NBC didn’t contact the FCC after President Donald Trump’s tweeted questioning whether the network's “license” could be pulled, said NBC Broadcasting and Sports Chairman Mark Lazarus during panels (see 1710180023) at the NAB Show New York Wednesday. Lazarus declined to comment on Chairman Ajit Pai’s remarks that the FCC wouldn’t unilaterally take a station’s license. Asked about the president’s tweets, he said NBC News valued editorial independence and he's confident in NBC’s reporting: “We have great confidence that the FCC will stand by our First Amendment rights and support us and we have every confidence our licenses will be renewed.” FCC Chairman Ajit Pai faces heat for not addressing more squarely the tweets. Some Democrats won't get a Senate Commerce Committee FCC oversight hearing on the matter.
An ATSC 3.0 draft order that requires that broadcasters offer “substantially similar” 1.0 and 3.0 simulcasts and doesn’t prevent the new standard from coming up in retransmission consent negotiations is widely expected to be ready for the FCC’s Nov. 16 commissioners' meeting, said industry officials. The Media Bureau is believed to be nearly finished preparing the order, with the aim of circulating it by Oct. 26, in time for the November agenda, industry officials said in interviews. Meantime, MVPDs and broadcasters are stepping up their lobbying on the 3.0 transition.
FCC decisions to seek comment on eliminating the main studio rule and to reinstate the UHF discount were favorable to Sinclair and could undermine public confidence in the agency, Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy said in a meeting with Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel Wednesday, recounted a filing in docket 17-179. Newsmax opposes Sinclair buying Tribune, and Ruddy and the commissioner discussed and “agreed” on possible consequences of the merger, it said. Rosenworcel “reviewed with Mr. Ruddy how the proposed transaction could be utilized to force adoption of ATSC 3.0 creating a windfall for Sinclair as a result of its patents on this technology,” the news organization said. Rosenworcel in a speech last week called the new standard a tax on consumers (see 1710120057). Ruddy and Rosenworcel “agreed that the Commission should engage in a comprehensive review of media ownership rules, including seeking comment from the public and Congress before deciding on the Sinclair merger,” the filing said. They agreed the deal likely would lead to higher retransmission consent prices, it said. Rosenworcel’s office didn’t comment.
“All this talk” about ATSC 3.0 tuner mandates in smartphones is “fake news,” said an LG Electronics USA spokesman of wireless interests weighing in at the FCC since mid-September to fight what they described as broadcasters’ calls for 3.0 tuner mandates in smartphones (see 1709200016). “Broadcasters aren’t seeking mandates.” At LG, “we sure don’t see the need,” he said. LG thinks “market and competitive forces” will lead to “incorporating 3.0 tuners into smartphones on a voluntary basis,” said the representative. Embedding 3.0 reception in smartphones has “technical challenges,” he said. “But when the mobile ATSC 3.0 business opportunities for all the stakeholders -- broadcasters, wireless carriers, manufacturers -- become clearer, the engineers will find ways to make it work, and they’ll make it work well, I’m sure.” On Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel last week slamming 3.0 as a “tax on every household with a television" because consumers will be forced to buy new TVs (see 1710120057), “this is a voluntary, industry-led effort that won’t require set-top boxes. We envision a smooth, but slow ramp-up that’s going to take a number of years for this transition to take place. It’s not going to be like flipping a switch like the last one,” the rep said of the 2009 DTV switch.
