HUNT VALLEY, MD—Sinclair has hired Patrick McFadden, former SVP and Deputy General Counsel with the National Association of Broadcasters, to head up government relations as its Senior Vice President for Global Public Policy and Communications. McFadden will be responsible for overseeing the development and implementation of Sinclair’s  legislative and regulatory strategy to support the company's policy and advocacy goals. 

“We’re delighted to welcome Patrick as a key contributor to our executive group,” said Chris Ripley, Sinclair’s President and CEO.  “He brings a wealth of critical experience to the cutting-edge broadcasting platform as it expands for all types of content distribution.  He knows the issues, the people and the technology that underpin our business and is well-respected throughout the industry.  He’s part of the elite corps of innovative and nuanced thinkers who are representative of Sinclair’s visionary culture.”

McFadden worked for NAB for 10 years, most recently as Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, and was involved in multiple, complex regulatory challenges including NextGen Broadcast (ATSC 3.0) licensing and deployment, spectrum allocation/protection, media ownership and content distribution.  Prior to joining the NAB, McFadden practiced telecommunications law in the Washington office of Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP where he specialized in policy advocacy, litigation, regulatory compliance and negotiations for wireless, wireline and VoIP service providers and communications device manufacturers.

McFadden stated, “I’m very excited to join the Sinclair team. Sinclair is a leader not only in program content distribution with its tremendous portfolio of broadcast stations but also as a vanguard for multiple new businesses using that sophisticated platform.  I look forward to helping the company advance its strategic initiatives to continue to provide local news and entertainment to viewers at home and on the go as well as the many new opportunities on the horizon.”

WASHINGTON—The NAB’s 6 GHz proposal to the FCC, in which 1,120 of the 1,200 MHz of the band be opened for unlicensed, low-power indoor (LPI) wireless devices—keeping 80 MHz for broadcasters to operate in hopefully without interference—did not sit well with the Open Technology Institute. OTI sent a letter to the FCC opposing the proposal, but according to a new blog post from NAB Vice President of Strategic Planning Patrick McFadden, that letter is a perfect example of “how little [OTI] understands what is actually at stake in the 6 GHz band.”

The 6 GHz band is primarily made up of broadcast ENG crews, and the NAB believes that granting permission to these unlicensed LPI devices to utilize the spectrum causes potential interference issues, a major disturbance particularly as broadcasters' ability to provide information to viewers has been heightened during the current coronavirus pandemic.

“We take no particular issue with amateur pundits weighing in on policy at least plausibly aligned with their organizations’ mission,” McFadden wrote. “The problem is that there’s a considerable difference between acting like you know what you’re talking about and actually knowing what you’re talking about.”

McFadden says that OTI’s letter mischaracterizes the NAB proposal as a “last-minute proposal,” but rather the organization has “long sought to keep spectrum used for mobile operation, whether by broadcasters or public safety users, free from unlicensed use.” The sole point of change, McFadden argues, is that the NAB is willing to compromise on this as long as “safe zone” is created within 80 MHz of the band (broadcasters currently use 350 MHz of the 6 GHz band).

NAB also says the OTI argument that there is no or minimal danger of interference with wireless devices using 6 GHz spectrum is incorrect, and shared the technical analysis on which they are basing the idea that interference is possible and potentially dangerous.

McFadden continues his point/counterpoint argument as follows:

• On OTI’s claim that venues can decide whether Wi-Fi operations and newsgathering are compatible, McFadden says that venues often do not have the expertise and that the role of the FCC is to provide such guidelines to prevent harmful interference; 
• OTI also says the 80 MHz is excessive since 8K video can be broadcast using 10 MHz, despite that the FCC recently granted the NAB experimental authorization to transmit 8K video in a bandwidth of more than 100 MHz; 
• The OTI suggestion that broadcasters can use licensed spectrum in other bands is disproven because Wi-Fi has already been shown to cause harmful interference in other bands, like 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz; 
• OTI says that broadcasters rely on bonded cellular technology for newsgathering operations. McFadden points out, however, that technology can often fail in emergency/critical situations. 

Earlier this year, conservative groups also sent a letter to the FCC that any interference by wireless LPIs using the 6 GHz band was minimal.

