Sinclair’s Smith: Adopt Next TV Standard Now

A Q&A with Sinclair Broadcast Group CEO David Smith who wants to be seen as an industry visionary.

He practically invented the legal workaround that lets groups operate multiple stations where the FCC rules say they can’t own them. He was early and aggressive in demanding retransmission consent fees, thereby establishing a solid new revenue stream. And he just did the entire industry a favor by rescuing Dielectric, the leading maker of TV antennas and other RF gear that was about to close up shop for good. His current vision is one in which broadcasting goes toe-to-toe with cable, satellite, wireless broadband and any other medium in providing multichannel TV, free or pay, fixed or mobile, and in giving advertisers the ability to target ads to the individual consumers most likely to buy. It’s all possible, Smith insists, if the industry moves quickly and decisively in developing and implementing a new, more capable broadcast standard, even if it is incompatible with the current standard and the tens of millions of TVs in use today.