The North American Broadcasters Association (NABA) is a non-profit association of broadcasting organizations in the United States, Mexico and Canada committed to advancing the interests of broadcasters at home and internationally. Founded in 1972, NABA provides a forum for North American Broadcasters to share information and best practices, discuss common challenges and opportunities, and reach concensus on key issues.

As a member of the World Broadcasting Unions (WBU), the coordinating body for broadcasting unions around the world, NABA is the voice of North American broadcasters at the global level. NABA also plays a key global role for its members as the only North American broadcast association with official status as a non-governmental organization (NGO) at the International Telecommunication Union Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

The NABA Secretariat office is based in Toronto, Canada.

"The Broadcasting industry is turning an important corner as it embraces new service opportunities that several years or months ago were not considered as part of a broadcaster activity, but today must be seen as a challenge and opportunity for all of us. Through NABA, broadcasters in North America provide leadership in this new convergence ensuring that we are able to offer our content and services to everyone, everywhere and in the format that our audiences or users want. Ensuring that television and radio broadcast spectrum and services are protected and well positioned as new products and business models emerge, continues to be of highest priority for NABA." Leonardo Ramos President, NABA

Key Objectives

NABA is committed to the following key objectives:

• Addressing spectrum-related issues - preservation of the terrestrial and satellite broadcasting spectrum and protection of it from interference



• Strengthening content protection - copyright and intellectual property issues and technical solutions; proposed WIPO Treaty on the Protection of Broadcasting Organizations



• Promoting international program exchange - transport, transmission, and operating issues



• Representing North American broadcasters in national and international entities - the three North American regulators (Federal Communications Commission [FCC] in the United States, Industry Canada/Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission [CRTC] in Canada, and Comisión Federal de Telecomunicaciones [CoFeTel] in Mexico) and, internationally, the WBU, ITU-R, and WIPO



• Serving as a forum for discussion of common issues and identification of key initiatives - signal protection (preventing interference and signal theft, addressing retransmission issues); safety and security (sharing and developing best practices for emergency preparedness, business continuity, and health, safety, and security issues for the broadcast community)



• Working as a broad coalition to identify and enable new business on new platforms - digital transition issues (contributing to new digital standards, platforms, and interface capabilities, advancing operational standards and practices); new production and distribution technologies and processes

NABA's Mission

The mission of NABA is to identify and study issues affecting North American broadcast interests, including developing effective perspectives and solutions regarding content development and transmission; protection of content and intellectual property; providing a forum for discussion and advocacy regarding the evolution of program creation, distribution, and delivery; promoting the principles of free speech and the need for a free press; and protecting the safety of those who work in journalism and NABA member organizations.

To accomplish this end, NABA intends to interface with other entities worldwide to ensure that North American broadcast interests are heard, respected, and amply considered on the international level.

NABA Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Conference

Each year, NABA holds an Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Conference. The AGM provides our members with the opportunity to gather in one place to discuss important issues in official meetings and through conference panels. NABA members host each AGM at their facilities, with past AGMs taking place at CNN (Atlanta), Fox (Los Angeles), CBC/Radio-Canada (Toronto), NBC-Universal (New York) and Televisa/TV Azteca (Mexico City).

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NABA does not engage in activities which would violate anti-trust or competition laws in Canada, the United States or Mexico and from time to time consults with outside counsel to ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations.