A low-power TV (LPTV) operator is again seeking FCC authority to test an alternate broadcast transmission system that would let stations offer broadband service alongside traditional broadcast content. Portland, Ore.-based WatchTV filed an amended application “to evaluate new digital television technology” with the FCC this week, five months after the FCC Media Bureau denied the station’s last request to test the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)-based system (CD Feb 11 p12). WatchTV’s March application for review of that denial remains pending, it said.
The Advanced TV Systems Committee released an update to its recommended practice for keeping the volume of TV ads not much louder than programming they appear within, the FCC said in a public notice (http://xrl.us/bk3ced). The Media Bureau had extended a reply comment deadline on implementation of legislation that uses ATSC A/85 (CD July 20 p15). The newly released Annex K of the recommended practice deals with how systems that don’t use a certain type of audio codec can tamp down commercials’ volume.
The FCC delayed by 11 days to Aug. 1 the deadline for replies on a rulemaking notice on the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act for subscription-video providers and TV stations to tamp down ads’ volume. A Media Bureau order (http://xrl.us/bk2imb) agreed with the Advanced TV Systems Committee, which sought the extension (CD July 19 p16), that more time will let all parties review and comment on a “successor document” to an ATSC recommended practice that’s part of the legislation.
The Advanced TV Systems Committee wants an 11-day delay for reply comments on FCC implementation of the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act. The ATSC wants until Aug. 1 for replies in docket 11-93 because a Thursday board meeting of the group considered the status of an annex to the A/85 recommended practice that’s part of the CALM Act. Annex K will be on the group’s website July 26, ATSC said in a filing posted Friday to the docket (http://xrl.us/bk2fbe). The annex addresses how to keep the volume on ads not much louder than the programming they follow for pay-TV providers that don’t use the AC-3 audio system, the ATSC said. AT&T is among the companies that don’t use AC-3, on which A/85 is based (CD July 12 p6).
The FCC should enact narrower rules on keeping a lid on the volume of TV ads than what it proposed, all types of multichannel video programming distributors and TV stations said. They said the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act is more limited in scope than an FCC rulemaking notice on last year’s legislation. The notice said “we also interpret the statutory language ’the transmission of commercial advertisements’ to apply to all such transmissions by stations/MVPDs.” Instead, the act is meant to apply only to ads originated by broadcasters and providers of cable, DBS and telco-TV, those entities said in comments posted Monday in docket 11-93. Even before the rulemaking was released in May, the commission was lobbied by industry to adopt that interpretation (CD May 26 p7).
Spectrum reallocation was among the issues NAB directors discussed at a board meeting earlier this week, including legislation (S-911) that the Senate Commerce Committee approved Wednesday (CD June 9 p4), the association said. Bills to curb “rogue websites” also were discussed at the gathering, which also touched on retransmission consent and future ATSC standards, the NAB said. It said directors also “had a lengthy discussion on prioritizing key NAB objectives” to sustain terrestrial radio.
The FCC should waive a requirement that retail cable set-top boxes include an analog tuner for its new device that TiVo called Premiere Elite and it plans to sell, the company said in a waiver request this week. TiVo said it’s taking orders for a different version of the device called the Premiere Q from cable operators who will begin deploying it later this year. It wants to sell the Elite box at retail with a larger hard drive, and for that it will need a waiver of the commission’s “Digital Cable Ready” (DCR) certification, marketing and labeling rules, to license CableLabs’ CableCARD technology, it said. Under those rules, such one-way cable products can’t be certified as digital cable-ready without including an analog tuner.
A new PBS emergency alert system pilot project using mobile DTV capability could be a model for a next-generation warning system, public broadcasting executives said in interviews. Over the next year, the system will be tested and evaluated with participation from WGBH-TV Boston, Alabama Public TV and Vegas PBS, said John McCoskey, PBS chief technology officer. The system requires devices that are common alerting protocol (CAP)-compliant and will use text, images and video to issue messages, he said. The project is part of a partnership with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and LG Zenith, both of which are helping fund the project, said McCoskey.
The NAB and NCTA opposed an application by Digital Broadcasting OVS to operate an online open video system in the top 50 U.S. TV markets (CD June 1 p9). The NAB also asked for more time to comment on the application because it wasn’t initially available on the FCC’s website and the public notice soliciting comments was published directly before a federal holiday, and the deadline for comments was immediately following it (CD May 31 p17). Under OVS rules, the agency must act within 10 days on certification applications. The commission should reject the application because Digital Broadcasting OVS failed to establish that it’s a local exchange carrier under the Telecom Act, the NAB said.
The FCC is starting to implement rules to tamp down the volume of ads so they're not startlingly louder than the shows they appear within. Agency and industry officials said a draft rulemaking notice seeks comment on putting into place the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act. The CALM Act was passed by Congress in December (CD Dec 6 p8), and applies to TV stations and subscription-video providers. A Media Bureau rulemaking notice circulated May 5 may be voted on within the next few weeks and has already attracted lobbying at the commission from telco-TV providers, cable and broadcasters, FCC and industry officials said.