The FCC majority engaged in “direct attack on consumers and small business” during Chairman Ajit Pai’s 10 months, said Commissioner Mignon Clyburn in a news conference Wednesday preceding a briefing from the Voices for Internet Freedom coalition. In both events, Clyburn castigated Pai and the FCC majority for “hypocrisy” and a stream of policies she said favor large companies. “This is a sad path,” Clyburn said. Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, Democratic National Committee Deputy Chairman Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota and Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., were also critical of the FCC majority. Net neutrality is “a justice issue, a civil rights issue,” Khanna told the event. FCC leadership is “fixated on billion dollar public companies and what it best for their bottom line,” Clyburn said. Congress held a hearing on net neutrality Wednesday (see 1711010052).
ATSC is “pleased” the FCC in its ATSC 3.0 rules is requiring broadcasters to use the A/322 physical-layer protocol document for a five-year sunset window alongside the A/321 bootstrap physical-layer document, ATSC President Mark Richer told us Friday. Requiring 3.0 broadcasters “to adhere to A/322 for an appropriate transitional period, and only on their primary video programming stream,” will “balance our goals of protecting consumers while promoting innovation,” the commission said in its draft 3.0 order released Thursday, setting the stage for a 3.0 authorization vote at the FCC’s next agenda meeting Nov. 16.
The FCC’s draft ATSC 3.0 order requires broadcasters to offer the same programming on both their simulcast 3.0 and 1.0 stations but appears to have looser restrictions on contours and image quality, will allow low-power TV flashcuts, and as expected (see 1710170048), doesn’t interfere with retransmission consent negotiations involving 3.0, according to a draft order released Thursday. The draft includes a further notice in which the agency would seek comment on using vacant channels during the 3.0 transitions and on waivers for simulcasting rules.
The Senate Commerce Committee's main telecom policy priority for the remainder of this year is likely to be an amplified focus on broadband infrastructure issues before the long-anticipated release of a White House-backed infrastructure legislative package expected to include a broadband title, lawmakers and lobbyists told us. Other telecom-related issues also could command the committee's attention depending on a range of other factors, including advancement of the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA), they said. The committee remains unlikely to take up FCC reauthorization legislation even if the House is able to pass its own version this year, lobbyists said.
The FCC plans Nov. 16 votes on media ownership and ATSC 3.0, as expected, (see 1710250049), and wireless and wireline infrastructure and cable items, Chairman Ajit Pai blogged, although drafts of the items have not yet been issued. Commissioners also will vote, as expected (see 1710100063), on the next phase of the FCC's spectrum frontiers initiative, setting aside high-frequency spectrum for 5G. The order would make available another 1,700 MHz of high-frequency spectrum “for flexible terrestrial wireless use while providing 4 gigahertz for core satellite use,” Pai said. The FCC approved the first order under ex-Chairman Tom Wheeler in July 2016 (see 1607140052).
Industry is “seeing the dilemma between push and pull,” cinematographer Pierre Routhier said when we asked him at SMPTE's conference in Hollywood (see 1710240073) to reconcile his findings that 8K has no place in the living room, even as NHK rushes to start 8K broadcasting services in 2018 and TV makers talk increasingly of introducing 8K product in the U.S. next year. “We are pushing forward with increased spatial resolution, but I’ve not seen the pull from the clients.” The Korean Broadcasting System, meanwhile, successfully implemented a “basic” closed-captioning system for the ATSC 3.0-based Ultra HD broadcasting services that debuted to the South Korean public in May, said Yunhyoung Kim, KBS research engineer. Implementation had its “difficulties,” most having to do with building the crucial “timing” mechanisms into the closed-captioning feeds, he said. ATSC’s A/343 document defines required technology for closed caption and subtitle tracks, but contains “no explicit expressions” of how to use the timing mechanisms in a practical implementation, so KBS improvised, he said. That prompted an audience questioner who said he was involved in 3.0's framing to approach the mic and declare: “Unfortunately, the structure of the ATSC 3.0 document set is not implementer-friendly.” Framers “argued repeatedly in a number of meetings about that,” said the questioner, who didn’t give his name, and our attempts to talk to him were unsuccessful. “All of the shell statements are present that you absolutely need, but they’re spread over about 20 documents,” he said. ATSC’s supervisors told 3.0's framers they would draft a “recommended practice to tell people how it all fits together,” said the questioner: “They haven’t done that.” To Kim, who stood onstage listening to the remarks with no visible expression, the questioner said: “Unfortunately, you’re the first guy that had to do it. I feel sorry for you, but congratulations on getting a working implementation.” ATSC President Mark Richer in a Wednesday statement told us, “Certainly ATSC will develop a Recommended Practice for closed-captioning with ATSC 3.0, just as we have done with the current digital TV standard." More than 20 different standards "will comprise the full ATSC 3.0 system, and we have drafts of several Recommended Practices that are now in development,” said Richer. An order on ATSC 3.0 is expected to be voted on by FCC members Nov. 16.
