ATSC 3.0's framers evaluating high-dynamic-range proposals for the next-generation broadcast standard want to do those evaluations right rather than do them fast, and so have extended their deadline two months to Sept. 30 for choosing a winning HDR proposal. That was the surprise disclosure Thursday from two ATSC 3.0 framers on a Society of Motion Picture and TV Engineers webinar held to summarize the “Ins and Outs of ATSC 3.0." But the disclosure appeared to take by surprise ATSC President Mark Richer, who told us the framers mistakenly jumped the gun on publicizing a two-month deadline extension that hasn't been authorized at the highest levels within ATSC.
Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, succeeded at quietly watering down the Senate’s set-top box rider attached to the FY 2017 Financial Services funding bill, which advanced through the full Appropriations Committee Thursday in a 30-0 vote. The rider, which would force a pause to the FCC's set-top rulemaking for further study, never came up directly during the long markup, encompassing FY2017 FCC and FTC funding. But Schatz changed the wording of the set-top rider through the bill’s manager’s package, unanimously accepted as part of the bill.
FCC attempts to improve the emergency alert system shouldn't lead to additional burdens for EAS participants, said pay-TV carriers and broadcasters in comments posted Wednesday and Thursday in docket 15-94. The American Cable Association, AT&T, NCTA and several state broadcasting associations asked the FCC not to impose increased reporting and certification rules on EAS participants. Other comments focused on wireless alerts, and America's Public Television Stations advocated increased datacasting capabilities. NAB said it's open to improving the EAS system but the FCC should take a hands-off approach to requirements. The “wiser course” is to allow broadcasters to police their own compliance, NAB said.
Dolby Labs has been a “major participant” in the work of the ATSC and backs the petition for rulemaking asking the FCC to authorize ATSC 3.0's physical layer and allow broadcasters to begin using the new broadcast standard (see 1604130065), the company commented Thursday in commission docket 16-142. Through Friday’s midday postings, no CE companies were among the three dozen parties to file comments, most of which were highly supportive of the petition. The exceptions were comments from pay TV, consumer groups and low-power TV interests saying the petition doesn’t take their concerns fully into account (see 1605270054).
Broadcasters' transition to a new TV standard shouldn't obligate multichannel video programming distributors to make the same transition, said the American Cable Association, AT&T, Dish Network and NCTA in FCC comments posted Thursday and Friday in docket 16-142 on the joint ATSC 3.0 petition from the AWARN Alliance, CTA and NAB (see 1604130065). All full-power broadcast commenters vociferously supported the petition. But pay TV, consumer groups and low-power TV interests said the petition doesn’t take their concerns fully into account, while Dolby Labs hailed ATSC 3.0 for bringing "significant advances" in broadcast audio and video performance (see 1605270024).
ATSC for the first time identified publicly the six high-dynamic-range proposals vying to be selected as ATSC 3.0's technical solution as the video codec of the next-gen standard gets elevated to the status of proposed standard from candidate standard (see 1605100047). The proposals to be evaluated are from Dolby, Ericsson, NHK/BBC, Qualcomm, Technicolor and a joint proposal on open HDR10 from Qualcomm, Samsung and Sharp, ATSC President Mark Richer emailed us Friday. "ATSC is making great progress in our consideration of HDR technologies for ATSC 3.0." ATSC's S34-1 ad hoc group on ATSC 3.0 video "will review HDR proposals and demonstrations in late June," he said. S34-1 representatives have said the group hasn’t decided whether to go with a single HDR technology or with multiple solutions, and that the selection will follow comparative demonstrations of the various proposals in mid-June at CBS Labs in New York. S34-1 representatives have said it plans to finalize its selection by July 31, when ATSC 3.0 video's candidate standard period is set to expire.
A growing cable industry sense of its concerns being ignored by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has raised the likelihood that whatever rules come out of the agency regarding set-top boxes, broadband privacy and business data services almost surely will be met by legal appeals, cable executives and experts tell us. "I think everybody takes for granted that everything is going to end up in court," MCTV President/American Cable Association Chairman Robert Gessner said in an interview Friday.
