Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeVillages
The difference is the television stations are using the PUBLIC AIRWAYS for FREE from the FCC. They do not pay for the use of the public airways. There are existing laws that forbid charging customers using free public airways. Companies that send their content over the internet are not using a free public service. They pay their Internet services providers.
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They're not using them "free from the FCC." The FCC doesn't own them. They don't even regulate the airways themselves. They regulate the USE of them, and there can be licensing fees associated with setting up stations/channels for OTA broadcasting. They also have to earn revenue in order to afford those stations, the employees, the towers, equipment, broadcast studios, copyright fees for broadcasting content that they don't already own, and everything else associated with broadcasting content over the airways. For that, they either have commercials, advertisements paid for by companies to advertise their products/services, or donations and/or subsidies from the government (such as NPR or PBS) if they choose not to have sponsors influence what they broadcast.
There are always costs involved in broadcasting any kind of content. The difference is mostly "who pays for it," not whether it's free. It's never free.