Comments on the FCC proposal to ease interference restrictions for TV broadcaster distributed transmission systems are due June 12, said a public notice in Friday’s Daily Digest. ATSC 3.0 advocates said the relaxed rules are important to the success of the new standard (see 2003310066). Replies are due July 13 in docket 20-74.
The FCC confirmed Monday that members' next meeting tentatively will include a vote on wireless infrastructure, as we reported last week. Other items potentially on tap for a June 9 vote are auction procedures for the $16.4 billion, 10-year high-cost USF; high-band spectrum action; and on ATSC 3.0.
COVID-19 is affecting the launch of ATSC 3.0 stations and creating uncertainty about when they will begin airing the new standard, said broadcasters and NextGenTV advocates Thursday on an NAB Show Express streamed panel. “We’re still on track to get a bunch of markets launched this year,” said John Hane, CEO of Spectrum Consortium (Spectrum Co).
The first ATSC 3.0-compliant TVs from LG, Samsung and Sony bearing the NextGenTV logo are available for purchase, though the COVID-19 pandemic has shut down much brick-and-mortar retail or confined it to curbside pickup, said executives at the NAB Show Express virtual event. “The question we’re all grappling with is, what will this new normal be?” said John Taylor, LG senior vice president-public affairs and communications.
Commercial deployment updates in 12 categories of ATSC 3.0 products and services are included in the new 3.0 “progress report” (see 2004220004) going live Monday at the ATSC website in time for the virtual NAB Show Express event Tuesday and Wednesday. More than four dozen ATSC members submitted a total of 80 entries.
ATSC asked members to contribute news about their 3.0 product and services deployments or development plans for a “progress report” to be posted on the group’s newly revamped website in time for the NAB Show Express virtual event May 13-14. Any member may contribute by May 4, and there's no charge to participate, said ATSC Tuesday. It plans to publish the progress report online by May 11.
Commissioners are expected to unanimously approve before Thursday’s meeting an order relaxing low-power FM technical restrictions and an NPRM on expanding video descriptions, FCC officials told us. The video description draft isn’t expected to undergo much change. The LPFM order's final version is expected to include changes to the section on waivers for channel 6 interference and possible changes on directional antennas.
CTA’s application to register the NEXTGEN TV logo as a certification mark for ATSC 3.0-compliant TVs (see 1909260021) cleared its 30-day publication window in late March with no oppositions filed, said a notice of allowance (NOA) released Tuesday at the Patent and Trademark Office. The NOA gives CTA until Oct. 21 to file a statement of use (SOU) if it’s using the NEXTGEN TV mark in actual commerce. That's the final step before PTO can issue a registration certificate. Several TV models introduced at CES with 3.0 reception (see 2001060019) have arrived at retail, but with many stores closed or relegated to curbside pickup, TV makers are unable to promote the feature. CTA also can file for an SOU extension by Oct. 21 and do so every six months for up to three years. Oct. 21 happens to fall on the scheduled opening day of the two-day NAB Show New York event at the Javits Convention Center.
Despite COVID-19, TV stations are “still targeting” the launch of ATSC 3.0 services in the top 40 markets by the end of 2020 (see 1904080071), Pearl TV Managing Director Anne Schelle told us. “We might not get all of them on by the end of the year, but we’ll get a respectable number.” The goal for 2021 will be to “continue to build out these markets,” said Schelle. Though “all parts of the economy are stressed” during the pandemic, 3.0 is “in a good position,” said Schelle. “We’ll come out of it providing a respectable build to meet the TV manufacturers’ needs for sales in the back half of this year.” There have been no “supply-chain issues” with critical broadcast equipment, said Schelle. “A lot of it was already pre-done” before the pandemic, and “most of the stations out there are ready for next-gen,” she said. Pearl had planned to use the NAB Show to update industry on 3.0's “application framework” it showcased at CES, said Schelle. It had partnership announcements planned for Las Vegas with vendors supplying 3.0 cable-integration equipment, she said: “We’ll be pushing those announcements” to the NAB Show Express virtual event planned for May 13-14 (see 2004130048).
Evoca will be the go-to-market branding of the ATSC 3.0-enabled terrestrial TV service Edge Networks plans to launch in the Boise market this summer, said the startup Thursday. It applied for the Evoca trademark March 18, Patent and Trademark Office records show. Edge has ambitions to leverage 3.0's IP backbone to deploy a wireless nationwide subscription-based video service that includes 4K channels (see report, March 11 issue.)