Linear television is said to be in a death spiral.
On Jan. 6, 2025, TV Technology ran this gloomy story: “Study: Total U.S. TV Station Revenue To Decline in 2025.”
The television industry is battling dwindling revenues for local broadcasters, a surge in streaming, plunging profit margins for cable TV fueled by cord-cutting climbing to 9.5% this year, and a 9.3% shrinkage in the TV and radio station industry.
Allen Media Group has steadily reduced its workforce over the past year. Like Byron Allen, I am one of a tiny number of African-American TV owners. The decline of linear television is a double-punch for us—business loss and backsliding on minority ownership.
This downward trajectory is accelerated by Big Tech, Google/YouTube, Apple, Facebook, X, Amazon, et al., virtually monopolizing the online advertising market and audience reach. They are gatekeepers of news, local content, commentary, etc., but escape regulation by the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC continues to strangle the broadcast industry with horse-and-buggy Depression-era rules.
When the analog-to-digital conversion of the television industry was underway, the FCC embraced mandatory conversion—convert or die. But when the FCC idled with AM Stereo, the technology died.”
In contrast to broadcasters, these Leviathans pay no regulatory fees, confront no artificial national-local ownership limits, are unsaddled with programming obligations (local news or children’s television) and escape any online public-access file requirements. The playing field is tilted at more than a 45-degree angle in favor of Big Tech. The writing is on the wall. If nothing changes, broadcasting will die at the hands of Big Tech like Craigslist crippling the newspaper industry.
What is deliverance for broadcasters? Terminate 1.0 ASAP and unleash ATSC 3.0.
The FCC should mandate that all televisions sold in the United States are 3.0-ready.
The FCC has historically nurtured pioneering communications technology that enlarged public availability. When AM radio was dominant, the FCC fostered the entry of FM by requiring new radio tuners to include both. When VHF television had no rival, UHF was born to broaden access. The All-Channels Receivers Act and FCC regulations required all television tuners to include both VHF and UHF channel reception.
When the analog-to-digital conversion of the television industry was underway, the FCC embraced mandatory conversion—convert or die.
But when the FCC idled with AM Stereo, the technology died.
Regarding ATSC 3.0 technology, like AM Stereo, the FCC has been adversarial rather than friendly. It persists in overregulating and curtailing the benefits of ATSC 3.0. They include, multiscreen applications, 4K resolution, immersive (Dolby AC-4) audio, mobile reception, integration with existing 5G cellular networks, datacasting (ATSC 3.0 uses internet protocol (IP) for signal delivery, enabling the broadcast of IP-based data), and much more. The government benefits by taxing additional businesses started through 3.0, which also strengthens national security and other critical infrastructure.
If Chairman Brendan Carr truly wants to unhobble American innovators and entrepreneurs, the FCC should establish a new All Channels Receivers Act tuner standard to include ATSC 3.0 reception. This would excite broadcast innovations seeking enhanced service to the public and competitive viability of free-to-the-home broadcasting. Diversity of views and communications technologies is the alpha and omega of free speech.
If the FCC continues to slumber, linear television broadcasting will become a museum piece.
The ball is in chairman Carr’s court.
