The FCC has been asking broadcasters about ATSC 3.0’s use of digital rights management (DRM) encryption and concerns that it could squeeze out some device manufacturers, said officials from ATSC 3.0 consortium Pearl TV and 3.0 device maker Tolka in an interview.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr signaled his support for the ATSC 3.0 transition in a release Tuesday on a Media Bureau public notice clarifying 3.0 application procedures. “Americans across the country will benefit from Next Gen TV and the improved viewing experience that it enables,” Carr said in the release. “That is why the FCC is working to support and encourage a timely transition. As the broadcast industry continues to evolve, we want to be sure that they can do so while maintaining their core public interest obligations.”
The FCC should be skeptical about TV broadcasters' arguments that setting a date for the ATSC 1.0 sunset will lead to the consumer electronics industry stepping up production of 3.0 receivers, said YouTube content creator and tech reviewer Lon Seidman in a letter to the agency posted Thursday in docket 16-142. When Pearl TV and broadcasters supported a voluntary rollout of ATSC 3.0, they repeatedly said that widespread voluntary adoption of the standard would create enough demand for electronics manufacturers, Seidman said. “Given these contradictions, the Commission should treat the current claims with caution and weigh them against the industry’s own earlier statements,” the letter said. “The real reason the market failed to materialize is that Pearl’s members, working through the [ATSC 3.0 Security Authority], imposed a private and opaque regulatory framework that prevented this from ever functioning as a true free market.” Meeting the industry’s security requirements is “so costly that in many cases compliance costs more than the actual manufacturing costs.”
The FCC Media Bureau is restoring language in the agency’s ATSC 3.0 rules that it said was inadvertently deleted in 2023, according to an order in Wednesday’s Daily Digest. The language in question involved the requirements to show public interest for non-expedited applications to deploy ATSC 3.0, the order said. The provisions were accidentally removed from the Code of Federal Regulations when the FCC modified the 3.0 rules for multicast streams in 2023, it said. The FCC at the time “never stated or implied” that it “intended to rescind these subsections.” The bureau said it's restoring the rules without seeking comment, effective immediately, because fixing the error falls under the “good cause” exemption to the Administrative Procedure Act.
NAB is launching a three-year initiative that will work with TV stations and broadcast groups to create ATSC 3.0-based projects for local newsrooms, said a release Wednesday. Funded by a $2.5 million grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the project -- called the NextGen TV News Technology Lab -- will provide resources and support for stations to work on using 3.0 with emergency alerting, news coverage, sports broadcasting and other applications. “As the broadcast industry deploys NextGen TV, it is essential that newsrooms are empowered to fully leverage this technology to enhance the essential services they provide to viewers,” NAB Chief Technology Officer Sam Matheny said in the release. The program runs through October 2028, a period that coincides with NAB’s proposal for broadcasters to cease transmitting ATSC 1.0.
The ATSC 3.0 Security Authority (A3SA) has a “uniform set of policies that applies equally and objectively to all manufacturers of a particular device type,” and it's interested in bringing gateway devices to market, said Pearl TV and A3SA in a meeting with acting Media Bureau Chief Erin Boone and other bureau staff last week, according to an ex parte filing posted Tuesday. Recent filings at the agency have accused the A3SA of using encryption requirements (see 2508180062) to block ATSC 3.0 device manufacturers (see 2507220075).
NextNav is hopeful that the FCC will move forward soon on an NPRM following up on its March notice of inquiry asking about the wide range of possible alternatives to GPS for positioning, navigation and timing (PNT), said Renee Gregory, the company's vice president of regulatory affairs. Opponents of NextNav’s proposal to use 900 MHz spectrum for PNT are less anxious for the FCC to take next steps.
Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley this week urged FCC Chairman Brendan Carr and acting Media Bureau Chief Erin Boone to set a specific date for an ATSC 1.0 sunset, according to an ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket 16-142. “The best way to spur the availability of more consumer devices is to provide certainty regarding a sunset,” the filing said. Issuing a prompt NPRM on ATSC 3.0 would allow the FCC to sunset 1.0 in the top 55 markets by February 2028, as NAB has proposed, it added. "ATSC 3.0 is a game-changing opportunity for broadcasters to diversify their revenue streams and ensure that they can continue to serve their viewers -- but time is of the essence.”
ATSC 3.0 isn’t being widely used by consumers because it uses digital rights management encryption, said two YouTube broadcast influencers in a presentation to FCC Media Bureau staff -- including acting Chief Erin Boone -- last week, according to an ex parte filing posted Monday in docket 16-142. Tyler Kleinle of the Antennaman YouTube channel and Lon Seidman of the Lon.TV YouTube channel have advocated against DRM in ATSC 3.0 with a number of online campaigns (see 2307130057) that have led to hundreds of consumer filings in the 3.0 docket. “The cost of complying with opaque, private regulations imposed on device manufacturers by the A3SA (ATSC 3.0 Security Authority) has resulted in market gatekeeping that significantly limits consumer choice,” said the filing. “ATSC 3.0 requires both an expensive 'NextGen TV' certification AND an equally expensive A3SA certification in order to tune live television,” the fillings said. This leads to expensive ATSC 3.0 tuners and a lack of competition, the filing said. Kleinle manufactures a low-cost 1.0 tuning device for optimizing antennas, but doing so for 3.0 would be cost-prohibitive, the filing said. “The best outcome would be to remove the private, opaque NextGenTV & A3SA regulations and allow device manufacturers to make TV tuners the same way they’ve been making them for the last two decades by self certifying their compliance,” the filing said. “If a device doesn’t work, the market will respond appropriately.”
The FCC should promptly issue an NPRM on a mandatory transition to ATSC 3.0, said Gray Media in a meeting and presentation Tuesday with an aide to Commissioner Olivia Trusty, according to an ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket 16-142. “The 30-year-old ATSC 1.0 standard places broadcasters at a technological disadvantage compared to other content and video delivery platforms, hindering the viewer experience and the ability of broadcasters to grow advertising revenues,” Gray said. ATSC 3.0 datacasting “will supplement and support video broadcasting; it will not replace it,” Gray said. Opponents of the proposal for a mandatory 3.0 transition have argued that broadcasters will use the new standard to neglect their public interest and content obligations (see 2507090052). Datacasting revenue “can help underwrite the expensive costs of producing high quality local journalism and help Gray fulfill its public interest obligations,” the filing said. “New retrans revenue fueled broadcast in the 2010s. Datacasting can do that in the 2030s,” said a slide included in the presentation.