How well ATSC 3.0 performs commercially “is up to us in this room and the companies we represent,” CTA CEO Gary Shapiro told ATSC’s NextGen Broadcast Conference Thursday in Detroit. “It could be a total flop, or it could be a great success,” he said. He told the conference broadcasters will need to “promote the heck” out of 3.0 for it to become a commercial success (see 2206090065).
For ATSC 3.0 to become a commercial success, broadcasters “have to promote the heck out of it,” CTA CEO Gary Shapiro told the NextGen Broadcast Conference Thursday in Detroit. Shapiro spoke in person on a panel with NAB CEO Curtis LeGeyt, who participated via Zoom because, he said, his wife tested positive for COVID-19 Wednesday. Shapiro said he tested positive a few weeks ago.
Verizon announces Hank Kilgore, ex-office of Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Pa., as vice president-federal legislative affairs; company also promotes Sowmyanarayan Sampath to executive vice president and CEO-Verizon Business, effective July 1, succeeding Tami Erwin, who will assume role of strategic adviser to CEO until year-end.
A draft NPRM on preserving FM6 stations -- low-power channel 6 TV stations receivable by FM radios and focused on audio content -- is expected to be unanimously approved with few changes at Wednesday’s commissioners’ meeting, FCC and industry officials told us. The owners of the stations -- sometimes called “Franken FMs” after the fictional Frankenstein's monster -- are optimistic about the FCC allowing them to continue broadcasting but concerned about proposals in the draft to make their licenses nontransferable or bar new entrants. FM6 stations serve underserved communities, said FM6 broadcaster Paul Koplin, CEO of Venture Technologies Group: “Wouldn’t it be in the public interest to let as many people do this as possible?”
A draft further NPRM that was circulated to FCC commissioners’ offices last week would seek comment on whether to allow the sunset of the requirement that stations broadcasting in ATSC 3.0 also offer an ATSC 1.0 stream that is “substantially similar,” industry and FCC officials said (see 2204250021). That requirement is set to sunset July 17, 2023, a date that was set by the 2017 order that authorized ATSC 3.0 broadcasts. The draft item is seen as broad and isn’t expected to feature many tentative conclusions, industry officials said. The FNPRM seeks comment on the state of the NextGenTV transition and on the scheduled sunsets of two rules adopted in that order, an FCC spokesperson told us. The 2017 3.0 order included sunsets on both the substantially similar requirement and on the requirement that broadcasters use the A/322 standard on physical-layer protocol for 3.0 transmissions. The 2017 order said the agency would monitor the 3.0 transition and a year before the sunsets were to expire would seek comment on whether marketplace conditions warranted an extension, the spokesperson said. Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel told the NAB Show in April that she sees the current framework of 3.0 as the correct one right now, and she and Media Bureau Chief Holly Saurer mentioned concerns about the standard’s lack of backward compatibility (see 2204250067). Pearl TV and other broadcast organizations have argued that allowing the sunset to occur won’t lead to viewers being disenfranchised because of market forces -- adoption of 3.0-ready devices isn't yet widespread and stations need viewers to sell ads.
Evoca went live Thursday with its 60+-channel lineup in Portland, Oregon, and includes Root Sports Northwest, TV home of the Trail Blazers and Timbers in Portland, the Kraken, Mariners and Seahawks in Seattle, plus the Gonzaga University Bulldogs, said the ATSC 3.0 pay TV service. The basic Evoca service costs $25 a month, plus the receiver, and newly added Sling TV programming options enable Evoca customers to access all their content through the Evoca channel guide at higher-priced tiers (see 2205250001).
New and current Evoca customers can add one of three Sling TV programming options to their subscriptions and access all their content through the Evoca channel guide, said the ATSC 3.0-based pay TV service Wednesday. Evoca subscriptions with either Sling Orange or Sling Blue cost $55 a month, plus the receiver, and include a $5 discount on the bundles. Evoca subscriptions with both Sling Orange and Sling Blue cost $70 a month, plus the receiver, also with the $5 discount. The stand-alone Evoca subscription is $25 a month, plus the receiver.
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel isn’t proposing rules on improving how wireless 911 calls are routed to the appropriate first responders but instead is seeking a record refresh. A notice of inquiry casts a wide net on what the FCC should do to address offshore needs for spectrum. Also on tap is an NPRM on channel 6 TV stations, which primarily broadcast an audio signal receivable on FM radios. Drafts for all three were posted Wednesday, for votes at the June 8 commission meeting.
The FCC should promote increased use of IP-based emergency alerts rather than overhauling the legacy emergency alert system to increase accessibility, said NAB, NPR and alerting equipment manufacturer Digital Alert Systems in reply comments posted in docket 15-94 Wednesday. Common alerting protocol messages have “superior accessibility capabilities,” NAB said. While pushing CAP, the FCC should preserve the legacy EAS system “as a redundant, more resilient pathway when internet connectivity is disrupted.” Digital Alert Systems (DAS) said it doesn’t agree with some commenters that adding some additional text or embedded ancillary data to alerts would substantially increase the length of time a message plays. “We feel that such representations may overstate any potential issues,” said DAS. “One must consider the actual length or time an ancillary data frame might require, which may be a scant few seconds in practice, against the real-world spoken length of EAS messages.” Media that have a limited ability to display visual information -- such as many car radios -- may be able to increase alerting accessibility using symbology, DAS said. NPR and DAS said the FCC should let broadcasters adopt new technology to increase alert accessibility on a voluntary basis. The FCC should convene a multistakeholder initiative to “consider voluntary avenues for improving emergency alerting and informing in the United States,” said the Advanced Television Systems Committee and the Advanced Warning and Response Network Alliance in joint comments. As alerts exist now, deaf or hard-of-hearing individuals “often have to cobble information together through several different sources to learn vital information” in emergencies, said the National Disability Rights Network.
Gray Television’s Tallahassee ATSC 3.0 station is using Pearl TV’s Run3TV app, not Sinclair’s open-source broadcast application (see 2204260057)