LAS VEGAS -- PBS hopes “soon” to begin airing high-dynamic-range programming, but in 1080p rather than in the 4K resolution commonly associated with HDR, Renard Jenkins, vice president-operations, production, media and distribution, told the Ultra HD Forum's "MasterClass" HDR workshop Saturday at the NAB Show. “When I say ‘soon,’ within the next 24 months is what we’re shooting for,” Jenkins told us.
LAS VEGAS -- UHD Alliance President Hanno Basse concedes he wishes his group’s Ultra HD Premium logo had wider market presence than it has today, he told an NAB Show supersession Monday on Ultra HD broadcasting’s coming of age. But Basse also is happy, as he sees it, that the logo certification program raised the industry’s performance ‘benchmark’ for Ultra HD TVs, Blu-ray players and content, he said.
LAS VEGAS -- The number of TV stations that chose not to sell their spectrum in the TV incentive auction demonstrates that broadcasting is the "highest and best use of spectrum," NAB President Gordon Smith said, officially opening NAB 2017 Monday. He also discussed ATSC 3.0 and chips in smartphones.
ATSC 3.0 and the post-incentive auction repacking are expected to be the dominant subjects at NAB Show 2017, attorneys, broadcasters and analysts told us. The industry convention officially was to start Saturday. The new standard and the repacking are the biggest topics in broadcasting because they ultimately could determine “where we’re going as an industry,” Sinclair Broadcast Vice President-Advanced Technology Mark Aitken said in an interview. While broadcasters are comparing notes on repacking plans and eyeing new ATSC 3.0 equipment, they’ll likely also be talking about channel sharing possibilities, and feeling out potential deals, BIA/Kelsey Chief Economist Mark Fratrik said.
The FCC could “re-scope” the licenses of broadcasters involved in ATSC 3.0 simulcasting instead of issuing separate licenses, NAB said in a meeting with acting Media Bureau Chief Michelle Carey and Media Bureau staff April 12, according to an ex parte filing at the commission. The re-scoped license would include a broadcaster’s transmissions on a simulcast partner’s spectrum while excluding the simulcasting partner’s transmissions on the first broadcaster’s spectrum, NAB said. “An approach along these lines could provide both certainty and flexibility,” NAB said.
As the suite of ATSC 3.0 standards “nears completion,” the next-generation broadcast system will take center stage on the NAB Show exhibit floor, where “multiple companies will demonstrate breakthrough ATSC 3.0 hardware and software,” ATSC said in a Thursday announcement. Highlights will include a BBC R&D demonstration of the hybrid log-gamma high dynamic range format developed with NHK of Japan. On the show floor, BBC will showcase HLG’s picture quality “in the context” of its inclusion in the ATSC A/341 video document and the ITU’s BT.2100 recommendation, ATSC said. BBC also will highlight the benefits of wide color gamut and how HDR and wide color can be interoperable with standard dynamic range BT.709 color, it said. In another NAB Show highlight, Dolby Labs “will offer a hands-on demonstration of live AC-4 encoding and decoding,” as specified in the A/342 ATSC 3.0 audio document, ATSC said. “Visitors will be able to adjust encoding and decoding parameters, watch the system automatically adapt, and hear the results in real time,” it said. “Dolby experts will be on hand to answer questions regarding Dolby Atmos, legacy and new workflows, and deployment of AC-4 and ATSC 3.0.” The NAB Show exhibit floor opens April 24 at the Las Vegas Convention Center for a four-day run.
Triveni Digital will offer ATSC 3.0 starter kits for low-power TV stations at the April 23 LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition Repack Rally, the company said in a news release: They are "designed to bring broadcasters up to speed with the new broadcast television standard and ecosystem in a real-world environment." The kits include a quality assurance system, ROUTE/MMTP encoder and live source simulator. ”LPTV stations will play a big role in ATSC 3.0," said Triveni Vice President-Sales and Marketing Ralph Bachofen. "Whether an LPTV plans to share frequency as a light house or provide advanced local services, such as hyperlocal ads or emergency alert messaging, ATSC 3.0 will bring new life to broadcast.” Triveni Chief Science Officer Rich Chernock chairs ATSC's Technology Group 3, which is supervising the framing of ATSC 3.0.
