SiliconDust Calls on FCC to Scrutinize ATSC 3.0 Security Requirements
Pearl TV and the broadcast members of the ATSC 3.0 Security Authority (A3SA) are using encryption standards to box out independent device makers, and those standards should be made public, said DVR gateway device maker SiliconDust in an FCC filing Tuesday. It responded to a Pearl TV submission last week that attacked SiliconDust’s HDHomeRun device as containing parts from a company affiliated with Chinese chipmaker Huawei (see 2507180047). The FCC rules against including Huawei technology don’t apply to devices like the HDHomeRun because it doesn’t originate voice, data, graphics or video telecommunications, SiliconDust said. The company “does not provide sensitive technology to Chinese companies. The insinuation by Pearl is shameful.”
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The A3SA -- which includes Pearl TV -- hasn’t approved any ATSC 3.0 devices capable of digital rights management (DRM), SiliconDust said. “Clearly their intent is to make watching over-the-air television in the same manner consumers enjoy today with ATSC 1.0 impossible.”
A spokesperson who represents both Pearl TV and A3SA declined to comment on SiliconDust’s filing. SiliconDust compared the A3SA’s restrictions to efforts by networks during the early days of digital TV to use DRM to block DVRs from recording programming using a “broadcast flag” symbol. “With DRM on ATSC 3.0 the ‘broadcast flag’ is back," the company said. “This is a regulation being forced on vendors and the American people by the A3SA founding member broadcast networks.” SiliconDust called for the FCC to scrutinize the A3SA’s security standards and require the standards for manufacturers to be made public. “It is within the FCC’s purview to require that all rules and regulations being imposed by private broadcast networks on FCC licensed local stations, broadcast equipment vendors, television vendors, tuner vendors, and the American people be made public and available for public scrutiny.”