ATSC is taking its annual member meeting and NextGen Broadcast Conference “on the road” for a June 7-9 run at the Westin Book Cadillac in Detroit, said President Madeleine Noland Wednesday. The event customarily is held late May in Washington’s Reagan Building. This year’s conference will feature a private-access “strolling dinner” reception June 8 at the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation in Dearborn, she said. The in-person conference will also have a virtual component, as did last year's when it was rescheduled in late August, said organizers. Michigan has three markets on the air with ATSC 3.0 services, they said -- Detroit, East Lansing and Grand Rapids-Kalamazoo.
The FCC should let ATSC 3.0 “substantially similar” requirements sunset July 17, 2023, as is currently scheduled, said Pearl TV representatives, including Managing Director Anne Schelle, in a call Thursday with an aide to FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington, according to an ex parte filing in docket 16-142. Markets that are further along in 3.0 deployments than others, such as Phoenix and Detroit, “should not be artificially constrained from offering new, beneficial programming,” said Pearl. “Broadcasters have every public interest and economic incentive to continue to provide their programming in ATSC 1.0 to their audiences who still have ATSC 1.0 sets,” said Pearl. “The ‘substantially similar’ requirement is not driving that decision today, and the sunset of the requirement will not change those incentives.” Getting rid of the requirement would let broadcasters run a demonstration channel of 3.0 programming to be a “barker” to attract new viewers, Pearl said. “Pearl understands that the Commission will consider the issue of the sunset more fully later this year, and urges it to keep these points in mind at that time,” the filing said.
Hybrid ATSC 3.0 streaming video service Evoca-TV and emergency alerting company Digital Alert Systems have developed a method for transmitting broadcast emergency alerts to viewers watching programming via the internet, said an Evoca news release Monday. “Because the Evocasolution is both an over-the-air and an over-the-top system, we’re able to deliver alerts directly to the viewer,” said Evoca’s Michael Chase, vice president-systems. Evoca’s receiver “can insert emergency alert information right on top of programming being watched by a viewer, regardless of what that channel happens to be,” the release said. The method is “a unique solution” that works because Evoca “controls both the transmission and reception of signals that reach the viewer,” for users of its service, the release said. The two companies are going to continue studying the matter, the release said.
Pearl TV is "focused" on building “scale” in ATSC 3.0 deployments and consumer adoption, Managing Director Anne Schelle said in an interview, commenting on recent remarks by Sinclair President-Technology Del Parks that the industry needs to begin planning for the shutdown of the “legacy” 1.0 service (see 2203310029). It’s “still the early days” of 3.0 service deployments, said Schelle.
It's “past time” for the FCC to conclude the 2018 quadrennial review, NAB President Curtis LeGeyt said in meetings with Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, Media Bureau Chief Holly Saurer and Commissioner Geoffrey Starks this week, said an ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket 20-401. NAB “understands the potential challenges of completing the review without a full complement of commissioners” but said the agency should act “as soon as possible after a full Commission is seated or even sooner if that process does not conclude in the near term,” the filing said. The trade association said it doesn’t oppose an FCC proposal to collect broadcaster employment data, and the agency should have “a well-defined plan” for analyzing the equal employment opportunity data “so the process is not in vain.” LeGeyt also urged the agency to act quickly on ATSC 3.0 multicasting and “move on” from a GeoBroadcast Solutions proposal to change the FCC’s booster rules to allow for geotargeted radio. “The only beneficiary of approving this proposal is the company whose technology is at issue,” NAB said.
With ATSC 3.0-compliant TV sets “beginning to make advances in the consumer marketplace,” the day should come “in the near future” when rising household penetration of 3.0 TVs “will enable us to be able to start phasing out 1.0,” Sinclair President-Technology Del Parks told the TV Tech Summit Thursday. “The question for us is, how soon can we turn off 1.0 and take advantage of all of the capabilities of ATSC 3.0?”
Noncommercial educational stations that haven’t had the chance to participate in the ATSC 3.0 transition could receive temporary, internet-only channels to allow their content to be received by 3.0 devices, said Pearl TV Managing Director Anne Schelle in an interview.
“Unnecessary and ill-advised” limitations on the deployment of new ATSC 3.0 multicast streams for broadcasters will harm viewers, said NAB in a call Friday with FCC Media Bureau staff, according to an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 16-142. Broadcasters have launched additional multicast streams since the release of the FCC’s further NPRM on ATSC 3.0 multicasting “and will continue to launch additional programming in the future,” NAB said. NAB “continues to be willing to work with the Commission,” but the FCC should “move forward expeditiously without being distracted by bad faith arguments designed to frustrate innovation,” the group said.
News directors and “broadcasters on the sidelines” need to get involved now in ATSC 3.0-enhanced emergency alerts to prevent a government mandate, John Lawson, executive director of the Advanced Warning and Response Network Alliance, said on a webinar Tuesday hosted by Sinclair's One Media. That way, “even if someday the federal government steps in, at least it’ll be our idea,” Lawson said, comparing the possible future of advanced emergency information (AEI) to what happened with wireless emergency alerts. WEA rules have been “a long struggle” between industry and the government, and broadcasters need “a voluntary system,” Lawson said. He advocated for agreements between broadcasters and their local emergency managers to discuss the production and use of the more fulsome emergency information and media that could be utilized with 3.0. Recent FCC rulemakings and the Reliable Emergency Alert Distribution Improvement Act “revitalized” state emergency communications committees but not too much of the discussion is focused on older emergency information systems rather than the newer tech, Lawson said. The FCC has open proceedings on making the legacy emergency alert system more accessible and improving it (see 2112140062). Pete Sockett, Capitol Broadcasting director-engineering and operations, said there’s a great deal of misunderstanding about the difference between the EAS and the supplemental, more detailed emergency information that's the focus of discussions about AEI.
Backers of the Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act (S-1541) believe changes to the measure the Senate Commerce Committee approved Tuesday greatly strengthened its prospects of passing Congress this year. S-1541 and the similar Martha Wright Prison Phone Justice Act (HR-2489) would bar communications providers from receiving site commissions from prisons and other confinement facilities (see 2104160067). Senate Commerce advanced the amended S-1541 and two other measures -- the Next Generation Telecommunications Act (S-3014) and Low Power Protection Act (S-3405) -- on voice votes.