Broadcaster's Digital Cooperative Announces Its Formation

A group of America's leading television broadcasting companies announced the formation of the Broadcaster's Digital Cooperative. Members of the cooperative have agreed to commit a dedicated portion of each broadcaster's digital spectrum for the creation of a national broadband wireless distribution network. The Cooperative will use a portion of its digital capacity to provide third parties with access to a national broadband digital network for delivery of broadband services to local communities. The Cooperative also aims to immediately narrow the digital divide, while maximizing the value of broadcasters' digital spectrum. The Broadcaster's Digital Cooperative broadband wireless network today reaches 85 percent of US households. The Cooperative also reaches over 132 markets, including all of the top 50 markets in the US. Membership in the Cooperative is open to all interested broadcasters. Initial members of the Broadcaster's Digital Cooperative include: Benedek Broadcasting Company, L.L.C., Capitol Broadcasting Company, Inc., Citadel Communications Company, L.L.C., Clear Channel Television, Inc., Cosmos Broadcasting Corporation, Morgan Murphy Stations, Granite Broadcasting Corporation, Gray Communications Systems, Inc., Nexstar Broadcasting Group, L.L.C., Pappas Telecasting Companies, Paxson Communications Corporation and Sunbelt Communications Company. Each member of the Broadcaster's Digital Cooperative will participate in the management of the Cooperative, including the appointment of an executive staff and the selection of financial advisors. Until a senior management team is secured, an executive committee coordinated by Stuart Beck, President of Granite Broadcasting Corporation, will lead the Cooperative's efforts. The Broadcaster's Digital Cooperative will evaluate optimum ways of deploying the newly created nationwide broadband network. Once the Broadcaster's Digital Cooperative has completed its evaluation of deployment strategies, it will accept and review business proposals from third parties who express an interest in using the network. The Cooperative envisions that the national network will be used by third parties for distribution of a variety of broadband wireless services to both stationary and mobile devices. Commenting on the Cooperative, Stuart Beck, President of Granite Broadcasting, said, ""By aggregating our digital spectrum, in the great tradition of the American agricultural cooperatives, we have instantly established a powerful national footprint-owned exclusively by broadcasters. The Cooperative can use a portion of each station's digital spectrum to deliver enhanced content to wireless communications devices, televisions and PCs in local communities. The creation of this Cooperative gives broadcasters the capability to provide all consumers with access to interactive services, in an effort to close the digital gap."" Mike DeClue, Director of Engineering of Clear Channel Television, said, ""The Cooperative will establish methods by which users may routinely employ the Cooperative's aggregated bit streams. Device manufacturers, service providers and the consumer will meet in our spectrum. The Cooperative is making available millions of bits per second at a million watts, market after market. Co-op coverage is without peers and will only get better as more members join us. Because the members of the Co-op are broadcasters, we have been providing reliable and continuous service to our respective markets 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for fifty years. To all the public service, to all the news, to all the entertainment we deliver, we now add this digital service to the benefit of our shared future."" Richard Benedek, Chief Executive Officer of Benedek Broadcasting, added, ""The Cooperative's network can be immediately deployed and will speed the conversion from analog to digital television. The tremendous value of this network lies in its ability to reach a national audience and deliver broadband content to multiple devices. We look forward to working with today's leading technology companies as we explore potential services to offer the communities we serve."" ""The FCC envisioned just such an imaginative use of spectrum when the Digital TV Standard was adopted and the DTV channels allocated"", said Harry J. Pappas, CEO of Pappas Telecasting. ""Moreover, while much is said of other distribution media's potential, the truth is that only America's broadcasters will offer a service system at once wireless, ubiquitous, efficient, broad and fast. The system architecture envisioned and the elegant simplicity and fairness of the Co-op business model shall insure that this Cooperative Network shall stand the test of time."" Phil Lombardo, President of Citadel Communications, added, ""By meeting the needs of our local consumers and facilitating their access to an efficient, national network of digital data delivery, television stations are continuing to find exciting, innovative and important ways to serve their local communities. This is what we, as operators of local television stations throughout the country, are uniquely positioned to do."" ""We firmly believe that in addition to HDTV, data broadcasting will be a major part of the future of television. This national cooperative delivers broadband to the home, and clearly solves the last mile problem that so limits broadband deployment via other carriers,"" said Sam Matheny, Vice President, DTV Plus (a division of Capitol Broadcasting Company, Inc.).Source: Granite Broadcasting