NAB President Curtis LeGeyt Explains Why Congress Must Help Save Local Media and How Stations Plan to Secure the Future of Free TV – Questions and Answers

The National Association of Broadcasting has returned to its annual show in Las Vegas after a two-year absence due to Covid, reuniting tens of thousands of stations and technology executives in a distributed conference center.

Kurt Legate, who became NAB’s president and CEO earlier this year, said at a rally Monday that, given what happened after NAB’s latest show, “the stakes for local broadcasters and our audience has never been bigger. ” “

In a recent interview with Deadline, Legate discussed the NAB’s agenda in Congress, which was more concerned with the fate of local journalism, and the FCC, which had been in a guerrilla stalemate since President Joe Biden joined. load. Among the bills are the Journalism Defense and Competition Act, which will create a safe haven for local media to negotiate alongside technical platforms, as well as bills on tax incentives for hiring local journalists.

According to him, broadcasters have been implementing NextGen TV, the next generation of broadcast standards, for years, combining streaming with a broadband network, giving viewers a more web-based experience when they watch TV.

Deadline: Discussed how broadcasters can be an antidote to disinformation and polarization in social media and cable news. Is this a new message for NAB in the future?

Kurt’s Legitimacy: Our members, both on television and radio, have approached the moment in a way that is unique in today’s media landscape. By increasing investment in local journalism, local resources and content, the business opportunity is now clear to fill the void left by newspapers. The public wants reliable and unbiased information. And that’s where, at that moment [during Covid] Where the public needed this reliable information most, they needed a place to go, our members provided it.
However, in the days of Covid it is almost more important to have this unity and this notion of having local media working in communities across the country able to truly address the individual challenges these communities face. These local people know how to speak to their audience on TV and radio, they know how to connect with their audience. I think I’ve been able to get in touch with them and provide the resources these issues are looking for so that the national media doesn’t always have a broad approach.

Deadline: There are now several bills in Congress targeting local media. Do you see them go on?

Legitimacy: I think this is one of the few regions in Washington where there is a bipartisan interest in doing something. … I think at some point there will be a technical package. I wouldn’t sit here and predict its scope. But I think Congress absolutely needs to do something on the antitrust front. Too much work has been taken. For this it is necessary to have the support of the agencies. The area we are really focusing on is a bill called the Journalistic Competition Protection Law, which effectively equates local broadcasters with technology platforms because it deals with local content accessed through their websites. Now the market is absolutely broken when it comes to local stations and local newspapers. … This bill will allow us to talk together about fair market conditions for this access [to tech platforms]. I think it will be very important for local media, both broadcasters and newspapers, to have a business model that allows us to reinvest in the production of this content.

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Deadline: What about some broader antitrust laws? Does the NAB take a stand, say, on the bill to prevent self-employment of technical platforms?

Legitimacy: By and large, we fully support these broad efforts to leverage the gateway capacity and market power of these technical platforms. You’re talking about a non-discriminatory bill. You know, our membership is broad, but we absolutely support the idea that fair competition is needed, as it applies to any business these technical platforms are involved in.

Timeline: The Build Back Better bill included a provision for tax breaks for hiring local journalists. Now that the legislation has been circumvented, is this proposal dead too?

Legitimacy: The provision found in Build Back Better is also a separate bill. This is a local law on the sustainability of journalism and we absolutely see opportunities to make some progress on this legislation. Democrats continue to debate whether there is a way to make a reconciliation package. One thing we always stress about the Local Journalism Sustainability Act is the provision, which has cross-party support in the Democratic Party, with Joe Mancin and Kirsten Cinema co-sponsoring the founding legislation. იდე The idea of ​​helping local media and ensuring that the business model continues to exist to encourage local broadcasters, local newspapers, to invest locally is not a partisan issue. This thesis has the support of Republicans and Democrats. There are several ways to get there.

Duration: Performance fee. It has been a long, long struggle. Do you see any commitment to solving this problem once and for all? [Musical artists and recording labels have been pushing for legislation that requires broadcast stations to pay for airplay of their works.]

