NAB President Curtis LeGeyt On Why Congress Needs To Help Save Local Media And How Stations Plan To Ensure Free TV’s Future – Q&A

deadline.com:

The National Association of Broadcasters has returned its annual show to Las Vegas after a two-year absence due to Covid, again bringing together tens of thousands of station and technology executives to the sprawling convention center.Curtis LeGeyt, who became president and CEO of NAB early this year, told the gathering on Monday that, given all that has happened since the last NAB Show, “the stakes for local broadcasters and the audiences who rely on us have never been greater.”In a recent interview with Deadline, LeGeyt talked about NAB’s agenda in Congress, which has taken a more urgent interest in the fate of local journalism, and at the FCC, which has been in a partisan stalemate since President Joe Biden took office.

Among the bills before lawmakers are the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act, which would create a safe harbor for local outlets to jointly negotiate deals with tec platforms, as well as bills to give tax credits for hiring local news reporters.That said, broadcasters for years have been pitching “NextGen TV,” the next derivation of the broadcast standard that merges broadcast with broadband, giving viewers more of a web experience as they watch over-the-air TV.DEADLINE: You have talked about how broadcasters can be the antidote to misinformation and polarization on social media and cable news.

Is that a new message for NAB going forward?CURTIS LEGEYT: Our members, both television and radio, have met the moment in a way that’s just unique in the current media landscape.

Stepping up investing in local journalism, resources and local content, the business opportunity is clearly there right now to fill the void that unfortunately has been left by the newspapers.