Analysts, consumer groups and think tanks see the retransmission consent market as plainly uncompetitive, but the FCC is "the only significant player who doesn't seem to get that the only 'f' word associated with the retrans market ... is 'failure' rather than 'free,'" wrote Mediacom General Counsel Joseph Young in a docket 10-71 filing posted Thursday. Mediacom said it has made these arguments ad nauseam, but the start of the Trump administration marks "time to beat our heads against the wall yet again." It said Chairman Ajit Pai shouldn't be led by an ideological deregulation drive but see the data that points to market failure -- with the smoking gun being that cord-cutting trends and ratings declines haven't slowed the growth of retrans fees. The cable operator said the agency shouldn't worsen the power balance with broadcasters by easing ownership restrictions or giving them a "free hand" in ATSC 3.0 deployment since lack of oversight could lead to millions of viewers unable to watch local channels or to skyrocketing pay-TV bills. NAB in a statement said, “This is more of the same silliness from Mediacom. NAB agrees with the FCC’s conclusion that no new retrans rules are needed. We urge the Commission to reject the anti-competitive musings of Mediacom and allow broadcasters the freedom to innovate for viewers’ benefit.”
There’s a “business upside” to ATSC 3.0 emergency-alerting capabilities, and the AWARN Alliance plans to explore that at an “executive breakfast presentation” April 26 during the NAB Show, the alliance said in a Wednesday announcement. Using ATSC 3.0, AWARN (Advanced Warning and Response Network) is “transforming the alerting landscape as man-made and natural disasters reveal the urgent need for new warning systems,” said the alliance. “AWARN is using the same features that will drive new revenue streams: geo-targeting, personalization, interactivity, deep indoor and mobile reception, and device wake up.”
The agreement between Sinclair’s One Media 3.0 and chipmaker Saankhya Labs, announced Tuesday, to “fast-track” development of ATSC 3.0 receiver chipsets is expected to bear market-ready “mobile-first” components “in less than a year,” Mark Aitken, Sinclair vice president-advanced technology, told us. The software-defined-radio chipsets Saankhya will design and build under the “technical leads” of Sinclair and One Media 3.0 will be “multi-standard” components,” Aitken said. “It’s not just a chip for ATSC 3.0.” It’s a chip that “quite literally” will support “all the broadcast standards globally,” due to “its nature as a software-defined chipset,” he said. “There are parts of the world where we see opportunities for ATSC 3.0 to flourish, and so the support of multiple standards is important.” The chipsets also will be designed out of the gate for “a mobile-first implementation,” Aitken said. “The chip is being designed based upon the requirements of handheld and portable devices that have very tight power management, space management kind of constraints.” By comparison, “the chips that Samsung and LG are in hot pursuit of are chips that were designed for television sets and set-top boxes, where there are not these kinds of constraints,” he said.
Advocates for unlicensed use of TV white spaces are concerned ATSC 3.0 could be a future threat, but supporters of the new standard say no such threat exists and the FCC shouldn’t put unlicensed use of spectrum ahead of broadcast licensees. “The idea that you would constrain broadcasting to protect unlicensed service is anathema to the purpose of the FCC,” said Pillsbury Winthrop communications attorney John Hane, who represents broadcasters pushing for the new standard.
“NextGen TV Hub” will be the name of an exhibit planned for next month’s NAB Show to showcase ATSC 3.0 “benefits and capabilities,” ATSC said in a Wednesday announcement. A highlight of the exhibit in the Grand Lobby of the Las Vegas Convention Center will be beaming Ultra HD programming from KLSV-LD Las Vegas on Nevada's Black Mountain to an LG 4K TV with a built-in ATSC 3.0 tuner, it said. ATSC is teaming with CTA and NAB to sponsor the exhibit, which also will have the support of LG, Pearl TV, Sinclair and others, the announcement said. The NAB Show exhibit floor opens April 24 for a four-day run.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is seen as receptive to a petition from NAB (see 1703170055) for changes to the post-incentive auction repacking plan, but any changes to the repacking timeline are likely to face considerable pushback from industry, said broadcast officials and analysts in interviews. Though broadcasters repeatedly praised Pai, his previous positions in their favor -- on ATSC 3.0, and his perceived plans to roll back media ownership rules -- haven’t faced strong opposition from a competing industry. On the repacking, NAB’s requests for a looser timeline are diametrically opposed to calls for a faster transition from wireless providers such as T-Mobile, said Roger Entner, analyst at Recon Analytics: “They need that spectrum tomorrow!”
Broadcasters say multichannel video programming distributor carriage of ATSC 3.0 will be voluntary but are insisting on clauses requiring such carriage in retransmission consent negotiations, said the American Television Alliance in a letter to the FCC posted in docket 16-142 Monday. “ATVA’s concerns about the ‘voluntary’ nature of ATSC 3.0 carriage reflect the real-world experiences of ATVA members,” the letter said. “As the Commission considers claims made by the broadcast industry in this rulemaking, we urge it to examine the apparent disconnect between such claims and broadcasters’ actual conduct in negotiations.”
Preliminary work to repack broadcasters after the incentive auction has begun and is going smoothly, said engineers, broadcasters, antenna manufacturers and industry officials in recent interviews. But they said that’s likely to change, both in April when the 39-month countdown clock on the repacking starts ticking and when it comes time to install all the new broadcast equipment stations will need to transition to their new channel assignments. A lack of experienced tower crews and the sheer amount of work needed is going to create a bottleneck, numerous industry officials said.
Consumers Union, New America’s Open Technology Institute and Public Knowledge share FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn's concerns about the proposed ATSC 3.0 broadcast standard's impact on the public, representatives of those consumer advocacy groups told her Chief of Staff David Grossman. Will consumers still be able to get HDTV via ATSC 1.0, asked CU, OTI and PK, saying they agree with Clyburn that "broadcasters’ public interest obligations, including the required number of hours of video description and children’s programming, should apply independently to both the ATSC 3.0 transmission and a station’s 1.0 stream." The commissioner made the comments when voting last month on a 3.0 NPRM (see 1702230060). Consumers could benefit from TV outlets broadcasting video content to smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices, the advocates said, though they worry stations could try to use leverage over retransmission consent "to coerce" pay-TV providers to carry 3.0 programming. Broadcasters mustn't be allowed to use 3.0 to "foreclose open and unlicensed public access to the vacant TV band spectrum that is not licensed and in use for free over-the-air local broadcast content," said CU, OTI and PK. Don't "allow private licensees to foreclose the spectrum commons by demanding increased restrictions on TV White Space devices to purportedly protect non-free ancillary or ATSC 3.0 data services," the three said in a filing posted Friday in docket 16-142. NAB didn't comment Friday. The association has said the transition to 3.0 would be voluntary and offer many benefits.
Nexstar Media and Sinclair agreed to create a consortium designed to let broadcasters compete with wireless companies using both ATSC 3.0 and current broadcast advertising, said a news release from the TV station owners and broadcast executives in interviews. The consortium, which “will promote spectrum aggregation, innovation and monetization,” will be jointly owned and controlled by Sinclair and Nexstar, the firms said. It's “non-exclusive” and the consortium “is intent on exploring the inclusion of other television broadcasting entities,” they said.