President Joe Biden signed the Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act (S-1541) and Low Power Protection Act (S-3405) into law, as expected (see 2212220075), the White House said Thursday. Congress passed both measures just before Christmas. S-1541 lead sponsor Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., hailed signing of her bill, which requires the FCC to factor industrywide average costs for telephone and advanced communication services, along with safety and security costs, in new correctional facility rate-setting cycles (see 2203220077). It will “help families stay connected with their incarcerated family members, reduce recidivism rates and save taxpayers’ money,” she tweeted. NAB CEO Curtis LeGeyt praised Biden Friday for signing S-3405, which requires the FCC to open a window to allow low-power television stations to upgrade to better-protected Class A status (see 2206220070). It "will allow these local broadcasters to better serve their millions of viewers by hiring more journalists, investing in new equipment and transitioning to the ATSC 3.0 standard," LeGeyt said. S-3405 lead sponsors now-former Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., in December lauded passage of their measure.
The FCC’s biennial 2022 Communications Marketplace Report’s video competition section lists the quadrennial review and ATSC 3.0 as focuses of FCC broadcast policy for the next two years and chronicles rising competition for broadcasters from online media, but it doesn’t indicate upcoming changes to the agency’s definition of the broadcast marketplace or MVPDs. “While the report is thorough in its coverage, it seems to miss some core dynamics of the local media advertising marketplace,” said BIA Advisory Services Managing Director Rick Ducey. “Local media are competing for all media spending. TV and radio stations don’t just compete with other stations, they compete with all other local ad-supported media.”
A Gray Television petition asking the courts to set aside the FCC’s $518,000 forfeiture order against the company (see 2211010077) suggests it's targeting agency policy rather than simply seeking to overturn the fine, attorneys told us. “The Commission’s Order is erroneous and improper for several reasons,” said Gray’s petition for review in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (docket 22-14274) last week.
The Advanced Television Systems Committee will demonstrate new set-top and USB ATSC 3.0 receivers and “upgrade accessory devices” at the Consumer Electronics Show, which runs Thursday to Sunday in Las Vegas, said an ATSC news release Tuesday. Broadcasters expect to launch 3.0 soon in Miami and Boston, the release said. ATSC 3.0 has been launched in 66 markets nationwide, the release said.
FCC commissioners and panelists at the Practising Law Institute’s Institute on Telecommunications Policy & Regulation Thursday outlined expectations for 2023 involving employment data collection, enforcement and the USF, but many speakers were focused on cyber and national security, such as compromised apps and obsolete devices. “It’s time to turn our attention to the millions of wireless devices in our country that are insecure,” said Commissioner Nathan Simington. “There’s an industry-wide acquiescence to careless practices.”
Broadcasters hosting other broadcasters’ ATSC 1.0 multicasts doesn’t create any harms for cable companies, said NAB in an ex parte filing posted Wednesday in docket 16-142 (see 2210040070). NCTA has said the FCC should allow the practice -- called lateral hosting -- only through a waiver process and require notice and comment for each application. NAB has been pushing for the FCC to affirmatively authorize lateral hosting to speed the ATSC 3.0 transition. “NCTA plainly has no meaningful interest in this aspect of the proceeding,” NAB said. The FCC’s role “should not be to indulge the NCTA’s obviously anticompetitive concerns but, rather, to lay the groundwork for success by providing broadcasters with as much flexibility as possible,” NAB said.
Broadcasters tout ATSC 3.0’s capabilities for disseminating detailed emergency information, but it’s not clear what form the standard’s advanced emergency information offerings will take and who will provide it, said participants at an Advanced Warning and Response Network Alliance roundtable event at NAB’s headquarters Wednesday. AWARN’s roundtables are intended to help determine what advanced emergency alerting is, said AWARN Executive Director John Lawson, who's also the president of ATSC 3.0 alerting firm America’s Emergency Network.
MVPD and telecom groups don’t agree with broadcasters on the practicality of revamping the FCC’s regulatory fee system, said reply comments filed in docket 22-301. NAB, a group of 57 smaller broadcasters and nearly all state broadcast associations filed replies in support of proposals from NAB and the Satellite Industry Association to rethink how the FCC parcels out the fees, but the Wireless ISP Association, NCTA and CTIA panned the idea. “The proposals of NAB and SIA are self-serving, impracticable, and would be unmanageable,” said NCTA.
If the FCC proceeds on a redefinition of MVPD to apply to some over-the-top services, it will need to address some critical implications of the proposal, including ensuring broadcast signals carried by virtual MVPDs are protected from piracy and distribution beyond a station's local market, NAB said Wednesday in docket 16-142. In two filings (here and here), it recapped meetings with aides to Commissioners Nathan Simington and Geoffrey Starks and Media Bureau Chief Holly Saurer. In the Simington and Media Bureau meetings, NAB also said there's "apparent fraud" in the ZoneCasting proceeding record and the vast majority of broadcasters oppose the petition because there's no evidence ZoneCasting doesn't cause interference. NAB also pushed for a decision on the ATSC 3.0 proceeding.
The FCC should consider developments in the streaming marketplace, investigate filings in the geotargeted radio proceeding and prioritize ATSC 3.0, NAB said in meetings with aides to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioner Brendan Carr last week, per an ex parte filing posted in docket 20-401 Tuesday. The FCC should gauge the evolution of the streaming market and “determine whether those events affect the Commission’s calculus in determining whether virtual MVPDs (vMVPDs) should be deemed to be MVPDs,” said NAB. Investigate the geotargeted radio filings “given the apparent fraud in the record,” a reference to multiple ex parte filings from broadcasters supporting Zonecasting that were later retracted, it said. “No licensee should be represented without its consent or without knowing that its representative has a direct financial interest in the outcome of the proceeding,” NAB said, asking the agency to remove those filings from the record and “swiftly take other appropriate action so as to not unfairly prejudice its deliberations.” Geotargeted radio company GeoBroadcast Solutions is using those filings “to manufacture a schism within the radio industry, claiming falsely that they demonstrate that larger broadcast groups are not on the same page with smaller ones,” NAB said. GBS didn’t comment. On 3.0. “a relatively straightforward proceeding to address the licensing of multicast streams hosted temporarily on other stations has been pending for approximately two years,” NAB said. “Expeditious resolution of this matter, as well as other pending issues, are critical to keeping the transition moving forward.”