Big mainstream demand for ATSC 3.0-enabled TVs is coming, but it's a couple of years out, with a lack of widespread consumer familiarity causing the delay, CTA Senior Director-Business Intelligence Richard Kowalski said Friday during the NextGen Broadcast Conference in Washington. CTA anticipates a big leap in set availability, starting in 2026. Meanwhile, broadcast and emergency alert system advocates talked about integrating ATSC 3.0 into the emergency alerts ecosphere.
The U.S. needs to move toward a firm date for the end of mandatory simulcast of ATSC 1.0 and 3.0 signals and fully transition to ATSC 3.0, but it's too early to say when that date should be, NAB CEO Curtis LeGeyt said Thursday at the NextGen Broadcast Conference in Washington. Conference-goers applauded the call for a transition deadline, and FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr echoed it, saying he would support a proceeding about the issue. Carr also suggested gauging broadcast and wireless industry interest in an "incentive auction 2.0" for low-band spectrum.
Sinclair Broadcast will sell anything in its portfolio -- at “the right price” -- so it can close the gap between its valuation and share price, CEO Chris Ripley told The Media Institute during a luncheon Tuesday. Ripley also predicted that generative AI eventually will create most media, and said asymmetric regulation and increased competition are broadcasting’s biggest obstacles. “Unfortunately, for our industry, we can't seem to get out from underneath some of these old regulations,” Ripley said. “There really isn't any reason for that to be, besides that's the way it always was.”
The FCC should fundamentally change its relationship with broadcasting, provide more flexibility for the ATSC 3.0 transition, and not allow broadcasting to decline as newspapers have, Commissioner Brendan Carr said Tuesday. Speaking at the Radio and Television Summit of the Americas, Carr referenced The Washington Post slogan “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” The FCC “may be the one flipping out the light” through recent actions that discourage investment in broadcasting, he said. For example, Carr mentioned the Standard General/Tegna deal and the proposed enforcement action against Nexstar and Mission related to their local marketing agreement for WPIX New York. The FCC is “going down the path of imposing enforcement -- fines -- against broadcasters doing exactly what they told us they were going to do,” Carr said. The agency has allowed wireless companies to sunset and transition to new wireless technologies and should do the same for broadcasters on ATSC 3.0, he said.
Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley signaled that his company is open to selling “assets” amid rumors that it's eyeing divesting 60 stations. Meanwhile, Nexstar CEO Perry Sook said broadcasters can’t have confidence about transactions in the current regulatory environment. The CEOs spoke during their respective Q1 earnings calls last week. Ripley, Sook and executives from Gray and E.W. Scripps also discussed progress on ATSC 3.0, a backloaded political advertising market, and streaming during earnings calls.
LAS VEGAS -- ATSC 3.0 is finally in a position to generate cash for TV stations and remains the industry’s hope, according to interviews with broadcasters and several 3.0 product announcements at NAB Show 2024. However, not everyone is convinced and even 3.0 supporters concede the transition still faces challenges. “We need a date certain” for the end of the FCC’s substantially similar requirements, said BitPath CEO John Hane. “If we had some relatively minor adjustments in the transition rules, a lot more stations would be converted.” “I’m sure it’s gonna pan out, it just won’t happen as fast as Americans like,” said Byron Allen, Allen Media CEO, in an interview.
Broadcasters attending the 2024 NAB Show in Las Vegas will focus on exploiting and guarding against the latest advances in artificial intelligence, on making the now 7-year-old transition to ATSC 3.0 finally pay off, and on surviving an unfavorable regulatory landscape, industry officials told us. “We’ve been building out the service; now it’s put up or shut up time,” said Gray Television Senior Vice President Rob Folliard of ATSC 3.0. The show kicks off Saturday at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Sinclair Broadcast will provide free carriage of virtual channels from public TV stations that haven’t transitioned to ATSC 3.0 -- sometimes called NextGenTV -- in markets where Sinclair stations are broadcasting 3.0, Sinclair and America’s Public Television Stations said in a joint release Wednesday. Virtual channels are essentially websites accessible by 3.0-enabled devices; to a viewer using a 3.0-enabled television they appear similar to other ATSC 3.0 channels but aren’t delivered over airwaves and don’t take up spectrum capacity (see 2203300052). The virtual channel would allow the public TV stations to take advantage of 3.0 capabilities such as high dynamic range video, said the release. Many public TV stations have been slower to transition to 3.0 due to the expense and a lack of channel-hosting partners in their markets. “This partnership with Sinclair will help serve local communities while we work with other public television stations to transition to NEXTGEN TV to advance their public service missions,” said APTS CEO Patrick Butler in the release. Sinclair has 3.0 stations in 43 markets, 36 of which have public TV stations without 3.0, the release said.
Lawmakers should examine AI's implications, ensuring it doesn’t threaten broadcast journalism by spreading misinformation or using copyrighted content without compensation, NAB said Tuesday in a policy agenda for the 118th Congress. “The improper use of artificial intelligence poses novel threats to broadcasting’s unique and indispensable role in American life,” the agenda said. “The lack of attribution and sourcing in AI-generated outputs could undermine trust in broadcasters.” For example, the growing use of AI increases the likelihood that copyrighted broadcast content is ingested and mixed with “unverified and inaccurate third-party content.” In addition, AI-generated deepfakes created to look like broadcast talent could be used to spread misinformation, the agenda said. That can lead to broadcasters devoting more money and resources to fight disinformation, while AI cannibalizes their content without compensation, the agenda said. “Congress should closely evaluate how to harness the power of AI, while ensuring new technologies do not threaten the trusted local journalism broadcasters provide.” On Wednesday, NAB issued a news release announcing that it would open the NAB Show 2024 with a presentation on audience perspectives on AI's use in broadcast media and including an AI-powered humanoid robot. The policy agenda also called for lawmakers to address several longtime NAB causes: require AM radio in cars, prevent a performance tax on radio broadcasters, and allow broadcasters to jointly negotiate with tech companies about the use of their content. Lawmakers should also encourage the FCC to refresh the record on virtual MVPDs and to maintain “a reasonable, flexible framework” for ATSC 3.0 deployment, the policy agenda said.
Public television stations are focusing on streaming and pursuing advances in ATSC 3.0 and leadership transitions, speakers at America’s Public Television Stations Public Media Summit said Tuesday. “We are a system in transition in terms of technology and clearly in terms of leadership,” said Franz Joachim, CEO of New Mexico PBS and APTS board chair.