An FCC task force on ATSC 3.0 should include a recommitment to using the standard to provide advanced emergency information, said Advanced Warning and Response Network (AWARN) Alliance Executive Director John Lawson in a meeting with an aide to Commissioner Brendan Carr Monday, according to an ex parte filing in docket 15-94. The task force effort should also involve an external stakeholder dialogue on creating a voluntary industry plan to improve alerting, Lawson said. Lawson is a partner in a company working to produce alert-enabled set-top boxes and dongles, and the filing said the task force should also look into options for federal support of such devices. “These devices, working in tandem with broadcast stations, which have back-up generators and days of fuel, will be a lifeline for those impacted by disasters when cellular networks and/or the electric grid go down,” said the filing.
The FCC draft ATSC 3.0 report and order circulated to 10th-floor offices would extend the substantially similar and A/322 physical layer requirements indefinitely (see 2303030064), grant NAB requests on multicast hosting in part, and doesn’t take up the matter of a 3.0 task force, FCC and broadcast industry officials told us. The item is expected to lead to a lot of lobbying from industry and negotiating among commissioners, and isn’t expected to be voted soon, industry and FCC officials told us.
The FCC should continue to make progress on ATSC 3.0, support AM radio, and relax broadcast ownership rules, the Florida Association of Broadcasters said in ex parte calls with FCC Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington March 1, according to nearly identical ex parte filings in docket 22-459. “Protecting and revitalizing the AM band serves the public interest by maintaining the public safety, news, and entertainment content provided by AM stations,” the filings said. “Ensuring the industry remains economically viable will allow broadcasters to continue serving the public interest by delivering local news, public safety information, and entertainment to their audiences.”
Extensions for the ATSC 3.0 substantially similar and A/322 physical layer sunsets shouldn’t be open-ended, said the NAB in an ex parte call with an aide to FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, according to a filing posted in docket 16-142 Wednesday. In a separate letter to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, the National Religious Broadcasters said continuing to require broadcasters to transmit in both 1.0 and 3.0 is “financially wasteful and unsustainable.” An open-ended extension of the substantially similar requirement would be "a dramatic shift from the Commission’s previous approach for no reason at all,” NAB said, arguing market incentives will keep broadcasters from transitioning in a way that leaves their viewers unable to receive their signals. Letting the market control the transition is how the FCC treats the wireless and tech industries, NAB said. “This process should not be different simply because a different bureau within the Commission is currently responsible for shepherding the transition.” An “overly prolonged transition would be a failed transition, and may prove fatal for OTA television broadcasting, particularly for smaller broadcasters,” said NRB, seconding NAB’s call for an FCC ATSC 3.0 task force (see 2302160056). For ATSC 3.0 multicast hosting, the agency should require only in limited circumstances that broadcasters submit showings that they aren’t using more capacity than they could transmit on their own, NAB said. Such showing should be required only in response to a commission inquiry or a complaint from a cable operator “that made a prima facie case the Commission deems worthy of a response,” the filing said. The full FCC temporarily stayed the sunset of the ATSC 3.0 A/322 physical layer requirement Monday, said an order. The requirement was to expire that day. A report and order on the physical layer sunset and the 3.0 substantially similar requirement was circulated to the 10th floor last week (see 2303030064), and the stay will last while that item is pending, Monday’s order said. NAB said in the ex parte filing that it doesn’t object to an extension for the physical layer standard if it isn’t open-ended. “We find the public interest is best served by preserving the status quo during this brief period of time in order to consider this open question,” said the order.
A report and order and further notice on sunsetting certain aspects of the ATSC 3.0 rules was circulated to the FCC's 10th-floor offices, according to Friday’s circulation list. The draft item would extend the sunset dates for the requirements that broadcasters’ 3.0 and 1.0 programming streams be substantially similar (see 2209070048) and transmit their primary 3.0 video streams in compliance with ATSC's A/322 physical layer protocol standard, industry officials told us. Without FCC action, the substantially similar requirement would end in June, and the A/322 requirement will expire Monday (2208090040). The item is also expected to include language clarifying the agency’s stance on ATSC 3.0 multicasting, which broadcasters requested (see 2302020075).
