If Winston Churchill was leading the broadcast industry into battle against the Tech Giants, he might say something like this—
Ladies and gentlemen, colleagues in the service of truth, trust, and community—
We are not gathered here today as we once were, in times of ease or complacency.
We stand here, as broadcasters, in a time of great peril and greater promise.
A time when the very nature of communication is being redrawn by forces larger than any one of us.
And make no mistake—we are at war.
Not with rifles or rockets. But with rules rewritten, with platforms unbound by the public trust, with titanic technology firms whose appetites are insatiable and whose ambitions are global.
They do not play by the rules we obey.
They are not bound by the obligations we uphold.
They are not required to serve the public good, to be present in times of crisis, to stand sentry over the last mile of American democracy.
We are.
And yet, they take what was once our sustenance.
The advertising revenues that sustained local journalism, local storytelling, local accountability—these now line the coffers of trillion-dollar giants, indifferent to our towns, our cities, our people.
But we are not defeated.
We are not relics.
We are not obsolete.
Because we possess something they do not: spectrum—earned, defended, and held in public trust. Presence—in every market, in every community, in every storm.
And now, a new weapon in our arsenal: ATSC 3.0.
With it, we are no longer confined to the past. We become what we must become: a converged, IP-based force for communication, delivering data, entertainment, emergency information, education, and innovation.
We call it B2X—Broadcast to Everything.
And with it, the line between broadcast and broadband disappears.
Not to surrender our identity, but to expand our reach, to embed ourselves in the fabric of modern digital life.
This is not just a technology.
It is not just a standard.
It is our future. It is our fight.
I offer no easy path, no guaranteed reward.
I offer what our industry has always given to the American people: Blood, toil, tears, and sweat.
Blood, for the battles we’ve already fought to preserve free speech and local service.
Toil, for the years we’ve labored to build an industry that touches every home.
Tears, for the voices lost, the newspapers shuttered, the newsrooms emptied.
And sweat, for the hard days ahead as we rise again.
And let us not forget our solemn duty—to inform in times of emergency. When wires fall and networks fail, we remain.But imagine the strength we’d wield if our signal reached not just the television set or the dashboard radio, but every mobile phone, every connected device—a lifeline in every pocket, every hand. ATSC 3.0 and B2X make this possible—not someday, but now.
But I also offer this—Victory.
Victory through reinvention.
Victory through innovation.
Victory through unshakable localism and unstoppable national scale.
Victory through ATSC 3.0 and B2X—through coexistence, convergence, and alignment with the world as it is, and as it will become.
Without victory, there is no survival.
But with it—there is more than survival.
There is a future.
There is relevance.
There is greatness.
Let the world know: we are not done. We are not going quietly.
We will adapt. We will rise. And yes—we will win.
Authored by Mark A. Aitken
A Broadcast Industry Veteran and Champion for Spectrum’s Highest Calling