FCC approval of the April 13 petition seeking commission authorization of ATSC 3.0's physical layer (see 1604130065) would neither delay the post-incentive auction TV channel repacking nor add cost to the process, said petitioners America’s Public Television Stations, Advanced Warning and Recovery Network Alliance, CTA and NAB in May 12 meetings with staff from the offices of Chairman Tom Wheeler and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, said a Monday ex parte filing at the commission. “Most transmission equipment being manufactured today is capable of being easily upgraded to permit Next Generation TV transmission,” the petitioners told commission staff in a 13-page PowerPoint presentation, the filing said. The market-based approach of the transmission plan will keep it from being a burden to MVPDs or small broadcasters, since they won’t be forced to upgrade to receive or broadcast the new signal, the filing said. “If Next Generation TV offers a compelling viewing experience that consumers demand, MVPDs may choose to negotiate with broadcasters to carry content featuring higher resolutions, higher frame rates” and high dynamic range, the filing said. “No ambitious project can be expected to proceed without challenges,” the filing said. Though the petition asks the FCC to set the stage for the future of television, "it also seeks to protect viewers who rely on legacy equipment that may be unable to receive Next Generation TV programming," the filing said. "Broadcasters propose to lead the transition by partnering with other stations to simulcast their signals in both formats. This will ensure that viewers continue to receive free, over-the-air signals in the current standard, while also allowing broadcasters to begin delivering Next Generation TV signals." The petition underlines an approach that means "there will be no clock dictating the transition" to ATSC 3.0, unlike in the transition to digital from analog, the filing said. "If Next Generation TV provides a superior viewing experience and exciting consumer benefits, consumers will demand Next Generation-capable television receivers to take advantage of these new opportunities. Thus the market, not mandates, will drive the pace of the transition."
“Hybrid delivery” of content and services is “one of the most important things” about ATSC 3.0, LG consultant Madeleine Noland told the ATSC Broadcast Television Conference Tuesday. Since ATSC 3.0 is an Internet protocol-based system, “marrying things together from broadcast and broadband gets a little bit easier,” said Noland, who chairs ATSC’s S34 specialist group that’s responsible for ATSC 3.0's audio, video and interactivity specifications. “From the beginning, ATSC 3.0 was conceived of as a hybrid system, where you can deliver some of your components over broadcast, and some of your components over broadband,” Noland said. “You might even be delivering components over broadcast and broadband that are intended to be consumed in the same service.” For example, a broadcaster may want to carry mainstream content over broadcast, while delivering “interstitials” via broadband as part of an over-the-top service, she said. Hybrid delivery via ATSC 3.0 also can be used as a “temporary handoff” for beaming content to mobile devices, she said. “You’re in your car or you’re walking or whatever, and the signal from the broadcast fades a little bit, and so the device switches to broadband to complete the service, and then switches back to broadcast when it’s all set.”
CTA and its broadcast industry partners on the petition at the FCC for authorization of the physical layer of ATSC 3.0 (see 1604200051) plan no comments on the commission’s public notice by the May 26 deadline (see 1604260064), Julie Kearney, CTA vice president-regulatory affairs, told us at the ATSC Broadcast Television Conference Wednesday. CTA and its petition partners -- the Advanced Warning and Response Network Alliance, America's Public Television Stations and NAB -- may well file reply comments when those are due June 27, Kearney said. “We’re really excited about the petition,” she said. “We’re excited about the innovation” that broadcasters are bringing forth through ATSC 3.0, Kearney said. The petitioners agree “to stay together as much as possible” in comments at the FCC on the petition and the ATSC 3.0 rulemaking to follow, “but we don’t plan to file comments in the comment round,” she said. “So we will file joint replies, if necessary. We are working together as a cohesive group, as a cohesive unit. We feel really good about it.”