The Biden administration is working behind the scenes on plans to name Mozilla Foundation Senior Adviser Alan Davidson its nominee for NTIA administrator, former government officials and communications sector lobbyists told us. The White House is facing increased pressure to quickly fill the post since the agency is on course to administer the bulk of $65 billion in broadband money if Congress enacts an infrastructure spending package that a bipartisan Senate group formally filed Sunday. Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., swiftly filed amendments aimed at addressing anti-digital redlining and consumer protection provisions in the broadband title he sees as a potential back door to rate regulation, as expected (see 2107300054).
The ATSC NextGen Broadcast Conference “is shaping up to be a robust and exciting event” Aug. 26 at the Reagan Building in Washington, but “we also realize that the news about the Delta variant of the COVID-19 virus is at the top of most of our minds,” the association emailed members and conference registrants Friday. ATSC's members-only annual meeting precedes the conference on Aug. 25. The District of Columbia requires masks indoors, regardless of vaccination status, except when eating, in an order that was to take effect Saturday. “The health and safety of our attendees is a top priority for ATSC and the conference planners,” the group said. “We will continue to monitor the situation while accepting reservations for both in-person and live-streaming attendees.”
The NextGenTV certification mark for ATSC 3.0-compliant TVs was “first used in commerce by persons authorized” by applicant CTA “at least as early as March 1, 2020, and is now in use in such commerce,” said the association’s statement of use (SOU), dated July 1 and newly posted at the Patent and Trademark Office. “Applicant is exercising legitimate control over the use of the certification mark in connection with the identified goods” but is “not engaged in the production or marketing of the goods to which the mark is applied,” it said. PTO requires the SOU as the last step in the trademark application process before issuing a registration certificate, and does so to prevent applicants from hoarding trademarks. “CTA have set up a Test Repository for ATSC 3.0 Test Material, to facilitate the upload of test materials representing ‘typical’ emissions from current trials, and the subsequent download for use to test and certify consumer devices,” says a redacted Eurofins test specification document accompanying the SOU. Eurofins developed the 3.0 receiver conformance test suite under contract with CTA and showcased it at the April 2019 NAB Show in Las Vegas (see 1903270038). Only test suite licensee and “contributor” users have access to the repository, says the document. Contributor access “is afforded to CTA, NAB and ATSC members and their appointed representatives” for searching, but not for downloading, interoperability and documentation materials, it said. Manufacturers aren't required under the NextGenTV logo license “to retrospectively test previously certified devices” against later releases of the test suite, says the document. It's the manufacturer’s “sole responsibility to establish its own testing specifications and program to ensure interoperability” with compliant NextGenTV services, it says. “Company shall be solely responsible for all testing results.”
TV stations increasingly are available via a mushrooming number of streaming options such as aggregators. Discussions between networks and affiliates have been rising as cable subscribers decline, putting retransmission consent dollars in jeopardy, experts said in recent interviews. Networks wanted big increases on what affiliates pay based on the notion affiliates get more retrans revenue, but there's MVPD resistance to rising retrans fees, said broadcast lawyer Jack Goodman.
Some low-power TV broadcasters are rushing to prepare for the FCC sunset deadline for low-power analog broadcasts Tuesday. Even so, the DTV switchover isn’t considered likely to affect many viewers, station owners and industry officials told us. “There’s really a lot of stations out there,” said Advanced Television Broadcasting Alliance CEO Lee Miller. “It is hard to imagine there are still people out there with analog televisions,” said attorney Michael Couzens, who represents the National Translator Association.
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.