The draft declaratory ruling and NPRM on not applying broadcast ownership rules to ATSC 3.0 datacasting should seek comment on whether a broadcast stream in standard definition satisfies FCC minimum requirements for TV stations, said the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute. It's filing posted in docket 20-145 Monday. OTI spoke with aides to Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks. OTI broadly supported the drafts, saying the NPRM should also gather information on increasing the fee for broadcasters providing ancillary services such as datacasting: “A better question would be whether the fee should be substantially higher than 5 percent given the enormous potential value of TV spectrum.” Questions in the draft NPRM about setting that fee to zero don’t seem to jibe with congressional intent, OTI said. The proceeding’s use of the term “Broadcast Internet” is misleading, the group said. “Nothing in the NPRM seems oriented to encouraging broadcast station licensees to use their spectrum to broadcast new services -- ATSC 3.0 or otherwise -- but instead seems oriented to pave the way for them to aggregate and lease out their spectrum.”
5G rollout showed how quickly China caught up with the U.S. in telecom network equipment, and satellite broadband could be next, FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks told the Commercial Spaceflight Federation Thursday, per prepared remarks released Friday. China says its government-backed providers are interested in just the domestic market, but the U.S. can't be complacent and the FCC needs to pursue policies that will encourage American leadership, he said. Expected megaconstellations might necessitate a new regulatory approach, and April's orbital debris rules update and NPRM approval (see 2004230040) "strike the right balance," he said.
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied Block Communications' petition for rehearing its dismissed appeal of an FCC market modification decision in Ohio (see 2005180049), according to an order (in Pacer, docket 18-4137) Wednesday. Block outside counsel didn't comment
AT&T's DirecTV and Fox signed a multiyear agreement to ensure access to Fox programming beyond the expiration Monday of the current Satellite TV Extension and Localism Act (STELA) reauthorization, the MVPD said Tuesday. It said it has been in similar talks with other major national broadcast networks for rights to provide some customers access to out-of-market broadcast network stations. AT&T told Congress last month it was trying to tackle expected customer upheaval once the latest STELA reauthorization law takes effect June 1 (see 2004200065).
Verizon Wireless asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit for leave to intervene in support of the FCC in consolidated legal challenges to the agency's C-band order (see 2005050047), in a motion (in Pacer, docket 20-1142) Wednesday. SES similarly moved.
Bloomberg TV+ is available on Samsung 2017-2020 smart TVs, the first 4K UHD channel on the Samsung TV Plus video service, said the companies Wednesday. Bloomberg Media worked with Wurl to distribute Bloomberg TV+ with high efficiency video coding.
Comments are due June 22, replies July 6, on the FCC’s proposal to expand the number of markets in which commercial broadcasters must meet described video requirements (see 2004230046), says Thursday's Federal Register. The item also seeks comment on replacing the term “video description” with “audio description” and doing away with "outdated" references in the text of the rules.
The headline in the May 19 edition about a requested rehearing of a 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision (see 2005180049) should have referred to a market modification, not marked modification.
The Montezuma County, Colorado, Board of Commissioners' satellite TV market modification request for KUSA Denver (see 2004100063) falls short of the requisite evidentiary requirements, the FCC Media Bureau said Monday, dismissing it without prejudice. It invited the county to refile.
VMVPD gains in Q1 from Hulu with Live TV and YouTube TV were erased by declines from Sling TV and AT&T TV Now and Sony’s shuttering of PlayStation Vue in January, Kagan reported. Broadband-delivered services lost 261,000 subscriptions, a 2.8% drop, to 9.2 million. Subs to MVPDs fell 2.4%. In a revised outlook, Kagan noted the “cruel irony” that home isolation should have slowed multichannel defections, but programming interruptions and “ensuing economic turmoil” are expected to “blunt the benefits.” The researcher forecasts an 11% drop in MVPD subs this year, with household penetration under 56% by year-end. Virtual services, which have “narrowed their cord cutter appeal,” will be in less than 10% of occupied households (nearly 11 million) by year-end, it said Friday. Households filling entertainment needs with online-only services are expected to rise to 24.7 million (19%) by Dec. 31.