Comments are due May 7, replies June 6, on NAB's February petition seeking a nationwide timeline for the ATSC 3.0 transition (see 2502260051), the FCC Media Bureau said in a public notice posted Monday in docket 16-142. In its petition, NAB suggested a February 2028 deadline for stations in the top 55 markets -- covering 70% of the U.S. population -- shifting to 3.0-only broadcasts. It also asked the FCC to require that all TV broadcast receivers include 3.0 tuners.
LAS VEGAS -- A proposal to use ATSC 3.0 stations to create a U.S. backup to GPS is more about justifying a speedy transition to the new standard than directly monetizing it, broadcasters and broadcast engineers told us at the NAB Show 2025. The U.S. is the only major power without a backup solution for GPS, and the Broadcast Positioning System proposed by NAB and Sinclair is the most promising candidate in two decades, said Patrick Diamond, a member of the National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation and Timing Advisory Board. For the proposed BPS system to work optimally, “the more towers, the better,” said Tariq Mondal, NAB's vice president-advanced technology.
5G broadcast supporters say HC2’s petition to allow low-power TV stations to transmit in that standard and reach mobile devices could represent a lifeline for an LPTV industry in distress, while some critics say it appears to be aimed at allowing low-power TV owners to get out of the broadcast business.
Broadcasters attending the 2025 NAB Show in Las Vegas will be discussing industry competition, rising prospects for ownership deregulation, the potential of the FCC’s “Delete” docket, and their perennial hopes for monetizing ATSC 3.0, broadcasters, brokers and broadcast attorneys told us. The show runs from Saturday until Wednesday, April 9. There are “increasing drumbeats from every direction” pointing to ownership deregulation and the potential for station deals, Tideline Partners media broker Gregory Guy said in an interview. “I fully expect that 2025 will be the most important year this century for broadcast, radio and television.”
The FCC should allow low-power TV (LPTV) broadcasters to use the 5G Broadcast transmission standard on a voluntary basis, said broadcaster HC2 in a petition for rulemaking Friday. The technology “allows an LPTV station to transmit a single 5G signal to its entire service area, which can be received by any compatible mobile device,” the petition said. “5G Broadcast thus provides both the spectrum efficiency of the one-to-many structure of broadcast operations and access to compatible mobile devices on existing 5G networks.” Currently, stations can only broadcast in the standard using an experimental license granted by the FCC, and only a few such stations exist.
Absent more FCC action on issues such as ownership and facilitating the ATSC 3.0 transition, the broadcast industry is quickly sliding toward a "period of catastrophic decline," FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington said Thursday. "We can't keep on the current trajectory" of stations closing and licenses falling into disuse, he said at a Media Institute event. The trend line on broadcaster bankruptcies is "a little bit like the beginning of a recession."
Consumers would pay more under an ATSC 3.0 tuner mandate, the Consumer Technology Association told an aide to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr and Media Bureau staff in an ex parte meeting last week, according to a filing posted Tuesday. NAB has called for a tuner requirement in its recent ATSC 3.0 petition (see 2502260051). A search of TVs sold by a nationwide retailer showed that the average price of those with 3.0 tuners was $80 higher than 1.0 models, CTA said. “Given this sample, in addition to other known factors, such as patent licensing costs, it is reasonable to conclude that consumers would pay more if all televisions were mandated to include an ATSC 3.0 tuner,” the filing said. CTA “strongly believes the transition to ATSC 3.0 must remain voluntary and market-based, not guided by government mandates, and has consistently advocated this position in the record.”
The FCC’s “In Re: Delete Delete Delete” proceeding could draw a huge number of response filings and is expected to require numerous subsequent rulemakings to lead to actual changes, said industry officials and academics. “Every single regulated entity will sit on Santa's lap and ask for presents,” said TechFreedom Senior Counsel Jim Dunstan. “It will take months just to sift through all the asks and determine how to proceed.”
NAB’s call for an ATSC 3.0 tuner mandate (see 2502260051) is “highly concerning” and a reversal of its stance in a 2017 joint petition with CTA and others, which requested FCC authorization of the new standard, CTA said in a meeting last week with aides to Commissioner Nathan Simington, according to an ex parte filing posted Tuesday. “The key element” of that 2017 joint petition “was the voluntary nature of the transition,” CTA said, adding that it “strongly believes the transition to ATSC 3.0 must remain voluntary and market-based, not guided by government mandates.”
The FCC shouldn't act as a “Ministry of Truth,” and there isn't a constitutional basis for the agency to go after local broadcasters, said Commissioner Nathan Simington during an interview Tuesday that seemed aimed at soothing broadcasters' concerns about the FCC's new direction. “I’m not in the business of deciding who’s telling the truth and who’s not,” Simington said onstage at the NAB State Leadership Conference. “And what’s more, [FCC Chairman Brendan] Carr thinks the same way." Carr said last week that FCC precedent set by the previous administration supports proceedings he has opened against broadcast networks over their programming and news content.