Incentive Auction Could 'Negatively Impact' Minority-Owned Media, Panelists Say
The FCC's upcoming broadcast incentive auction has the potential to hurt minority-owned media outlets, panelists said Wednesday at a Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council conference. The problem with the commission's incentive auction is that "the smallest stations, the African-American-owned [television and radio] stations with the least money will be the ones selling" their spectrum, said Jim Winston, National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters CEO. The stations most likely to auction spectrum are owned by minority individuals who were "the last in, and [now] the last out" to the broadcast market, Winston said. "It's a very really problem [and] it's going to negatively impact the minority stations."
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Eric Easter, National Black Programming Consortium chairman, echoed Winston's concerns about the potentially negative impact of the auction on minority broadcasters, and said the issue has become getting people to understand and care about it. The auction is a "Byzantine process," Easter said, and the reason many African-Americans and Latinos haven't been clamoring for small, minority-owned stations not to participate in the incentive auction is that not many people understand what it is and why it could be better for stations to hang onto their spectrum. Easter used the example of WHUT, Howard University's television station, which has agreed to participate in the incentive auction. He said he urged the station not to sell its spectrum because it could be worth more in the future and it means either transitioning to a different spectrum band or abandoning its programming altogether. Universities need to start thinking of themselves as content and media providers, said Easter.
Local radio and TV outlets are struggling to keep up with over-the-top providers, panelists said, and are facing the ongoing challenge of providing more online content and transitioning to being more of a multimedia platform. "I don't think anybody perceived what the Internet was going to do to the communications industry," Winston said. "It has impacted radio [and] has become much more impactful than the satellite radio services have been." Mark Fratrik, BIA/Kelsey senior vice president, said streaming media is "important [but] local TV stations are still very relevant." Fratrik said OTT media is more important for certain age groups and demographics than others, and local TV and radio still are important because they "have feet on the ground." Having local talent that's plugged into the community is "something the large Internet radio [and TV] providers don't have," said Fratrik.
There's a large amount of content available that's geared toward minority groups, but the challenge becomes ensuring it's distributed and ends up in the markets where it's needed and valued, Easter said. "The content is out there, [but] the distribution platform is the serious hole right now," he said. Of the content funded and produced for PBS, 90 percent either never makes it on the air or is aired in the waning hours of the morning when most people aren't watching, said Easter. "It just sits on the shelves." He suggested minorities become more involved in funding public media and in seeking more minority-centric programming. "When black folks start writing the checks, that's when that is going to change," said Easter. "The audience is going to really have to participate." On the subject of getting OTT services such as Netflix to provide more content geared to Latinos and African-Americans, panelists suggested several options. "My first reaction is that you've got to make the business case," Fratrik said. "It's not easy but you've got to convince these OTT's that they could get more subscribers if they offer more minority programming." Easter said Netflix and other OTT video providers aren't subject to a revenue model based on demographics, and as long as they're receiving monthly checks from users and consumers don't cancel subscriptions, they won't feel the need to center content on a diverse audience.