Broadcasters to Unveil Broadband Plan

The Coalition For Free TV and Broadband is proposing a broadcaster broadband plan that it says will raise an estimated $80 billion for the U.S. Treasury by 2023 and $125 billion by 2026 through an ongoing annuity.

The Coalition For Free TV and Broadband will release the details of the plan during a news conference on Thursday, Oct. 20. The Coalition For Free TV and Broadband describes itself as a group of television broadcasters, concerned organizations and individual citizens formed to ensure the survival of free television and to offer solutions to the nation for better, cheaper wireless broadband utilizing the broadcast industry. The Coalition said that the Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the auctions authorized by Senate spectrum legislation would raise $25 billion, but net only $6 billion. The Broadcasters Plan, the Coalition said, will allow for higher contributions to the Treasury than the expected auction proceeds in terms of the present value — and a continuing annuity. According to Lee Miller, communications director for the Coalition, the Broadcasters Plan will address long-term spectrum requirements and offer a continued source of revenue for the Treasury. “An auction is only a short term Band-Aid for two hungry monsters — the wireless industry and the Federal Budget. We already know that the current plan proposed by the big wireless companies — which would destroy thousands of small local television stations — is ethically wrong and unsustainable. Now we know that the wireless company plan is inferior. How much farther down this road will members of Congress follow the wireless industry lobbyists?"