Broadcasters and industry analysts widely expect a record-breaking amount of political advertising revenue from the 2020 presidential election. Though the pie is bigger than ever, the broadcast share is steadily shrinking. “There’s an ocean of money coming, ” said Kip Cassino, former political ad analyst for Borrell Associates: “But in reality the broadcasters shouldn’t be so happy -- they’ve lost almost all their share advantage” over digital.
Messaging behind the “nextgenTV” logo CTA picked and will unveil next week for its consumer-facing ATSC 3.0 branding effort (see 1909190048) scored high marks when exposed to online focus groups last spring (see 1905300024). Backers may praise the branding decision as a safe one, consistent with widely accepted industry nomenclature. Critics might argue CTA could have picked a sexier go-to-market name for introducing 3.0 to consumers.
CTA has picked “nextgenTV” as the consumer-facing logo that will adorn ATSC 3.0-compatible TVs and other receivers, we learned Thursday. CTA didn’t comment.
The FCC's order approving Nexstar’s buy of Tribune with a 2-2 party line split could have consequences for advocacy groups seeking to weigh in on future FCC decisions, said dissents from Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Jessica Rosenworcel. Many lawyers agreed.
FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly wants a U.S. unified nonemergency wireless number. Keep 911 for emergencies, yet "streamline the myriad of existing wireless numbers that are used in many parts of the country to report critical situations that do not rise to the level of true emergencies,” he told the Pennsylvania Chapter of the National Emergency Number Association Thursday. “These calls offload routine incidents and other non-emergencies, usually to the state police or highway patrol, while preserving 9-1-1 for more serious purposes.” Many states have a number, including #77 in Virginia, Maryland and New Jersey for dangerous driving, he said. “If you live close to state lines, jurisdictional boundaries, or travel extensively, good luck remembering all of the different short codes,” he said. O’Rielly also highlighted the work he did to fight 911 fee diversion and that colleagues of both parties are against such fee shifting. ATSC 3.0 offers “super-advanced emergency alerting” beyond what's available on most platforms, he said. “No one is quite sure how ATSC 3.0 will develop, if at all, or whether it will be a smashing success,” he said: “While a number of the larger broadcast station groups have embraced the technology and see the benefits that it can bring, the technology remains in the testing phase.”
Broadcasters and ATSC 3.0 advocates are focused on establishing a “beachhead” in the home and in TVs rather than on mobile uses or chips in handsets, said Pearl TV Managing Director Anne Schelle at an FCBA event Tuesday. Consortiums Pearl and Spectrum Co see 3.0 consumer devices rolling out in 2020, she said.
"Encouraging" ATSC 3.0's "global recognition" will be the task of a new ATSC Planning Team 6, said the organization. PT6's “scope of work” will include “strategic communications” with international standards development organizations, plus “new work item proposals for technical enhancements to the ATSC 3.0 standard that support global use cases,” it said. ATSC named Alan Stein, InterDigital, as PT6 chair, and Louis Libin, Sinclair, as vice chair. PT6 reports to the ATSC board. The U.S. asks ITU to adopt 3.0 as a digital broadcast TV standard internationally (see 1904070001).
The Advanced Warning and Response Network Alliance met with Commissioner Mike O’Rielly and an aide to Commissioner Geoffrey Starks Monday, said filings posted in FCC docket 16-142 Friday. The meetings were progress reports on advanced emergency alerts, emergency alerting user interfaces with ATSC 3.0, and the potential for localized alerts transmitted with streaming media.
Viacom, CBS and those worried about their long-expected combination (see 1908130039) foresee more retransmission and affiliate fee pressures. The combined company will have 22 percent of U.S. TV viewership, and will look to greatly beef up its affiliate fees as part of its growth strategy, CBS acting CEO Joe Ianniello said in a call with analysts Tuesday as the two programmers announced the recombination; the companies split in 2006.
America’s Public Television Stations noted Motorola Solutions and Sonim demonstrated Monday at the annual conference of Association of Public Safety Communications Officers in Baltimore, receiving ATSC 3.0 signals with smartphones and tablets. “The next step is getting these Next Gen chips into the mobile devices themselves, and the sooner that happens, the safer and better informed the American people will be,” said APTS CEO Patrick Butler in a news release. NAB CEO Gordon Smith and broadcasters have worried whether phone manufactures would include 3.0 chips (see 1905300063). The demo used chips built by Saankhya Labs.