Legitimacy: Well, I want to see one. And whatever it is, you’re right, it’s a matter of decades ago. In the real world, local radio stations and local artists work together collaboratively every day, both for promotion and for mutual benefit. And I want to translate it into Washington politics. And I think the way to do that from a broadcast point of view is to ensure that any solution here will better encourage broadcasters to innovate in the digital space and create an economic framework where there will be more airtime, terrestrial or local. Station, you can pass. Because right now, the economy is not working for a local station trying to switch to streaming, and I think it will benefit both the station’s listeners and the artists if we have a structure that makes music accessible. So here I see a potential benefit. But we’ve made it clear that current label-based legislation is simply not a startup from a broadcast standpoint.

Term: But don’t market trends change the dynamics?

Legitimacy: Well, look, there’s no question that listeners are turning to streaming to consume music. That said, local broadcast continues to be the most listened to audio consumer medium in terms of listening scale, covering our media every week compared to other platforms. We have to be innovative. We need to make sure we reach our listeners, regardless of how they want to access our content. But make no mistake, there will be a critical mass of audiences that will be drawn to the radio because of what we offer in a unique way: locally targeted content, completely free. Not everyone wants to pay for an expensive streaming service. But we also need to be there to watch audience trends. To some extent, public migration has changed the dynamics of this issue, which is why I want Congress to look into it thoroughly.

Deadline: The FCC is in a 2-2 stalemate. A third Democrat may not be so supportive of deregulation. Is it suitable for NAB that this is a dead end?

Legitimacy: There is currently a strong bipartisan interest in policies that ensure a strong future for local broadcasting. And we are very confident in our ability to tell this story to Democrats and Republicans at the FCC. I’m sure we can work with whoever this fifth commissioner is. We certainly have a long relationship with the president. [Jessica] Rosenworcel, so we’re going to tell this story, whether it’s a 2-2 commission or a 3-2 commission.

Deadline: If there is a 3-2 fee, how concerned are you that they will try to restore some of the media ownership limits that were relaxed under the previous administration?

Legitimacy: I am not going to predict what the commission may or may not do. To me, the reality of the market is so obvious now that broadcasters are facing huge competition from these tech giants for the local audience, for the local ad dollars we need to navigate. Capitol Hill talks about how to contain these technical giants. There is one more thing that needs to be done to the FCC to determine if broadcasters are equipped with the current regulatory regime to compete in today’s media landscape. I would say that these rules are out of date and do not reflect the reality of this market.

Deadline: And what do you think needs to be done to increase property diversity?

Legitimacy: It’s a bit like a trade association that we are very focused on. We have a Leadership Foundation that has invested an incredible amount of resources into training, employment and maintenance. But for me, for both public service and good business, we need to be local stations that reflect the diversity of the communities we serve. We have work to do in this regard. This needs to be addressed on the ground and we need to enter not only universities but also high schools to tell the story of local broadcasting in order to attract young and diverse talent to our industry. We need investment as an industry in labor markets and training to ensure the talent we bring is promoted and we make that investment, but this is where we will do the most. We look forward to partnering with the FCC on this issue. We told the FCC directly that their fan base in our industry as we compete for talent with these tech giants is one of the most important things they can do. But this is what needs to be solved with the boots on the ground. I don’t think this is essentially a normative or legislative issue. I think this is a matter of recruiting, containment, training. It is up to us to allocate these resources and we will.

Expiry: NextGen TV. Do you think it is urgent that this spread across the country to ensure that streaming remains a habit for consumers?

Legitimacy: An absolute sense of urgency. Just look at the transformation that has taken place in the media landscape, from where we started the concept of NextGen TV nearly ten years ago, to where we are today. We need to implement this technology across the country to compete effectively. I could not have been more encouraged by the pace of implementation over the past two years, despite all the challenges Covid has faced from a supply chain perspective and beyond. All of these stations face their own unique challenges and continue to bring quality programming to local communities, regardless of what happened in the country, while simultaneously launching ATSC 3.0. So amazing that we got where we were supposed to, but we had to go faster. And the industry is united behind it. You know, we already have the topic of reaching an audience. [NextGen TV] The signals are available in more than half of the country. We are very optimistic by the end of this year that this number will reach 80%. And that’s what we need to establish here.