WILLIAMSBURG, Va. -- FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly said the U.S. is in a 5G race against rivals, some of which have government-run "industrial policy." The U.S. faces challenges from other nations "racing ahead" to try to take the lead in deploying next-generation networks and services that "will decide" wireless communications for the next 20-25 years, he said, responding to a question Saturday at the FCBA retreat where he appeared with Commissioner Brendan Carr.
Day Two of ATSC’s Next-Gen TV Conference will mark 25 years to the day of the formation of HDTV’s Grand Alliance that became the basis of the current A/53 ATSC 1.0 DTV broadcast system, said an ATSC agenda item. Details of the commemoration weren’t disclosed. The alliance, formed officially on May 24, 1993, settled on an approach that allowed both progressive and interlaced scanning, but encouraged a rapid transition to all-progressive, according to coverage by our predecessor newsletter Television Digest With Consumer Electronics and by Communications Daily. According to the Digest, the alliance included the partnership of General Instrument and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which advocated both progressive and interlaced systems; the Advanced TV Research Consortium of NBC, Philips, Sarnoff Labs, Thomson and Compression Labs (interlaced only); and the team of Zenith and AT&T (progressive only). The alliance had its critics, said the Digest. Nicholas Negroponte, director of the MIT Media Lab, blasted the alliance as a “terrible mistake” because it would isolate the U.S. from global standards-setting on DTV. Attempts to reach Negroponte for comment on whether he stands by his criticisms 25 years later were unsuccessful.
The FCC should exempt noncommercial educational stations from ATSC 3.0 simulcasting rules, representatives from America’s Public Television Stations, CPB and PBS told an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai Thursday, said a filing posted Friday in docket 16-142. “Without such an exemption, the simulcasting mandate will preclude many public television stations from pursuing a transition to ATSC 3.0 and delivering its many public service benefits to viewers.” Public TV (PTV) stations derive income from viewer donations, and are largely licensed to entities such as universities that have no incentive to leave viewers behind by ceasing to transmit in a standard they can’t receive, the groups said. Simulcasting is “uniquely challenging” for NCEs because the must-carry rules for such stations “are not connected to DMA boundaries,” the filing said of designated market areas. “Regulatory certainty of an exemption will ensure that PTV stations can invest confidently in their futures.”
Broadcasters’ procedural objections to the American Television Alliance’s petition for reconsideration against the FCC ATSC 3.0 order aren’t valid (see 1804130044), said MVPD groups in replies posted Tuesday in docket 16-142. Though broadcasters argued the ATVA arguments are a rehashing of points already raised during the 3.0 rulemaking, NCTA disagreed. The FCC never specifically sought comment on whether it should sunset “substantially similar” provisions in five years even if no broadcasters had yet started transmitting in 3.0, NCTA said. The petition is legitimate because the 3.0 order contains “material error,” in that it doesn’t sufficiently address MVPD concerns about issues like retransmission consent, ATVA said. Broadcasters using retrans negotiations to pressure MVPDs into carriage of 3.0 is a harm that “can hardly be considered speculative,” said NTCA and WTA. “The Rural Associations agree with the Petitioners that the Commission should reconsider its decision not to order that ATSC 1.0 and 3.0 signals be negotiated separately."
