FM broadcasters offering geotargeted content have every incentive to reduce self-interference and are required by the FCC to do so, said GeoBroadcast Solutions in replies posted Friday in docket 20-401. REC Networks replied earlier (see 2103100057). GBS, the primary proponent of such proposed changes to booster rules, resisted arguments this would lead to radio advertising “redlining.” All other media can geotarget ads, and those were an ATSC 3.0 selling point, GBS said. “Yet there was no mention of redlining in the hundreds and hundreds of pages of comments filed in that proceeding by the broadcast industry and its trade association.” The Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council and the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters called for a pilot program to test the technology in three markets. They "recommend that the pilot be designed to address all of the questions raised in the comment round of this proceeding, including the impact of the technology on local advertising markets." The FCC simply can't "ignore the concerns of the radio industry,” said the New York State Broadcasters Association, opposing the rule change. “Objectionable interference is certain under the Geo proposal,” said broadcast engineer Alan Kirschner of Nashville. Ad agency Media Negotiator, Urban One DJ and restaurant owner Sam Sylks and Roberts Broadcasting supported the option to geotarget as helpful to radio and local businesses. GBS said it has “no plans” for such targeting of emergency alert system messages, though the company and proponents of the tech have touted targeted alerts (see 2006040024).
Ark Multicasting wants FCC permission to modify its construction permits to build a single ATSC 3.0 transmitter and convert to a license before the permits expire in July, though rules authorizing distributed transmission system technology Ark wants to use haven’t been published in the Federal Register, said a filing posted in docket 20-145 Friday. Tuesday, CEO Joshua Weiss spoke Media Bureau Video Division Chief Barbara Kreisman. Ark wants the agency to authorize the license and let company have its full DTS plans and construction approved later through a minor modification request. The FCC says “it seeks to avoid forcing” low-power TV stations “from making significant expenditures in new ATSC 1.0 facilities by July 13, 2021 only to later be faced with a further expenditure of resources if the station chooses to convert those facilities to ATSC 3.0,” Ark said.
Broadcasters aren’t back to their pre-pandemic financial states, but they see improvements on the horizon, said Cumulus, Sinclair, Nexstar and Graham Holdings in quarterly reports and calls this week. CEO Perry Sook said Nexstar has enough certainty about its outlook to reinstate guidance for upcoming quarters, conceding that broadcasters aren't out of the woods. “We don’t anticipate being back above 2019 levels” in advertising revenue in the next year, Sook said. Nexstar will be “still retracing our steps” and recovering in 2022, he said.
The FCC broadcast internet proceeding clarifying rules for datacasting with ATSC 3.0 takes effect March 25, said Tuesday's Federal Register. The order, which affects how broadcaster ancillary fees are calculated, was approved 5-0 in December (see 2012100071).
Public TV received its largest government investment in 2020, and America’s Public Television Stations will press for “at least” $50 million increases in each of the next two budget cycles. That's the “most dramatic increase in history.” So said President Patrick Butler Monday at APTS’ virtual summit.
The ATSC 3.0 Evoca TV service in Boise has been “exercising flash channels a fair amount in our system” since debuting in September (see 2011010001), CEO Todd Achilles told the virtual Streaming Media 2021 Connect conference Thursday. “We set up a flash 4K channel for a sporting event, and we’re actually standing up a flash channel today for the Mars rover landing.” It landed around 4 p.m. EST. The channel capability is in the 3.0 suite to “spin up an extra channel” over-the-air “on demand and dynamically, and spin it down again,” said ATSC President Madeleine Noland: “A flash channel is a channel that pops up for a particular purpose and comes back down again.” Such protocols are in ATSC’s A/351 recommended practice document for 3.0 signaling, delivery and synchronization techniques, said Noland through a spokesperson. An app per the A/344 standards on 3.0 interactive content is used, she said. Achilles thinks 3.0 is superior to 5G for content delivery into the home. “There’s lots of conversations” about how 5G will become “the new technology to deliver video into the home,” he said. “When you look at the numbers on that, it’s still a really expensive way to deliver bits to a stationary end user.”
