Comments are due Aug. 8, replies Sept. 6, in docket 16-142 in the FCC’s NPRM on all aspects of the ATSC 3.0 deployment (see 2206220067), including the possible sunset of the substantially similar requirement, and whether 3.0-essential patents are being licensed on fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms, said a notice for Thursday’s Federal Register. The NPRM also seeks comment on the availability of 3.0 devices to consumers.
An NAB-backed Senate bill to open a window to allow low-power television stations to upgrade to better-protected Class A status is opposed by some LPTV groups, but lawmakers are looking to move it this year, said legislators and LPTV industry officials in interviews.
In the FCC’s further NPRM on ATSC 3.0, released Wednesday in docket 16-142 (see 2206220067), the commission seeks comment on the extent to which patent licensing may be “inhibiting the development of 3.0 TV sets or other 3.0 equipment by non-patent holders.” Comments are due 30 days, replies 60 days, after the NPRM is published in the Federal Register.
The FCC unanimously approved a Further NPRM Tuesday seeking comment on all aspects of ATSC 3.0, including the possible sunset of the substantially similar requirement, and whether 3.0-essential patents are being licensed on fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms. The NPRM also seeks comment on the availability of 3.0 devices to consumers. “While broadcasters have incentives to provide the programming their viewers want, after making significant investments in ATSC 3.0 technology they may also have incentives to favor their ATSC 3.0 offerings,” said the NPRM. As expected (see 2205310047), the item is broad and doesn’t appear to contain tentative conclusions but seeks comment on the proliferation of 3.0, MVPD carriage, whether the ATSC A/322 standard should be allowed to sunset, and whether broadcasters have begun offering the high-quality viewer experiences 3.0 was supposed to provide. “Without the substantially similar rule, how can the Commission ensure that 1.0 viewers are able to keep watching the same programming they watch today, as well as any new programming offerings on a broadcaster’s primary channel?” asks the NPRM. The item also seeks comment on how long the transition is expected to take, and asks about the availability of cheaper converters. “We are not aware of any low-cost set-top boxes or converters (e.g., external tuners or dongles), or any converter devices that can be purchased offline in a ‘brick and mortar’ location,” said the FNPRM. Comments will be due 30 days after it's published in the Federal Register.
Cable groups should support an NAB proposal that would require broadcasters using ATSC 3.0 multicasting and channel hosting to submit a showing to the FCC that they could transmit all hosted programming on a single 1.0 facility if there’s a complaint, NAB told the Media Bureau in a call Friday, according to an ex parte filing posted Wednesday. ATVA said its members shouldn’t be responsible for policing broadcasters and filing complaints, but NAB argued in the filing that cable companies would be the ones most affected by capacity abuse. “NAB is puzzled by ATVA’s apparent assertion that cable companies will suffer severe injury from abuse of the rule but also that the injury will be so subtle as to escape notice,” the filing said. “That is an abundantly reasonable proposal to address a situation that will never actually arise in practice,” NAB said. Though the filing gives the date of the call as May 10, NAB confirmed it occurred Friday.
How well ATSC 3.0 performs commercially “is up to us in this room and the companies we represent,” CTA CEO Gary Shapiro told ATSC’s NextGen Broadcast Conference Thursday in Detroit. “It could be a total flop, or it could be a great success,” he said. He told the conference broadcasters will need to “promote the heck” out of 3.0 for it to become a commercial success (see 2206090065).
For ATSC 3.0 to become a commercial success, broadcasters “have to promote the heck out of it,” CTA CEO Gary Shapiro told the NextGen Broadcast Conference Thursday in Detroit. Shapiro spoke in person on a panel with NAB CEO Curtis LeGeyt, who participated via Zoom because, he said, his wife tested positive for COVID-19 Wednesday. Shapiro said he tested positive a few weeks ago.
Verizon announces Hank Kilgore, ex-office of Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Pa., as vice president-federal legislative affairs; company also promotes Sowmyanarayan Sampath to executive vice president and CEO-Verizon Business, effective July 1, succeeding Tami Erwin, who will assume role of strategic adviser to CEO until year-end.
A draft NPRM on preserving FM6 stations -- low-power channel 6 TV stations receivable by FM radios and focused on audio content -- is expected to be unanimously approved with few changes at Wednesday’s commissioners’ meeting, FCC and industry officials told us. The owners of the stations -- sometimes called “Franken FMs” after the fictional Frankenstein's monster -- are optimistic about the FCC allowing them to continue broadcasting but concerned about proposals in the draft to make their licenses nontransferable or bar new entrants. FM6 stations serve underserved communities, said FM6 broadcaster Paul Koplin, CEO of Venture Technologies Group: “Wouldn’t it be in the public interest to let as many people do this as possible?”
A draft further NPRM that was circulated to FCC commissioners’ offices last week would seek comment on whether to allow the sunset of the requirement that stations broadcasting in ATSC 3.0 also offer an ATSC 1.0 stream that is “substantially similar,” industry and FCC officials said (see 2204250021). That requirement is set to sunset July 17, 2023, a date that was set by the 2017 order that authorized ATSC 3.0 broadcasts. The draft item is seen as broad and isn’t expected to feature many tentative conclusions, industry officials said. The FNPRM seeks comment on the state of the NextGenTV transition and on the scheduled sunsets of two rules adopted in that order, an FCC spokesperson told us. The 2017 3.0 order included sunsets on both the substantially similar requirement and on the requirement that broadcasters use the A/322 standard on physical-layer protocol for 3.0 transmissions. The 2017 order said the agency would monitor the 3.0 transition and a year before the sunsets were to expire would seek comment on whether marketplace conditions warranted an extension, the spokesperson said. Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel told the NAB Show in April that she sees the current framework of 3.0 as the correct one right now, and she and Media Bureau Chief Holly Saurer mentioned concerns about the standard’s lack of backward compatibility (see 2204250067). Pearl TV and other broadcast organizations have argued that allowing the sunset to occur won’t lead to viewers being disenfranchised because of market forces -- adoption of 3.0-ready devices isn't yet widespread and stations need viewers to sell ads.