LAS VEGAS—In a wide ranging speech at the 2023 NAB Show, FCC commissioner Nathan Simington complained that power brokers in Washington have an antiquated view of the broadcasting industry that has saddled broadcasters with outdated rules from the “black and white” era of TV and hurt the rollout of NextGen TV, aka ATSC 3.0.
“The average conception of the broadcasting industry in DC is in black-and-white, both figuratively and literally,” Simington said during a speech at the 2023 NAB show. “ Figuratively, in that we think of broadcasting as a family huddled around a glowing CRT television set, watching the Eagle land during the Apollo 11 mission. A glimmering jewel of cultural prestige whose perfect facets shone to millions all at once—as splendid as any sunrise, and better-attended. That memory is, for many in DC, not metaphorical, but literal. Many—I dare say, too many—in the corridors of power in DC have an actual memory of that moment, and may forever think of broadcasting as not unlike the Apollo program: an engine of American greatness and dominance that is now redolent of a bygone era. Like newspapers, like steel, like auto manufacturing, they view broadcasting with a certain nostalgia….But, remember, ‘nostalgia’ was introduced as a concept to describe a sickness—a longing for things past that can never be satisfied. And long memories sometimes make bad policy.”
