The “time lag” will be shorter on the release of future form 323 ownership data, said FCC Media Bureau Chief Michelle Carey at an FCBA brown-bag lunch discussion Thursday, after being asked about the bureau’s recent release of 2017 ownership data. Carey and other Media Bureau officials at the event also discussed the transition from the consolidated database system (CDBS), upcoming rulemakings and ATSC 3.0. Carey said the bureau is already working on the data collected from the 2019 forms but didn’t say whether the next such report would include the most recent information.
A TV white spaces NPRM circulated on the eighth floor by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai Wednesday seems to incorporate concepts pushed by Microsoft, a broadcast industry official said Wednesday. The TVWS NPRM is set for a vote at the Feb. 28 commissioners’ meeting (see 2002050013). The proposal "would allow white space devices to reach users at greater distances, thus enabling improved broadband coverage," said an FCC release. The item includes proposals to increase the minimum separation distances for white space devices operating at higher power.
“History suggests” that new generations of video codecs are developed on seven-to-nine-year “cycles” and that each new generation reduces bit rate by up to half, said ATSC’s Planning Team 4 (PT4) in a “summary” report on future video technologies approved Nov. 19 and posted Tuesday at atsc.org. PT4, chaired by Glenn Reitmeier, NBCUniversal senior vice president-advanced technology standards, began its review of future video technologies to study what “methods” are “available to us to add a codec” to ATSC 3.0, said ATSC in March (see 1903210057). MPEG’s “work plan” for the development of the next-generation Versatile Video Coding codec to be completed this year is targeting 50 percent “efficiency improvement” compared with the H.265 codec built into ATSC 3.0, said the report. MPEG also is working on the Essential Video Coding codec, which seeks “core profile performance” similar to H.265, using a set of “royalty-free coding tools,” also planned for completion in 2020, it said. EVC would be administered under “a simple, transparent licensing structure for a more efficient main profile promised within two years after publication,” it said. It’s “possible” that future video codec development “may become increasingly optimized toward specific applications,” said the report. “Given this possibility, future codec considerations for ATSC standards should include requirements driven by broadcast operations and business models, particularly in requirements such as compression efficiency and latency. ATSC needs to “communicate” those requirements to MPEG and other codec developers in “appropriate liaisons,” it said.
FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks’ chief concerns with the shift to ATSC 3.0 are the data privacy and security implications, he told the NAB joint board annual meeting Monday. NEXTGEN TV’s features rely on consumer data collected by broadcasters and device makers, he said. “How will that data be kept secure? How will it be stored, anonymized, or sold? How will consumers be fully aware of what data are being collected and how it is being used?” There’s “an ever growing mountain” of evidence on the negative outcomes from artificial intelligence systems using algorithms to sift data and exhibiting biases for certain demographics, Starks said. “Widen your aperture to be aware of and conscientiously think through complex issues involving data and privacy that are going to dominate our shared future,” he told NAB. Starks also focused on FCC data collection, calling the FCC’s data collection on broadcast ownership diversity “stale.” It's "still not clear to me how, for nearly 20 years, the FCC ignored Congress’ will by not collecting” equal employment opportunity workforce diversity data, Starks said. “That means we have had zero visibility into the diversity of station management and news and production teams. I will continue to work to re-open this issue going forward,” he said. Starks disagreed that collecting EEO data or diversity policies would be vulnerable to constitutional challenges. “Collecting and analyzing data is a ministerial function that is necessary for the FCC, as an expert agency, to have a better understanding of the industries that we regulate,” Starks said. “We have a direct order from the 3rd Circuit Court to implement a data program that would help understand the impact of our regulatory efforts on the ability of women and people of color to own stations.” Broadcasters should work to improve diversity in broadcasting, he said. “Hold yourselves accountable -- this is an annual meeting of the NAB board, so make sure that one year from now, the numbers are better.”
CTA’s application to register NEXTGEN TV as a certification mark for ATSC 3.0-compliant consumer goods (see 1909190066) is scheduled for Feb. 25 Trademark Official Gazette publication, a Patent and Trademark Office status page shows. Opposition parties would have 30 days from that date to try to block the registration. A notice of allowance (NOA) would follow if the application clears the opposition period, giving CTA six months to file a statement of use (SOU), one of the last stages before the logo would proceed to a registration certificate. CTA, when it files the SOU, will provide “a copy of the standards governing the use of the certification mark” on 3.0-compliant goods that “have been evaluated to meet certain use and performance” metrics, said the association's Sept. 25 application. A “potential bar” in PTO’s approval of the NEXTGEN TV logo was lifted this month when Sharp let lapse at the Jan. 4 deadline for filing its SOU on a NXT-GEN consumer TV trademark and logo it applied for in December 2018 (see 2001140030). The application had progressed to the NOA stage in June, but PTO declared it dead Jan. 6. “With the pause in our efforts to re-enter the US consumer TV market,” Sharp was “not able to show usage on a product in the time period required to continue the trademark application so we had to give it up,” emailed Sharp Home Electronics President Jim Sanduski.
Pearl TV Managing Director Anne Schelle discussed broadcaster progress on ATSC 3.0 with FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr in a Jan. 16 meeting, said an ex parte filing posted in docket 16-142 Wednesday. Broadcast engineers and analysts at a conference the same day discussed the need to communicate to advertisers and consumers about the new standard (see 2001160052).
The 5G Spectrum Act, even if it doesn't become law, could benchmark how satellite communications incumbents get compensated for clearing part of the C band, FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly told reporters Tuesday in a wide-ranging interview. S-2881 "does have weight," especially as there seemingly has been a general shift from Capitol Hill resistance to any incentives, said. If satcom incumbents receive a percentage of the $40 billion in auction proceeds, as the legislation says (see 2001090021), debate will likely center on between 30 and 50 percent, though compensation could be a hard number for incumbents, or a combination of percentage and hard number, he said.
Increasing the national TV audience reach ownership cap “would be one way the FCC could support local broadcasters” facing increased competition, Graham Media CEO Emily Barr said in meetings Tuesday with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioners Brendan Carr and Geoffrey Starks, per a filing posted Thursday in docket 17-318. Graham Media discussed its efforts to prepare for the ATSC 3.0 transition.
Advertisers need more education about the timeline and capabilities of ATSC 3.0, and the consumer experience is especially important, said panelists at the NextGen TV Summit put on by SMPTE and the Society of Broadcast Engineers Thursday,
Sharp Japan’s “prior pending applications” to trademark “NXT-GEN” as a name and logo for consumer TVs and monitors were "abandoned and no longer pose as a potential bar” to CTA’s attempt to register the “NEXTGEN TV” logo for ATSC 3.0 consumer goods, said an “examiner’s amendment” posted Tuesday at the Patent and Trademark Office. Sharp’s December 2018 applications got provisional PTO approval, but PTO declared them dead after Sharp let lapse the Jan. 4 deadline for filing the required statements of use that would have cleared the trademarks to final registration (see 2001080031). Sharp and CTA haven’t commented on whether they coordinated PTO activities to let the NEXTGEN TV logo application go forward.