Broadcasters have evolved to no longer depend on automotive ads for revenue, said several broadcast executives on company quarterly earnings calls last week. The executives also discussed ATSC 3.0 projections, their M&A outlook and the continued rise of sports betting. “Back in the day, when auto sneezed, broadcasters got a cold,” said Gray Television co-CEO Hilton Howell. That’s no longer the case, he said. “We’ve become less reliant on auto,” said Sinclair Chief Operating Officer Rob Weisbord. Auto ads are likely to rebound but will never be as central to broadcaster balance sheets, said Nexstar CEO Perry Sook.
Some 42 markets have access to ATSC 3.0 broadcasts, under 10% of the viewing public in the U.S., and just 3 million 3.0-capable TVs were shipped in the U.S. last year, said Digital Tech Consulting President Myra Moore, moderator on a Streaming Media Connect panel last week.
NAB President Curtis LeGeyt thinks FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel should prioritize paving the way for ATSC 3.0, and is “100% confident” the 2022 NAB Show in late April will be in person as planned, he said at the Media Institute’s virtual Communications Forum luncheon Tuesday. He also targeted tech companies and performance royalties for radio stations, and said the most difficult part of his new job heading NAB is the lack of in-person contact with members due to COVID-19 restrictions. “We don’t have that intimate relationship with our membership,” LeGeyt said. “The way we really succeed is when we can get back to in-person.”
MVPD groups and broadcasters disagree whether proposed rule changes designed to ease the ATSC 3.0 transition should come with additional restrictions on the standard, said comments filed by Friday’s deadline on a November further NPRM in docket 16-142 (see 2111050049).
NAB raised concerns and the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council supported a Land Mobile Communications Council petition asking the FCC to modify its Part 90 rules on sharing of TV channels 14-20 with the T-band to reflect the changes that have occurred due to the DTV transition. Comments were posted Thursday in RM-11915. The T-band is shared with public safety and gets the most use in major cities, including Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Miami and Washington, D.C. “The changes LMCC proposes could have the practical effect of increasing instances of harmful interference between television stations and land mobile operations in the T-band by allowing television stations and land mobile operations to operate in closer proximity to one another,” NAB said. It noted “occasional complaints concerning interference issues between television stations and T-band land mobile operators under the existing rules, including from LMCC itself.” NPSTC said “time is ripe” to update the rules. “The Commission is fortunate that the LMCC has done so much of the work required to initiate the rulemaking proceeding it has requested,” NPSTC said: “The LMCC petition is comprehensive and includes the background leading to the request, specific recommended changes to the rules, and the rationale for the recommendations provided. The petition even provides a succinct summary on the history of the T-Band spectrum sharing that began in the 1970s. This summary should be helpful as well in crafting the NPRM.” Los Angeles County noted the rules were last updated in the 1990s. “Experience gained from (1) combating interference from DTV operations (new since original rules were adopted), (2) the transition of some [land-mobile radio] systems from analog to digital (which is a continuing process), and (3) the lack of vacant channel options due to channel repacking -- all mandate that the Commission revisit equipment performance assumptions made over two decades ago,” the county said. Issue an NPRM “at the earliest opportunity,” urged the Enterprise Wireless Alliance: T-Band applicants “must comply with a rule that protects television station contours as though they still were operating in NTSC [National Television System Committee] format even though they are required to operate in ATSC [Advanced Television Systems Committee] format. In the interim, television stations are receiving greater than necessary protection while, conversely, affected land mobile systems are not able to derive maximum use of T-Band spectrum.”
At Tech Oversight Project, executive director is Sacha Haworth, ex-American Bridge 21st Century, and deputy executive director-communications director is Kyle Morse, ex-Trump War Room ... Disney promotes Trisha Husson to head-strategy, business operations and finance, Disney General Entertainment; Eric Marcotte adds oversight of strategy and business operations team as senior vice president.
Though ATSC “is not directly involved in patent licensing, we are pleased to hear the announcement of the ATSC 3.0 patent pool” by MPEG LA (see 2201200058), emailed ATSC President Madeleine Noland Friday. “Recognizing that patent pools often add licensors over time, we are delighted to see this group of thirteen licensors working together to simplify and accelerate ATSC 3.0 adoption into an expanding line-up of NextGenTV products.”
Thirteen licensors populate the one-stop patent pool for ATSC 3.0 technologies that MPEG LA launched Thursday, as was expected recently after about three and a half years of development (see 2112100004).
ATSC 3.0's backers need to focus on attracting consumers, advertisers and consumer tech OEMs to the new technology, said executives from E.W. Scripps, Sinclair, Nexstar, and BitPath in a virtual panel Thursday. “A lot of these OEMs need to understand in a much deeper way what’s in it for them,” said Kerry Oslund, Scripps vice president-strategy and business development. If broadcasters don’t ensure that ATSC 3.0 early adopters see “a tangible difference,” 3.0 “will be 3DTV all over again.”
Consumer "acceptance" of ATSC 3.0 is “rapid,” said Pearl TV representatives, including Managing Director Anne Schelle, on a Jan. 14 call with an aide to FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington about the progress in deploying the new standard, according to a filing posted Wednesday in docket 16-142. ATSC 3.0 services are in “over 46 markets” and 35 more will launch in 2022, said Pearl: "In less than two years, nearly 3 million NextGen TV receivers have been sold, and it is projected that 4.5 million sets will be sold this year as more consumers upgrade to smart TVs. This rapid acceptance of the technology is one of the fastest penetration rates for a new consumer technology."