In response to an FCC Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to modernize broadcast rules from before the “Delete, Delete, Delete” era, the NAB is urging the Commission to clean up its website, which is “replete with obsolete material, broken links, and… difficult to navigate or search.”
In its comments, NAB said that while it supports many of the Commission’s proposed updates, it believes that greater attention must be given to the outdated and inconsistent digital infrastructure that broadcasters and the public rely on.
“Many of the Commission’s web pages continue to reference CDBS, sometimes providing conflicting information about which database to use,” NAB wrote. The association pointed to examples where links return error messages or outdated references to long-replaced systems like the Consolidated Database System (CDBS), despite the Commission’s transition to the Licensing Management System (LMS).
Beyond broken links, NAB raised broader concerns about the reliability of the Commission’s IT platforms: “The Commission’s computer systems, including LMS, are often unavailable, unresponsive, slow, or have unannounced changes that cause disruption to routine users.”
NAB said that part of the problem stems from a lack of accountability, with database issues often handled by anonymous IT contractors who “appear to have little understanding of the actual use of the databases and the systems they administer beyond a parasitic mission to seek additional fees for change orders.”
To fix the problem, NAB recommended that each system and web page have a direct bureau- or office-level staff contact responsible for responding to complaints and resolving issues.
The association emphasized that assigning real employees to oversee user concerns would “correctly and promptly address” issues, as opposed to the current system, where “the user community has resorted to setting up an e-mail reflector to share problem reports and workarounds and to track the status of purported fixes.”
While NAB broadly praised the FCC’s initiative to eliminate or revise outdated broadcast rules, it warned that no modernization effort would be complete without addressing the digital experience for broadcasters, applicants, and the public. “The Commission’s mammoth website is ripe for thorough review and clean-up,” NAB stressed.
