FCC Chair Tom Wheeler Promises To Protect Competition

FCC chairman Tom Wheeler warned that the commission would intervene if a company such as AT&T threatens competition, and asserted that there’s plenty of opportunity ahead for broadcasters, during a conversation with Consumer Electronics Association president and CEO Gary Shapiro, Wednesday at the International CES, according to THR.

“There has never been a more risk-free opportunity for an incumbent service provider to morph into the new digital reality than with what the spectrum auction has to offer,” Wheeler said, adding that there has been an “unrealistic overfocusing” on the option to sell and exit the business.

“If I’m a broadcaster and see this change coming and I want to be a player in this new digital world, this auction gives me the opportunity,” he said. “I can continue to enjoy the benefits of the FCCs rules -- meaning I get carriage on cable -- so I can keep my existing business model and take some serious cash off the table and then decide what I want to do with it.”

Gordon Smith, president of the National Association of Broadcasters, was in attendance at the session. Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter after it ended, he repeated concerns that spectrum sharing might limit the broadcasters’ ability to do Ultra HD, multicasting, or mobile applications.

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