Broadcasters should act now on data privacy concerns about ATSC 3.0, before the tech gets too far along, FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks told public TV officials at the America’s Public Television Stations Public Media Summit Tuesday. Since 3.0 will allow broadcasters to collect data on their viewers in ways they haven’t been able to do previously, broadcasters should ensure they will be “good actors” with private data, he said. Unlike MVPDs, broadcasters don’t have a contractual relationship with their viewers, which complicates privacy concerns since viewers don't have an opportunity to opt in or out of data collection, he said. Starks said he’s concerned about the possible sale of viewer data, such as real-time location information. APTS CEO Patrick Butler said in an interview Tuesday that public TV stations support protecting consumer privacy in 2.0 and have no plans to sell consumer data. Starks said industry and the FCC should work together on the issue, but he stopped short of endorsing NAB’s call for an FCC ATSC 3.0 task force (see 2302160056). “Figuring out the right mechanism to make sure that [ATSC 3.0] gets going is something that I'm working on,” Starks said in response to a question about the task force proposal.
NAB laid out a provisional timeline and membership Thursday for its proposed FCC ATSC 3.0 task force. The proposed task force would, in the short term, focus on expediting 3.0 applications and clarifying multicast hosting rules, but in a six- to 12-month time frame it would work on modifying coverage standards and MVPD notice requirements to streamline the application process, NAB said in a letter to the FCC posted in docket 16-142. The timeline pegs to a nine- to 12-month time frame encouraging the sale of devices to convert non-3.0 compatible machines -- an issue often stressed by FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel -- and identifying metrics for ending the 3.0 transition. NAB’s proposals for task force staffing include “consumer advocates from the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau,” FCC staff familiar with rolling out new tech such as 5G, Public Safety Bureau staff to work on alerting, and staff from the International Bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics. “The Commission should make this transition the top priority -- rather than merely one issue among many -- for a dedicated team of FCC staff,” the letter said. The FCC said it's still weighing NAB's proposal (see 2302100062).
NAB’s call for an FCC task force on ATSC 3.0 appears to have broad support and is aimed at both the FCC and the consumer electronics industry, said both supporters and critics of ATSC 3.0 in interviews (see 2301260049). “A ‘NextGen Broadcast Acceleration Task Force’ is a good first step along with a firm signal to the marketplace that 1.0 service will end on a date certain,” emailed One Media Executive Vice President-Strategic and Legal Affairs Jerald Fritz. An FCC 3.0 task force could gather more information on the transition and where 3.0 and broadcast TV are going, said frequent 3.0 opponent Michael Calabrese, of New America’s Open Technology Institute.
NAB proposed concessions to its request for relaxed ATSC 3.0 multicasting rules to expedite FCC action, in a meeting with Media Bureau Chief Holly Saurer and Media Bureau staff, said an ex parte filing posted in docket 16-142 Thursday. The FCC could limit lateral hosting arrangements -- where broadcasters host the multicast channels of another broadcaster as part of an ATSC 3.0 sharing arrangement -- “to markets where there are likely to be capacity considerations that may make lateral hosting more useful,” the filing said. NAB proposed limiting lateral hosting arrangements to markets that are hyphenated (such as the San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose market), already have channel sharing agreements, have multiple public TV stations, or have fewer than six full-power TV stations, because all of those situations lead to limited capacity for the ATSC 3.0 transition. NAB has been pushing the FCC since 2020 to relax multicast sharing rules to allow broadcasters more flexibility in transitioning markets (see 2011100067), and insisted in this filing there’s no reason for the agency to oppose the practice. “There is simply nothing in the record to support the idea that viewers would somehow be harmed by lateral hosting,” there “are no novel policy considerations associated with lateral hosting,” and “there is no basis in the record of this proceeding to prohibit or limit the use of lateral hosting arrangements,” NAB repeated.
The FCC should end the dual transmission requirement and create an FCC ATSC 3.0 task force to enable the agency to “effectively and efficiently focus” on the 3.0 transition, said NAB President Curtis LeGeyt and several broadcast CEOs in meetings with Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, and Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Nathan Simington Monday, according to an ex parte filing posted Thursday docket 16-142. Without FCC action and commitment to ATSC 3.0, the transition is “in peril,” said the broadcasters, including Nexstar CEO Perry Sook and Graham Media CEO Catherine Badalamente. “A stalled transition is threatening the future of the broadcast industry altogether,” said the filing, which says broadcasters need to be able to offer 4K to remain competitive, and can’t do so without 3.0. “As the transition continues to stretch out, broadcasters risk losing sports and other high-value content to pay-tv platforms that are permitted to employ more advanced technologies.” The broadcasters also asked the FCC commissioners “to demonstrate the agency’s commitment to ATSC 3.0” and support the transition. The agency should create a plan to end the requirement that 3.0 broadcasters also must transmit a 1.0 feed, the broadcasters said. A 3.0 task force “could draw on expertise from multiple offices and bureaus to attack problems as they arise” and “focus on our shared concerns about viewers losing access to television signals.” Rosenworcel has said consumers losing access to over-the-air TV signals is one of her primary concerns about ATSC 3.0.