Tests show ATSC 3.0 “can provide robust reception of data at all vehicular speeds,” concluded a paper by Sony engineers Luke Fay, Graham Clift and Fred Ansfield. “This field test shows that broadcasters can transmit both high throughput stationary services as well as robust automotive services simultaneously to target a diverse set of receiving devices,” it said. “Delivery of data of any kind (infotainment, software updates, navigation maps, etc.) is robust and reliable.” Automotive field tests Sony conducted in the fall with Pearl TV in Phoenix and News Press & Gazette in Santa Barbara, California, found NextGenTV can be a viable broadcast service for delivery of “robust passenger infotainment” to vehicles and “easily transmit software updates and information to fleets" of vehicles, the company said Wednesday. Prototype Android and Sony devices were involved.
The Advanced Warning and Response Network Alliance wants to comment on FCC proceedings arising out of the Reliable Emergency Alert Distribution Improvement Act (see 2012040043) on a report on emergency alerting over streaming media, it said in a filing posted in docket 15-94 Tuesday. AWARN Alliance Executive Director John Lawson, ATSC President Madeleine Noland and other members of the AWARN Alliance Steering Committee met virtually with Public Safety Bureau Chief Lisa Fowlkes and staff Thursday. The alliance wants to “re-engage” with “key federal agencies and non-government organizations involved in alerting,” to discuss using 3.0 in emergency communications and the development of “model voluntary agreements” between TV stations and alert originators. Fowlkes listed “responding to directives from Congress in the READI Act” and “convening a new Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council,” as priorities for the bureau, the filing said.
NAB, E.W. Scripps and Tegna asked the FCC to clarify how FCC licensing rules affect TV stations multicasting during the ATSC 3.0 transition, in replies for Monday night’s deadline in docket 16-142. “The clarification and rule changes NAB seeks in this proceeding are ministerial in nature and intended only to ensure that the Commission has a consistent regulatory framework,” said NAB. Recognizing or codifying rules around broadcasters hosting programming streams for other stations is needed to clarify the arrangements don’t create attributable interests for ownership purposes, and that the stream’s originator is responsible for ensuring it complies with FCC considerations such as kidvid and emergency broadcast rules, Tegna said. The clarification would “provide regulatory certainty and efficiencies that would facilitate the deployment of ATSC 3.0 technologies,” said Scripps.
The FCC approved 3-2 rules for broadcaster distributed transmission systems -- also called single frequency networks -- said an order Tuesday. Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks dissented in part from the order that's seen as important to the ATSC 3.0 transition over concerns that rules allowing broadcaster “spillover” will interfere with the use of TV white spaces for unlicensed devices. This “threatens to disrupt” a “careful balance” over the white spaces by “moving too quickly,” Starks said. The order replaces the current restriction on DTS signals spilling beyond a station’s service area beyond “a minimal amount” with a hard number dependent on the type of station. The new “bright-line rule” allows for more spillover and clarifies the requirement. That’s a change from the NPRM, which the order said “failed to account for the additive effect of multiple DTS transmissions and thus underestimated the potential interference impact of the proposal.” Starks and Rosenworcel had advocated for an expedited waiver process for broadcasters that sought to use DTS systems, an approach also pushed by Microsoft and New America's Open Technology Institute. “I would have preferred a more fine-tuned approach that would have allowed us to better gauge the effects of these systems on other services that use these airwaves,” said Rosenworcel. The agency is “confident” the order will result in less interference than the proposal. The order won't let stations expand their reach beyond current limits, said Chairman Ajit Pai, whose last full day was Tuesday. "Any DTS transmitters must stay within the broadcaster’s authorized or hypothetical maximum area and must be necessary to ensure better local transmission -- not intended to extend coverage beyond the authorized area." The order “will permit stations to reliably reach viewers that could not otherwise be served by a single transmitter architecture, which is so important in rural and remote areas, in terrains with gaps in coverage, and in urban settings, often in communities with traditionally underserved populations,” said America’s Public Television Stations General Counsel Lonna Thompson in an emailed statement. “We're pleased that the Commission adopted this change to the rules on Single Frequency Networks, since it will help broadcasters roll out NEXTGEN TV more quickly and more efficiently,” said broadcast consortium Pearl TV.