“The FCC should ignore views like OTI’s and the gaggle of one-person special interest groups that filed demonstrably uninformed Facebook letters,” McFadden wrote. “NAB’s proposal to keep 80 MHz of the 6 GHz band off the table, temporarily, is a safety valve. … Until there is some actual experience with RLAN deployments at 6 GHz, it simply makes sense to proceed cautiously, before we step on a rake that will leave a permanent mark.”

McFadden’s entire blog post is available on the NAB Policy Blog. 

WASHINGTON—In the ongoing battle for spectrum, NAB’s Associate General Counsel Patrick McFadden recently wrote in a blog post that a group of tech companies’ argument for why they need additional spectrum, specifically in the 6 GHz band, doesn’t add up.

Representatives from Apple, Broadcom, Cisco Systems, Facebook, Google and Qualcomm Incorporated met with the Office of Engineering and Technology in December of 2019 to discuss their potential use of the 6 GHz band. According to McFadden, the group is seeking free access to 1,200 MHz of spectrum that includes the entire 6 GHz band.

In its December meeting, the tech companies presented that their very-low-power (VLP) devices that would use the spectrum do not pose a harmful interference risk and are critical for personal area network (PAN) applications and vehicular applications. The companies gave a presentation that detailed how 90% of the time its VLPs are using less than 1% of the spectrum; 99% of the time it is less than 7%.

McFadden describes this bit of data as a ploy by the tech companies.

“They want to hype up the demand for Wi-Fi by saying other bands are overcrowded but at the same time try to placate 6 GHz incumbents about fears of future interference by downplaying their 5 GHz use,” said McFadden. “Either the other bands available for Wi-Fi use are severely underutilized and the FCC should abandon the proposed giveaway of the entire 6 GHz band, or those bands are in fact heavily used and incumbents should be extraordinarily concerned about the potential for harmful interference.”

As an alternative to the tech companies’ request for complete access to the 6 GHz band, McFadden suggests that the FCC makes the lower 500 MHz of the band available for unlicensed use—an idea that many broadcasters have already said they would be open to—while also issuing a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to explore whether additional Wi-Fi spectrum is actually necessary, how to protect the incumbent broadcast and public safety mobile users and if other options should be considered.

McFadden’s full piece is available on NAB’s blog. 

WASHINGTON—The FCC shouldn’t act like it’s haggling over a new car when it comes to the C-band spectrum, according to NAB’s Vice President of Strategic Planning Patrick McFadden. McFadden wrote a post on NAB’s Policy Blog on how in terms of the amount of C-band spectrum made available for wireless companies, the FCC must look at the facts on what amount is safe for broadcasters to effectively use the spectrum, not negotiate the best possible deal.

In his blog, McFadden notes that satellite operators say that it is possible to make up to 200 MHz available for wireless companies, leaving 300 MHz for radio and television operators to continue using the spectrum without issue. He argues that it would be irresponsible for the FCC to try and debate over that number (or whatever it may be), countering a point made by New Street’s Blair Levin in a recent article.

“Rather, the solution is to look at the information the operators have submitted regarding their transition plan and determine how much capacity can be made available without driving the entire America content ecosystem into a ditch,” McFadden wrote.

Read McFadden’s entire blog here.

WASHINGTON—NAB urged the FCC Nov. 27 to initiate a thorough examination of a TV white space database operated by Nominet UK for errors that if left unaddressed could lead to television stations experiencing harmful interference from TV white space devices.

The request, made by Patrick McFadden, associate general counsel for NAB during a telephone call with Alison Steger, who works in the office of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, was part of a broader discussion about the trade association’s petition of reconsideration of the Office of Engineering and Technology’s approval for Nominet to operate the database.

In a notice of ex parte communications dated Nov. 29 regarding the call, NAB asked the FCC to confirm that Nominet has fixed database errors it says have been corrected. “This is not the first time Nominet has made that claim,” the ex parte letter said. “In response to previous errors NAB identified, Nominet asserted in August that it had ‘addressed each technical issue’ with its database and would ‘continue to exercise rigorous ongoing oversight of its database.’”

However, NAB pointed out that subsequent to those assurances at least 200 full-power TV stations were listed in the database with incorrect channel information.

“The commission should not simply take Nominet’s word on this subject given the scope of the problems NAB identified,” it said. Rather, the agency should launch “a comprehensive review” of the database to verify available channels for use by TV white space devices, NAB said.

NAB also called on the FCC to reexamine the procedures used to certify a database administrator that “had committed potentially catastrophic errors,” it said.

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