While the FCC is seemingly pushing TV stations toward the incentive auction with all the subtlety of a stabbing index finger to the back, broadcasters are continuing to innovate to meet the broadcast news audience where it is today, and where it will, hopefully, be tomorrow.
Just check out Michael Malone’s cover story on local news breaking out of the Ron Burgundy mold.
Yes, local news is the local TV profit center, so it is in a station’s best interest to make it eyeball-friendly. But local TV news remains the top choice for local news according to various studies (Is the FCC studying those studies?), so there is a risk, too, to upending a cart still filled with golden apples.
Broadcasters will need to innovate to survive, as the stations profiled in this issue recognize. Now, if only the FCC will leave them with a platform on which to build, instead of one from which to push stations off.
