CTA's Jamie Susskind leaving association and "returning to the Senate to work on the tech issues," she says ... Center for Democracy & Technology appoints from New America Sharon Bradford Franklin, also former Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board executive director, to newly created post of co-director, CDT's Security & Surveillance Project; Greg Nojeim is the project's other co-director ... ATSC hires Amy Lodes from 5Star Bank as director-communications, newly created role.
The FCC should act “without delay” on an NAB petition for clarity on how the agency will treat multicast streams during the ATSC 3.0 transition, said Pearl TV in a meeting with aides to Commissioner Nathan Simington Thursday, per a filing posted in docket 16-142 Wednesday. Broadcasters said inaction on the matter is complicating the transition (see 2105280035). The petition “seeks only to give broadcasters the necessary clarity to maintain existing 1.0 service,” Pearl said. It doesn’t ask for “new carriage rights for multicast streams” or “create new station licenses or alienable interests.” A station “would continue to have its one license, but instead of only reflecting one authorized host channel, it may reflect more than one,” Pearl said.
Five Little Rock TV stations began broadcasting in ATSC 3.0 on Wednesday. Stations are KATV (ABC), KTHV (CBS), KARK-TV (NBC), KLRT-TV (Fox), and KARZ-TV (MyNet). NextGenTV service is on the air in more than 25 U.S. cities. Antenna viewers can get instructions here on rescans.
The flood of full-power TV channel substitution requests into the FCC Media Bureau since November showed pent-up demand that's likely to continue, broadcasters and broadcast attorneys told us. As channel swap requests continue, more low-power stations could find themselves facing being bumped from their channels, said Smithwick & Belendiuk broadcast attorney Mark Denbo, who represents low-power broadcaster King Kong. “I think there’s going to be more and more,” Denbo said. “With ATSC 3.0, more full powers want to get on UHF.”
The FCC seeks comment on Microsoft’s petition for reconsideration of an order on ATSC 3.0 distributed transmission systems, said a Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau public notice Wednesday. Filed in May, the petition urges the FCC to adopt an expedited waiver process instead of relaxing interference rules (see 2105240067). Oppositions are due in docket 20-74 at the FCC 15 days after the PN is published in the Federal Register, replies 10 days after that.
Howard University's WHUT (PBS) will be ATSC 3.0 host for local ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC affiliates when NextGenTV signals go live in Washington starting late summer, said Pearl TV, which is managing the “broadcast collaborative” announced Wednesday. Washington is the ninth largest U.S. TV market “and posed a unique opportunity for commercial and public broadcasting to band together,” said Pearl. NextGenTV set suppliers LG, Samsung and Sony are among nearly two dozen “supporting organizations.”
ATSC 3.0's single frequency network capability can help stations “greatly enhance robust reception” of broadcast TV signals, reported the Pearl TV-led Phoenix Model Market project Tuesday. “Technical coordination” between two transmitters situated miles apart in metropolitan Phoenix was shown in tests “to dramatically enhance what a consumer would be expected to receive,” said Pearl Chief Technical Officer Dave Folsom. Transmission antenna patterns from the two locations were designed intentionally to “overlap each other,” he said. “The improvement in signal level and service margin translates into a marked improvement in the additive signal's signal-to-noise component. That means we can either improve reception or increase carriage bandwidth for more data.”
About 1 million ATSC 3.0 TVs were sold to date, with 3 million-4 million expected to be installed in homes by year-end, said Pearl TV Managing Director Anne Schelle in an interview Monday. “This really is the year of awareness.” Six new U.S. metropolitan 3.0 markets will come on air this summer: Charlotte, Atlanta, Sacramento, Washington, D.C., Orlando and Baltimore, she said.
Media Bureau approval of a channel 6 TV station’s request for special temporary authority for what some deem Franken FMs could signal to similar stations that the FCC will let them stay on air in analog audio if they follow an ATSC 3.0-based template. The requirement all low-power TVs cease analog broadcasts by July 13 was considered a threat to the stations that are primarily on audio receivable by FM radios (see 2104300063). Wiley's Ari Meltzer, who represents STA applicant Venture Technologies, said in an interview Thursday’s STA gives at least a temporary nod to a solution.
ATSC will return its Next Gen Broadcast Conference and annual member meeting to an in-person event Aug. 25-26 at the Reagan Building in Washington, blogged President Madeleine Noland Tuesday. “We’ll be moving to a different room in the vast complex and will also plan to livestream the event.” Doing the conference as a physical event with a virtual component cleared a big hurdle when Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser's (D) May 17 order lifted COVID-19 capacity restrictions on large business gatherings (see 2105240054).