The FCC voted 5-0 to approve an order on ATSC 3.0 datacasting, but Democratic Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks concurred over concerns about consumer costs. “There comes a point -- and I think we’re getting there fast -- where we can no longer afford to ignore this issue,” said Rosenworcel. “We need to do more to figure out how we can help viewers reach this next generation of television technology.”
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr urged India to “embrace” ATSC 3.0 as a way to promote 5G, in a speech to the India Mobile Congress Wednesday. India’s mobile networks need capacity, which could be provided from the country’s “powerful but underutilized broadcast spectrum -- enhanced by ATSC 3.0,” Carr said. Indian companies “are playing a leading role in developing the mobile technology that will seamlessly merge broadcast spectrum into the next-gen wireless ecosystem,” he said. He listed recent steps the FCC took to assist the 3.0 transition and said it's “critical to identify and remove the overhang of unnecessary government regulations that would otherwise hold back the introduction and growth of new competitive offerings.”
The final version of the draft order on ATSC 3.0 datacasting is expected to be changed from the draft version to be more palatable to the agency’s Democrats, FCC and broadcast industry officials told us. One other media item added recently to the Dec. 10 agenda -- on a noncommercial educational station’s petition for reconsideration -- has already been voted on, and another on electronic Media Bureau fees isn’t considered controversial, an FCC official said.
Gray Television launched its first ATSC 3.0 station, said a news release Monday. WNXG-LD Tallahassee is a low-power station that simulcasts CBS, Me/My, Circle, Ion and Justice. “WNXG’s ability to broadcast four HD program streams and one standard definition stream with a very robust signal, and with ample spectrum remaining for additional program streams or other data services, significantly exceeds the current technical capabilities of the ATSC 1.0 transmission standard,” Gray said: This helps prepare the company for 2021 transitions to 3.0.
Create a waiver process for broadcasters to use ATSC 3.0 distributed transmission systems, rather than loosening rules to allow them, said Microsoft in calls with aides to FCC Commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Geoffrey Starks last week, per a filing in docket 20-74. A draft order on proposed DTS changes has been circulated to eighth-floor offices (see 2010260051). “Given the technical complexity of the issue, it is difficult in a conversation, to discern the full impact of the rule changes,” Microsoft said. Extending a station’s DTS signal beyond its protected contour “would adversely and unnecessarily impact the availability of television white spaces spectrum,” the company said. “Instead couple the current standard with a waiver process to permit coverage of communities located just beyond the protected contour.”
NAB and Public Knowledge back removing a conclusion from the draft order on broadcast internet that the FCC lacks authority to require broadcaster ancillary fees subsidize consumers for buying ATSC 3.0 equipment. “NAB indicated that it does not object to PK’s request that the Commission remove any conclusion regarding PK’s fees proposal,” said NAB and PK in a call last week with an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, per a joint filing posted in docket 20-145 Monday. NAB and PK are usually opponents in FCC proceedings. “PK stressed that the Commission’s conclusion was at best premature and at this time it is unnecessary for the Commission to rule on its authority,” the filing said. PK said the same to an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai, said another filing. The draft order should be changed “to simply state that because the NPRM did not consider the issue of FCC authority to create a coupon fund to alleviate consumer costs during an ATSC 3.0 transition, it is premature for the Commission to consider it at this time,” said the group. “Excluding a discussion about the FCC’s authority to create such a fund would alleviate PK's primary objection.”
Pearl TV and its Phoenix Model Market partners scheduled a Jan. 7 livestreamed briefing to provide an update on NextGenTV plans for 2021. Next year “will bring more markets, more TV models, and more services,” said a media alert Friday. The event is four days before CES 2021 opens as an all-virtual show, where additional ATSC 3.0-enabled TV models are expected to be introduced.
Commissioner Mike O’Rielly’s departure from the FCC “looks to be on track for some point next week,” he said Friday in a goodbye email with an accompanying video message sent out to all FCC staff. In the video, O’Rielly said his “FCC end date is soon approaching in the days or weeks ahead.” His office said O’Rielly intends to serve the rest of his term, which could include Thursday’s commissioners’ meeting, depending on the confirmation status of his projected replacement, Nathan Simington. In the video, O’Rielly hinted at a future endeavor involving communications policy or lobbying the agency, and profusely thanked FCC staff. “Commissioners are temporary employees, merely visitors occupying a seat at the institution, until the next person arrives,” he said.
Don't close off options on how to calculate broadcaster ATSC 3.0 datacasting ancillary service fees until such services start being used “and the arrangements between broadcasters and other parties become clearer,” NCTA this week told aides to all FCC commissioners except Chairman Ajit Pai, said an ex parte filing posted in docket 20-145 Thursday. The FCC should "decline at this time to exclude from gross revenue the value of in-kind facility improvements and should refrain from determining how the fee should be calculated in instances where a broadcaster leases spectrum to a third party,” NCTA said. It's “premature” to make any adjustments to the basis for calculating the fee, it said. America’s Public Television Stations “strongly” urges the FCC "to adopt its proposed Broadcast Internet Order to promote innovation, experimentation, and greater use of broadcast television spectrum, including spectrum licensed to public television stations,” said APTS CEO Patrick Butler in a news release Thursday: “The critical importance of Broadcast Internet services has never been clearer than during the pandemic.”
Hearst-owned WMOR-TV Lakeland, Florida, is the host station for five broadcasters that went live Tuesday with ATSC 3.0 signals in Tampa-St. Petersburg, the 12th-largest U.S. TV market, said Pearl TV. Consumers should understand that the NextGenTV "experience" from local stations “will be getting better and better, as more functions and features are added down the road,” said Pearl Managing Director Anne Schelle. Most broadcasters are launching 3.0 services in 1080p, and WMOR is also providing the market’s first HDR video signal. The station is transmitting Dolby Vision HDR, plus HDR10, said a Pearl spokesperson.