the need for more spectrum although Citigroup’s analysis suggests that spectrum crisis claims have been manufactured by the wireless and consumer electronics industries.
According to Lee Miller, communications director for The Coalition, The Broadcasters Plan will address long term spectrum requirements and offer a continued source of revenue for the Treasury. “An auction is only a short term band-aid for two hungry monsters – the wireless industry and the Federal Budget. We already know that the current plan proposed by the big wireless companies -which would destroy thousands of small local television stations – is ethically wrong and unsustainable. Now we know that the wireless company plan is inferior. How much farther down this road will members of Congress follow the wireless industry lobbyists?”
About the Coalition
The Coalition For Free TV and Broadband is a group of television broadcasters, concerned organizations, and individual citizens and has formed to ensure the survival of free television and to offer solutions to the nation for better, cheaper wireless broadband utilizing the broadcast industry.
More information is available at www.FreeTVandBroadband.org
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