CTA is “excited about the upcoming transition to Next-Generation television and the ATSC 3.0 standard,” said President Gary Shapiro in a statement Friday when asked for reaction to FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel calling the transition to 3.0 a “tax” on TV homes because it will require consumers to buy new 3.0-capable sets (see 1710120057). ATSC 3.0 “will bring a variety of benefits to Americans who receive television programming over-the-air, including the ability to receive for free 4K Ultra High Definition programming, live television on any mobile device and advanced emergency alerts that include video and more geo-targeted information,” said Shapiro. “For the foreseeable future, broadcasters will transmit in both ATSC 1.0 and 3.0, and consumers can continue to receive OTA programming on their legacy TVs. Television viewers also will have access to converter devices that will enable them to obtain Next-Gen TV signals for viewing on their legacy displays.” The ATSC 3.0 NPRM that the FCC released in February asked whether the commission should consider requiring HDMI ports on future TVs to accommodate devices for upgrading ATSC 1.0 TVs for 3.0 reception (see 1702270059). In the NPRM, the FCC “tentatively” concluded an HDMI port requirement won’t be needed for now because the 3.0 transition will be voluntary and market-driven. By all current indications, requiring HDMI ports on future TVs appears a moot point anyway because virtually all new flat-panel TVs shipped today have HDMI ports and have had them for more than a decade. The "time is right" for the FCC to approve an order authorizing 3.0 broadcasts, NAB President Gordon Smith told Rosenworcel in meetings last week (see 1710130042).
“The time is right” for the FCC to approve an order on ATSC 3.0, said NAB CEO Gordon Smith in a meeting with Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel Tuesday, recounted an ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket 16-142. Rosenworcel, in a Thursday speech, said the FCC needs to go back to the drawing board on the proposed 3.0 transition (see 1710120019 or 1710120057). Smith said the FCC should loosen ownership rules and increase the flexibility of broadcasters to meet deadlines in the post-incentive auction repacking. CTA President Gary Shapiro praised the new standard in a statement Friday (see 1710130056).The FCC should permit flexibility and have a “light regulatory touch” for the simulcasting requirements for broadcasters transitioning to ATSC 3.0, said officials from PBS, the CPB and America’s Public Television Stations in a meeting with an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai Friday and a meeting with Media Bureau staff Wednesday, according to filings in docket 16-142. Many public television stations may be barred by geography from sharing facilities for simulcasting that would allow them to duplicate their current contour, the public TV groups said. Content requirements also should be flexible, since it may not be possible for stations to offer the exact same content on the current standard that they will be offering on 3.0, the filings said. The public TV groups don’t want the transition to cause any changes to carriage rules, they said. “We expect that many of the technical upgrades to multichannel video programming distributors’ facilities that are necessary to carry ATSC 3.0 programming will be driven, in large part, through marketplace negotiations with commercial stations,” the filings said.
Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel slammed FCC direction on media consolidation and Sinclair's planned buy of Tribune Media, the proposed ATSC 3.0 transition and rolling back Title II net neutrality regulation under the Communications Act. Her speech drew NAB and 3.0 supporter pushback, as well as some plaudits from other Democrats. “This is the first time I’ve seen that she’s been willing to be very vocal about her disagreements with her colleagues," said Gigi Sohn, an Open Society Foundations fellow and former aide to previous Chairman Tom Wheeler, a Democrat. Rosenworcel said she wanted "to make a little ruckus" and believes in fighting to make the "future work for all," according to her prepared remarks to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Thursday (see 1710120012).
Video industry groups and others put forth proposals including adding "standstill" rules and eliminating network nonduplication and syndicated exclusivity for video market rules changes as part of FCC preparation of its 19th annual video competition report. Tuesday was the deadline for docket 17-214 comments, with replies due Nov. 9 (see 1708250052). The Ajit Pai FCC is generally expected to avoid further video regulation (see 1703170017).
Jessica Rosenworcel in her first policy speech since rejoining the FCC as a member Aug. 11 expressed concerns Thursday on Sinclair's buy of Tribune Media, the transition by TV stations to ATSC 3.0 and her agency's course on net neutrality. "I am concerned the Commission is gearing up to approve a transaction that will hand a single broadcast company the unprecedented ability to reach more than 70 percent of American households," she said of the deal worth about $4 billion. She called current 3.0 plans "not a great boon for consumers, it’s a tax on every household" with a TV.
The FCC should require broadcasters transitioning to ATSC 3.0 to simulcast 1.0 to a similar coverage area and community of license as before the transition, said NCTA in Oct. 4 visits with aides to Commissioners Brendan Carr and Mike O’Rielly, said an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 16-142. NCTA met with FCC staff on a similar matter last week (see 1710020044).