Broadcasters and allies asked the FCC to leave as-is rules for the ATSC 3.0 switch, denying pay-TV requests to change requirements in what stations contend is a bid to alter retransmission consent and intellectual property precedent. American Television Alliance and NCTA petitions for reconsideration are seen unlikely to lead to changes to rules OK'd 3-2 allowing what stations call next-generation TV (see 1803060053). Meredith Corp. and Pearl TV were the only replies to the recon petitions in docket 16-142 Friday afternoon, with a filing later coming from NAB plus one from public broadcast groups. Also posted Friday, WTA reported telling Media Bureau officials it supports the ATVA and NCTA requests and the commission should at least "continue to monitor the market to make sure the transition is voluntary for distributors." NAB called the petitions for recons "airings of grievances," with it and Pearl saying no new concerns were raised. Broadcasters said the agency responded to opposition to a five-year sunset of simulcasting, concerns about allowing low-power TV flash cuts and to other criticism. NCTA asks the regulator to require reasonable and nondiscriminatory licensing of patents associated, NAB noted. The FCC didn't require such RAND licensing for 1.0 and the latest order noted ATSC requires such practices and the agency will "'monitor how the marketplace handles patent royalties for essential patents,'" the broadcaster association said. The 3.0 order "shows how a light regulatory touch can support innovation," said Pearl, with members including Cox Media Group, E.W. Scripps, Graham Media, Hearst Television, Meredith, Nexstar, Raycom and Tegna. Petitioners try to "lure the Government into increased regulation," and "re-hash arguments," the consortium said. On LPTV, it said of the rules, "rather than limiting them from participating in ATSC 3.0 altogether, it instead makes them excellent candidates for early transition as so-called 'lighthouse stations.'" Meredith said the switchover including for LPTV "is one of a handful of economic terms that will be decided in an arms’ length" retrans negotiations. With petitioner replies to opposition due April 23, NCTA declined additional comment, and ATVA declined to comment.
The ATSC 3.0 receiver “guidelines work” that CTA is conducting “is an open standards project,” Brian Markwalter, CTA senior vice president-research and standards, emailed us. “The working group, under our Video Systems Committee, develops recommended practices for ATSC 3.0 receivers (mirroring ATSC’s work on ATSC 3.0),” he said. “The recommended practices are being developed as a suite.” Documents addressing the physical layer, logical layer, video and audio are complete, and “others are in process,” he said. “We do not speculate on the schedule” for when work on the entire suite will be finished, he said. Markwalter, an ATSC board member, said in the fall the “pace of work” was accelerating on the CTA-CEB32 “family” of recommended 3.0 receiver practices that would consist of 11 parts plus an overview that will be “easily mapped” to the suite of 3.0 standards (see 1709050038). CTA “has an associated group, where they’re writing recommendations” for 3.0 receivers, said Winston Caldwell, Fox Networks Group vice president-spectrum engineering and advanced engineering, at an NAB Show workshop on maximizing 3.0's future business potential (see 1804100048). “We’ve been involved there just to make sure that those receivers support a lot of the capabilities that we’re interested in.”
LAS VEGAS -- Amid "disruption" by technology, owners of radio and TV stations and newspapers are eyeing overcoming challenges with smart speakers and new management strategies, executives told the NAB Show. Cox Media Group and Hubbard Radio are focusing on content for smart speakers, their executives said Monday. That people can listen to radio stations on smart speakers at home is helping the medium's return to households, those executives said. A day later, Edison Research Vice President Megan Lazovick recommended radio be more aggressive in such efforts.
LAS VEGAS -- ATSC 3.0 market tests won’t end with the model market project Pearl TV is running in Phoenix and Sinclair’s single-frequency-network trials in Dallas, Pearl Managing Director Anne Schelle said at a Tuesday NAB Show workshop on maximizing 3.0's future business potential. Phoenix and Dallas “are just the markets today,” she said.
LAS VEGAS -- Life for wireless mic operators may grow more complex once TV stations reshuffle frequencies, an engineer at a maker of mic systems said at the NAB Show. Spectrum for such transmissions may grow more scarce and there may be more competing uses, these and other comments Tuesday suggested.
LAS VEGAS -- Pearl TV and Sinclair used the early hours of the NAB Show to tout expansions of the ATSC 3.0 trials they're running in their two test markets. The Pearl-led Phoenix “model market” project (see 1711140053) announced the addition of nine more collaborating companies, while Dish Network, with Sinclair's urging, joined the Sinclair-led consortium of Nexstar, Univision, American Tower and Cunningham Broadcasting -- newly named the Spectrum Co. -- that’s running 3.0 single-frequency-network (SFN) trials at three sites in the Dallas area (see 1801170053).