ATSC announces Mark Richer will retire as president later this year, successor to be picked by a search committee chaired by Richard Friedel, Fox, who was selected for that role by Lynn Claudy, NAB, newly elected to succeed Friedel as ATSC board chairman ... ASCAP appoints Nicole Carbone-Rogers, from Billboard, senior vice president/head-events, effective Feb. 11 ... Audio Engineering Society hires Colleen Harper, ex-American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition, as executive director.
Though ATSC 3.0 TVs for the U.S. market weren't featured at CES, the “ingredients” for a 3.0 launch in 2020 “were prominent in private demonstrations and press coverage,” wrote Brian Markwalter, CTA senior vice president-research and standards, in Wednesday's ATSC’s newsletter, The Standard. Examples he cited included Sony’s demonstration, “with a focus on ATSC 3.0,” of a TV remote-friendly “application-authoring environment that allows broadcasters to share a common user interface while integrating individually customized digital services from broadcast and broadband,” said Markwalter. The demo showed “integration of captured RF sources and encapsulated data” from digital over-the-top services, “illustrating how customization for individual broadcasters is possible with a common user interface and application-development framework,” he said. The system supports use of all application programming interfaces prescribed in A/344, said Markwalter. That's the 3.0 specification document that describes a receiver’s interactive content functionalities.
Sinclair, Korean carrier SK Telecom and car electronics maker Samsung's Harman signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly develop connected car technology based on ATSC 3.0., Sinclair announced Thursday. The companies will work together to build a platform that would allow drivers to receive in-vehicle HD broadcasting, firmware updates and map updates through Sinclair stations. “The technology will also be deployed in other geographies as local broadcast facilities become available,” the company said. The automotive platform and tech will be revealed at the NAB Show 2019, they said.
LAS VEGAS -- Samsung “wants to see the 8K market evolve and grow,” and its new brainchild, the 8K Association (see 1901080038), is “a special-interest group that’s just narrowly focused on 8K,” Dan Schinasi, Samsung director-product planning, told us Tuesday at CES. “The 8K ecosystem for all intents and purposes is virtually nonexistent, except in Japan, where there’s some distribution.”
Sinclair is establishing a joint venture with Korean mobile operator SK Telecom to develop broadcasting products for ATSC 3.0 in the U.S. and internationally, Sinclair announced Tuesday. The jointly funded and managed company begins in Q1. The commercial 3.0 offerings created by the joint venture are expected to hit the U.S. market in 2019. SK and Sinclair signed a memorandum of understanding at CES 2018 to work together on 3.0 technology. Sinclair's One Media disclosed launch of a “universal demodulator chip” that supports 3.0 tech for set-top boxes, TVs and “automotive and mobile applications." Saankhya Labs, VeriSilicon and Samsung Foundry also worked on the chips. Two versions were announced, for linear TV applications and for mobile and portable devices. “These mobile 3.0 chips validate the ‘sea change’ in over-the-air distribution of, not only television but all digital data,” said One Media President Mark Aitken.
Don't expect any AT&T/Time Warner-scale mergers and acquisitions in entertainment and media this year, experts told us. The federal government partial shutdown isn't having a chilling effect on deals, but that could change the longer it lasts, they said. "Two weeks may not be the end of the world for a lot of transactions; two months could be," said wireline and wireless lawyer Laura Phillips of Drinker Biddle.
MARINA DEL REY, California -- U.S. over-the-top content services recently topped 240, said Parks Associates, creating a fragmented space that’s making it increasingly difficult for consumers to discover and find content they want to watch, said panelists at its conference Tuesday.
Avis Budget is contributing “both our fleet and our addressable audience” to test mobile ATSC 3.0 reception through the Pearl TV-led model-market project in Phoenix, said Chief Information Officer Arthur Orduna on a 3.0 panel at the TV of Tomorrow conference Thursday in Manhattan. Orduna has a history with cable, having worked for the Canoe advertising venture owned by major U.S. operators, and also for ADT.
Comparing their goal to the same local targeting capabilities TV broadcasters will see from ATSC 3.0, radio technology interests met with an aide to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and with Media Bureau representatives to push for an NPRM for an update of radio rules. The sought-after FM booster rule change was subject of a 2012 Geo Broadcast petition for hyperlocalized broadcast content like advertisements or weather. The company and others pushed geo technology for simultaneous transmission of different content to different parts of a station's license area through a network of synchronous boosters. They noted field test results that indicate it wouldn't require amending or waiving interference regulations. Also represented were BIA Advisory Services and Goldman Engineering, said the docket 17-105 post Friday.
MPEG LA continues to "move forward" toward forming an ATSC 3.0 patent pool, "with hopes of having a pool license out early next year," emailed spokesperson Tom O'Reilly Tuesday. More than a dozen companies expressed interest in joining a 3.0 pool, O'Reilly told us earlier this year (see 1802170001). MPEG LA announced a call for 3.0-essential patents, the first step in the patent pool formation process, nearly 16 months ago.