A draft order on reconsideration that would eliminate cross-ownership and duopoly rules was circulated to the eighth floor to be voted at the FCC’s Nov. 16 meeting (see 1710250037), as expected, Chairman Ajit Pai told the House Communications Subcommittee during an oversight hearing (see 1710250050) Wednesday. The November meeting is widely expected to include a vote on authorizing ATSC 3.0, industry officials said. FCC action on net neutrality rules isn’t expected until December, agency and industry officials told us.
It's “absurd” to suggest a company the size of Verizon could be forced into carrying ATSC 3.0 by much smaller broadcasters, said NAB in docket 16-142 Tuesday responding to the carrier (see 1710200025). Verizon “undoubtedly has a motive to hamstring such innovation by imposing needless and unreasonable regulatory burdens on broadcasters,” NAB said. “Verizon has begun testing the delivery of 4K television service. It is thus understandable why Verizon is concerned about a free over-the-air 4K competitor.” In a letter to the Media Bureau, the Advanced Television Systems Committee said recommended practices on MVPD redistribution of 3.0 signals are expected to be completed in 2018. The practices concern conversion of 3.0 services into 1.0 services “so that hardware or software products can be built to implement conversions to formats suitable for ATSC 1.0 redistribution systems or ATSC 1.0 over the air broadcast,” the group said.
The FCC should increase ancillary service fees for broadcasters using ATSC 3.0 to provide wireless bandwidth and examine whether such uses still constitute broadcasting, said Charter Communications in a letter to the FCC posted in docket 16-142. If the FCC decides “interactive television services are not ‘broadcasting’ then the Commission should clarify that broadcasters may not compel MVPDs to carry such non-broadcasting services as a condition of granting ATSC 3.0 retransmission consent,” said Charter. The FCC should increase the ancillary services fees to reflect “the dramatic increase in the value of spectrum licenses” since the fee was last set 18 years ago and account for the lucrative uses ATSC 3.0 will allow, Charter said. Charter also asked the FCC to restrict how much a simulcast ATSC 1.0 signal is allowed to differ from a 3.0 signal, to restrict low-power stations from “flash-cutting” to the new standard, and to bar broadcasters from making carriage of a 1.0 signal contingent on MVPDs agreeing to carry a 3.0 signal, Charter said. NCTA also said broadcasters should be prevented from requiring carriage of 3.0 in retransmission consent negotiations, in a Wednesday meeting with Media Bureau Chief Michelle Carey, according to an ex parte filing. The FCC shouldn’t let simulcast rules for the new standard sunset after three years as NAB requested, NCTA said. “The Commission must continue to require simulcasting until it determines that conditions warrant allowing a broadcaster to no longer provide an ATSC 1.0 signal.”
The FCC should prevent broadcasters from making MVPDs carry ATSC 3.0 as a condition of carrying their 1.0 signal, said Verizon in a meeting with aides to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel Wednesday, said a filing the next day in docket 16-142. The FCC should “impose a one-year ‘quiet’ period prior to the expiration of a retransmission consent agreement for an ATSC 1.0 signal, during which time the broadcast station cannot negotiate for the first-time carriage of an ATSC 3.0 signal,” Verizon said. A draft order predicted to be circulated soon isn't expected to contain provisions on 3.0 in retrans negotiations, and isn’t expected to receive Rosenworcel’s vote (see 1710170048). Protections are necessary so MVPDs aren't forced to make expenditures to allow them to transmit 3.0, Verizon said. The carrier endorsed requiring broadcasts to simulcast both standards, and said the agency should require broadcasters to air “the same programming as the ATSC 3.0 broadcast, with approximately the same geographic coverage, in the same format (high definition or standard definition) and at the same bitrate as the broadcast station’s current DTV over-the-air broadcast.”