ATVA, NAB, APTS, CTA and ACA Battle in ATSC 3.0 Comments

16-142 Tuesday. “Rather than imposing mandates, the Commission should allow the consumer electronics industry to respond to market conditions and introduce Next Gen-compatible equipment as consumers demand it,” said the entities that introduced the original ATSC 3.0 petition. “The Commission should allow the market, not regulatory dictates, to determine whether or not Next Gen is successful.” Broadcasters shouldn't "obtain MVPD carriage of ATSC 3.0 signals (in which viewers may have little interest) by threatening existing television service (in which viewers have a great deal of interest),” commented the American Television Alliance. ATVA warned the broadcast transition shouldn’t be a burden to others, an issue the American Cable Association focused on. Since smaller cable companies face more capacity constraints and are less able to absorb unexpected costs, the broadcast transition “presents particular challenges and requires particularized solutions,” ACA said. Comments from private citizens dominated much of the docket earlier Tuesday, before trade groups and companies were expected to have weighed in later on deadline day. "There should be minimum tuner standards” mandated as part of the migration to next-gen broadcasting, commented Ronald Brey, of Rockford, Illinois. Minimum ATSC 3.0 tuner standards would “prevent overload by non-TV services and linearity requirements to reduce intermodulation distortion,” said the frequent commenter in past FCC radio and TV proceedings. “The tighter geographic packing of TV stations should require a specified minimum of adjacent channel rejection.”