The Future of Free TV. Will Congress sell it?

I hope my former colleagues in the news business will comment on this, as well as my other colleagues on the other side of TV -- the sales and advertising side.

There is a lot of interest now in what congress might do to the broadcast spectrum -- the public airwaves that carry radio and TV and cell phone signals.

I am not an expert on the issue, but here's what I understand-- and correct me if I'm wrong:

It seems that the cell phone companies need more of the spectrum to expand their services including the use of smart phones that tie into the Internet. And the cell phone companies would like to get that spectrum from the part of the broadcast spectrum that is allocated to TV stations.

The cell phone companies argue that the TV spectrum has a lot of "extra space" that should be made available for cell phones and other radio uses such as special radio networks for police and fire.

The TV broadcasters fear that if they lose some spectrum that there will be interference from radio and cell phones The TV broadcasters are even advertising a worst case scenario that free TV stations would be knocked off the air.

There are two pro-TV websites taking up this side of the argument: www.thefutureofTV.org and www.nab.org which is the website for the National Association of Broadcasters.

Well, where does Congress figure into this? Some in Congress and the Obama White House are looking at the potential revenue the government could grab if some spectrum is taken from broadcast TV and auctioned off to cell phone companies.

How do you stand on this? Will free TV really be affected? Would cell phone companies cut in on broadcast TV with more spectrum to carry Internet and Internet TV on their devices?

There are so many issues here.