Microsoft’s petition for reconsideration of FCC ATSC 3.0 distributed transmission system rules doesn’t make a legitimate case, commented NAB and America’s Public Television Stations by Tuesday's deadline in docket 20-74. Microsoft and TV white space advocates “have simply failed to deploy the technology at scale to provide any meaningful level of service,” the groups said. Allowing the DTS order to move forward would undercut FCC efforts to pave the way for white space devices, said the Wireless ISP Association, the only other commenter by Wednesday afternoon. The DTS order runs counter to statements from acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioner Geoffrey Starks that support the waiver process for DTS pushed by Microsoft, WISPA said. “The Order authorizes significant 'spillover'" of DTS "signals into adjacent white space areas, increasing the potential for harmful interference and limiting the areas where white space devices can be deployed.” Microsoft’s argument the new rules would let stations use DTS to provide service equivalent to the largest station in a market is “incorrect,” NAB and APTS said. Reconsideration would prioritize the unlicensed white space tech over 3.0 efforts of licensed broadcast spectrum holders, said NAB and APTS. Microsoft grossly inflated the use and efficacy of white space devices, they said. “There are slightly over 300 actual white spaces devices operating in the entire United States,” said the broadcast groups. “Many states do not have even a single white space device operating.” Microsoft didn’t comment.
Amid ransomware attacks, the Advanced Television Systems Committee takes security of the 3.0 standards and deployment “very seriously,” said President Madeleine Noland. “We are vigilant” about security, she told us Friday. “It is not an afterthought. It is absolutely one of the most important parts of the standard.” 3.0 security “was built in and considered from the very beginning,” she said. The A/360 document in the suite of 3.0 standards on security and service protection was approved two years ago and was last updated in February. A third A/360 amendment on updated system encryption is in the candidate standard process that runs through Dec. 31. The 3.0 standards say “all the executable code shall be signed” cryptographically with a specified “key structure,” she said. “The receiver is able to look at that signature and determine whether or not the executable came from a bona fide source.” And “all the signaling structures” for audio and video, emergency alerting and other service features “must be signed” by the broadcaster, Noland said. “It would be very difficult for a man-in-the-middle attack to come in and sort of take over.” ATSC’s S36 specialist group on 3.0 security, chaired by Sony Director-Technical Standards Adam Goldberg, “meets on a regular basis, and they always have their ear to the rail,” Noland noted. Broadcasters have been hit by other ransomware attacks. (See our recent report here.)
Large indoor industry conventions will be high-risk situations if the ongoing rise of the delta variant of COVID-19 continues, said infectious disease doctors in interviews. Further complicating matters, they said it's unclear what the landscape of variants and vaccinations will be by October's NAB Show and Incompas Show.
The Biden administration is working behind the scenes on plans to name Mozilla Foundation Senior Adviser Alan Davidson its nominee for NTIA administrator, former government officials and communications sector lobbyists told us. The White House is facing increased pressure to quickly fill the post since the agency is on course to administer the bulk of $65 billion in broadband money if Congress enacts an infrastructure spending package that a bipartisan Senate group formally filed Sunday. Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., swiftly filed amendments aimed at addressing anti-digital redlining and consumer protection provisions in the broadband title he sees as a potential back door to rate regulation, as expected (see 2107300054).
The ATSC NextGen Broadcast Conference “is shaping up to be a robust and exciting event” Aug. 26 at the Reagan Building in Washington, but “we also realize that the news about the Delta variant of the COVID-19 virus is at the top of most of our minds,” the association emailed members and conference registrants Friday. ATSC's members-only annual meeting precedes the conference on Aug. 25. The District of Columbia requires masks indoors, regardless of vaccination status, except when eating, in an order that was to take effect Saturday. “The health and safety of our attendees is a top priority for ATSC and the conference planners,” the group said. “We will continue to monitor the situation while accepting reservations for both in-person and live-streaming attendees.”
The NextGenTV certification mark for ATSC 3.0-compliant TVs was “first used in commerce by persons authorized” by applicant CTA “at least as early as March 1, 2020, and is now in use in such commerce,” said the association’s statement of use (SOU), dated July 1 and newly posted at the Patent and Trademark Office. “Applicant is exercising legitimate control over the use of the certification mark in connection with the identified goods” but is “not engaged in the production or marketing of the goods to which the mark is applied,” it said. PTO requires the SOU as the last step in the trademark application process before issuing a registration certificate, and does so to prevent applicants from hoarding trademarks. “CTA have set up a Test Repository for ATSC 3.0 Test Material, to facilitate the upload of test materials representing ‘typical’ emissions from current trials, and the subsequent download for use to test and certify consumer devices,” says a redacted Eurofins test specification document accompanying the SOU. Eurofins developed the 3.0 receiver conformance test suite under contract with CTA and showcased it at the April 2019 NAB Show in Las Vegas (see 1903270038). Only test suite licensee and “contributor” users have access to the repository, says the document. Contributor access “is afforded to CTA, NAB and ATSC members and their appointed representatives” for searching, but not for downloading, interoperability and documentation materials, it said. Manufacturers aren't required under the NextGenTV logo license “to retrospectively test previously certified devices” against later releases of the test suite, says the document. It's the manufacturer’s “sole responsibility to establish its own testing specifications and program to ensure interoperability” with compliant NextGenTV services, it says. “Company shall be solely responsible for all testing results.”
TV stations increasingly are available via a mushrooming number of streaming options such as aggregators. Discussions between networks and affiliates have been rising as cable subscribers decline, putting retransmission consent dollars in jeopardy, experts said in recent interviews. Networks wanted big increases on what affiliates pay based on the notion affiliates get more retrans revenue, but there's MVPD resistance to rising retrans fees, said broadcast lawyer Jack Goodman.
Some low-power TV broadcasters are rushing to prepare for the FCC sunset deadline for low-power analog broadcasts Tuesday. Even so, the DTV switchover isn’t considered likely to affect many viewers, station owners and industry officials told us. “There’s really a lot of stations out there,” said Advanced Television Broadcasting Alliance CEO Lee Miller. “It is hard to imagine there are still people out there with analog televisions,” said attorney Michael Couzens, who represents the National Translator Association.
CTA's Jamie Susskind leaving association and "returning to the Senate to work on the tech issues," she says ... Center for Democracy & Technology appoints from New America Sharon Bradford Franklin, also former Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board executive director, to newly created post of co-director, CDT's Security & Surveillance Project; Greg Nojeim is the project's other co-director ... ATSC hires Amy Lodes from 5Star Bank as director-communications, newly created role.
The FCC should act “without delay” on an NAB petition for clarity on how the agency will treat multicast streams during the ATSC 3.0 transition, said Pearl TV in a meeting with aides to Commissioner Nathan Simington Thursday, per a filing posted in docket 16-142 Wednesday. Broadcasters said inaction on the matter is complicating the transition (see 2105280035). The petition “seeks only to give broadcasters the necessary clarity to maintain existing 1.0 service,” Pearl said. It doesn’t ask for “new carriage rights for multicast streams” or “create new station licenses or alienable interests.” A station “would continue to have its one license, but instead of only reflecting one authorized host channel, it may reflect more than one,” Pearl said.