LAS VEGAS -- FCC Chairman Ajit Pai circulated draft FM translator rules to the other eighth-floor offices to be voted on at the May 9 commissioners' meeting, he told a crowded auditorium at the NAB Show Tuesday. Pai said long-awaited forms to allow broadcasters to transition to ATSC 3.0 (see 1904100043) will be ready “by the end of Q2” and urged broadcasters to increasingly think of themselves as digital media companies. “You find yourselves in a war for attention with well-funded media giants, internet companies, and telecom companies,” he said. The show had 91,460 attendees, down from 92,912 in 2018.
LAS VEGAS -- Industry luminaries at an NAB Show briefing Monday to announce the rollout of ATSC 3.0 to the top 40 U.S. TV markets by the end of 2020 seemed intent on dispelling worries that the commercial introduction of 3.0 broadcast services won’t come without consumer electronics industry support. A “broad coalition” of TV station groups, including network-owned-and-operated stations and affiliates, plus public broadcasters, will participate in the rollout starting this year, said the announcement.
LAS VEGAS -- Pearl TV and partners have learned a “ton of things” from their ATSC 3.0 model-market deployment in Phoenix, including “Lesson No. 1” -- the “big” realization that equipment “implementations aren’t complete yet,” Peter Van Peenen, technology consultant to Pearl, told the NAB Show Sunday. “I think everybody’s running hard to get that stuff done.”
LAS VEGAS -- Antitrust Division Chief Makan Delrahim said DOJ's view of broadcaster sharing agreements hadn't changed. He indicated such arrangements are being investigated, in a Q&A at the NAB Show Monday with NAB CEO Gordon Smith. The FCC Media Bureau meantime will "hopefully" release a form to allow broadcasters to transition to ATSC 3.0 before June, Chief Michelle Carey told us. Broadcasters have been waiting for that paperwork (see 1904070001).
The FCC shouldn’t allow broadcasters to use vacant channel spectrum for the transition to ATSC 3.0, said the Open Technology Institute at New America in a meeting Tuesday with Media Bureau staff, according to an ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket 16-142. The letter repeated many points from an earlier meeting with Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel (see 1904020063).
ATSC names Madeleine Noland, from LG Electronics, president, effective May 15, succeeding Mark Richer, retiring (see this section, Jan. 17) ... CommScope completes acquisition of Arris (see 1904040054), with CommScope’s Marvin Edwards president-CEO of combined company and Arris’ Bruce McClelland becoming chief operating officer, Karen Renner chief information officer and Jason Friedrich vice president-government relations; names to board Daniel Akerson and Campbell Dyer, both of investor Carlyle Group.
There’s “big news afoot” involving the ATSC 3.0 commercial rollout at a Pearl TV-organized news conference planned for Monday at the NAB Show (see 1904040075), said a spokesperson Thursday. NAB President Gordon Smith, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, plus “a large group of U.S. broadcasters, and other industry participants,” will be on hand to discuss “near-term deployment plans” for 3.0, said a media advisory. It’s scheduled for 11:45 a.m. at the 3.0 presentation stage in the Las Vegas Convention Center’s North Hall.
The FCC’s upcoming quadrennial review of broadcast rules, the progress of ATSC 3.0, the repacking and FM translator interference are expected to be important topics at the 2019 NAB Show, said radio and TV broadcasters and broadcast attorneys in interviews this week. The initial comment deadline for the QR is April 29, and though radio and TV broadcasters agreed the progress toward actual rule changes is likely to be slow, both media are looking to that process to ease some regulatory burdens. “Deregulation is the No. 1 thing,” said Alpha Media CEO Bob Proffitt. About 93,000 people attended last year’s show, a spokesperson said.
Tribune Media's WJW Cleveland transmitted a Nielsen audience measurement watermark using ATSC 3.0 last week, NAB said Wednesday. The outlet is a 3.0 test station that NAB and CTA agreed in 2017 to run jointly as a 3.0 "living laboratory" (see 1711070038). The inaudible signals in a program’s audio help identify a show for audience measurement, NAB noted now. Nexstar is buying Tribune (see 1903200058). Opponents to the deal don't present fresh facts, the combining companies said (see 1904030072).
The FCC shouldn’t let broadcasters use vacant spectrum channels for the ATSC 3.0 transition, said Consumer Reports and the Open Technology Institute at New America in a meeting last week with an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, recounted a filing posted Tuesday in docket 16-142. Doing so would harm the public interest and prevent TV white spaces from being used “to bridge the digital divide,” the groups said. Comparing the use of vacant channels to “doubling a station’s free spectrum assignment,” the groups said letting broadcasters use the spectrum isn’t needed to protect consumers, even if it would help broadcasters. The FCC should instead adopt a further notice to allow the use of location data to determine what sort of interference protections are needed to protect WMTS operations on channel 37, the filing said.