Ultra HD video's main delivery will be via streaming, at least through 2020, due to "broadcaster foot-dragging and falling disc sales," nScreenMedia said in a blog post Sunday. It said UHD Blu-ray discs are selling well for now, but the long-term trajectory of disc sales is downward as more people opt for subscription VOD over ownership. It said Japan is alone in having a firm timetable for converting to UHD broadcasts, and there's no hard deadline in the U.S. for the rollout of ATSC 3.0, which includes UHD support. Also, major cable companies haven't said anything about supporting UHD in their traditional cable delivery. The firm said strong UHD TV set sales and the growing number of 25 Mbps broadband connections mean the number of people able to watch UHD is growing quickly, but people will still mostly watch HD video in 2020.
Small cable operators continue to push the FCC for rules restricting forced bundling. The practice, plus related negotiating practices, "causes substantial problems in various ways for operations, particularly for capacity-constrained systems and resource-constrained operators," the American Cable Association told Media Bureau staffers and an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai, according to an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 16-142. The filing said several ACA members cited individual challenges their systems faced with forced bundling requirements by programmers. ACA told the FCC that if the agency lets broadcasters transition to the ATSC 3.0 transmission standard, it should require separate retransmission consent negotiations for a station's ATSC 1.0 and 3.0 signals so 3.0 negotiations "are based upon the value that carrying such ATSC 3.0 signal brings to operators and their subscribers rather than the importance of the continued carriage of ATSC 1.0." Among those at the meetings were ACA Senior Vice President-Government Affairs Ross Lieberman, Horizon Cable Vice President Susan Daniel, Frankfort (Kentucky) Plant Board Assistant General Manager-Cable/Telecom John Higginbotham, Atlantic Broadband General Counsel Leslie Brown, TDS Telecom regulatory counsel Sara Cole and Liberty Puerto Rico General Counsel John Conrad, plus Media Bureau staff including acting Chief Michelle Carey. ACA repeatedly has criticized forced bundling practices by programmers (see 1608290048).
The FCC's planned review of the national TV ownership cap could influence how broadcasters react to the expected restoration of the UHF discount, said Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker at a Media Institute lunch Monday. Commissioners tentatively are to vote April 20 on bringing back the discount (see 1703300066), Though analysts initially thought the ownership cap could be pushed high enough to make some very large combinations possible, Ryvicker said she no longer believes that's likely. Companies could begin announcing deals the day after the FCC’s April 20 meeting, Ryvicker said. Numerous large broadcast entities are expected to seek acquisitions, she said, including Cox, Tegna and Scripps. “Everybody’s a buyer,” Ryvicker said, though she said Tribune is an exception, and is seen as looking to sell. With the NAB Show the week after the April FCC meeting, more dealmaking than usual could happen there, she said. Though investors see ATSC 3.0 as a positive concept, there’s too much uncertainty about the future of the new standard for it to do much to move the needle on broadcast investment, Ryvicker told us. It’s not clear if plans for broadcasters to begin offering up wireless spectrum will materialize, she said. Though Ryvicker said the Wall Street view of broadcast regulation under FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has been “positive,” she said unrealistic expectations for the Trump administration's pro-business policies and the recent failure to repeal the Affordable Care Act made investors leery. Investors are anxious about the growth of streaming media hurting broadcasting, and about ratings showing general decline in TV viewership and increased time shifted viewing, she said. Broadcasting is considered dependent on live viewership, she said: “That’s why there’s a perception that broadcast is dying.” Though spending on political advertisements during the presidential campaign was down, Ryvicker expects those numbers to rebound in 2018, saying the low spending in 2016 was a onetime fluke. Recent negative attention about the placement of online ads could be a boon to broadcast advertising, she said. Total audience measurement for broadcast would help compete with pay-TV and online, Ryvicker said.