Motorola Mobility “overstates the complexities" associated with building ATSC 3.0 reception into smartphones (see 1709130050), said Robert Folliard, chairman of the Advanced TV Broadcasting Alliance of low-power TV interests. Folliard’s group is urging the FCC to require ATSC 3.0 reception in smartphones when 3.0 broadcasts become available to 25 percent of the U.S. population. Motorola said that policy position has the company “concerned” because mandating 3.0 smartphone functionality “without regard to consumer demand is not in the public interest,” and would involve “significant technical challenges and limitations.” But Folliard thinks “many of the same issues identified by Motorola are ones that carriers must solve in order to take advantage of the 600 MHz spectrum recently purchased in the auction,” he told us Wednesday. “Regardless, the challenge is worth unraveling since the upside to consumers is so high.”
Motorola Mobility agrees with the FCC's “tentative conclusion” that the ATSC 3.0 transition needs no tuner mandate, and so is “concerned about calls from some parties (none of them equipment manufacturers)” that the commission require 3.0 receivers in smartphones, the company said in an ex parte letter posted Wednesday in docket 16-142.
Building ATSC 3.0 functionality into smartphones takes more than just fast-tracking development of receiver chipsets, said T-Mobile in a “technical white paper” filed Monday at the FCC in docket 16-142. It takes aim at Sinclair plans to have 3.0 chipsets ready for commercialization in smartphones in time for the 2018 holiday selling season (see 1705210001). Sinclair's response is "we're not naive enough to believe you hand somebody a chip and suddenly you’ve got ATSC 3.0 on that phone,” Mark Aitken, Sinclair vice president-advanced technology, told us Tuesday.
If the FCC requires simulcasting of stations transitioning to ATSC 3.0, that rule shouldn’t require identical content on both stations and should have a three-year time limit, NAB said in a Wednesday meeting with Media Bureau Chief Michelle Carey and other staff, said an ex parte filing posted Monday in docket 16-142. NAB has consistently argued against any sort of simulcasting requirement. The association laid out what provisions it would like to see in such a rule, including allowances to let stations demonstrate the capabilities of the new standard for consumers still viewing in 1.0. The FCC should permit stations to “from time to time, transmit programming intended to highlight features and capabilities not available using ATSC 1.0 without transmitting substantially similar content on another station,” the group said. It wants the agency to except localized emergency warnings and allow the simulcasting station to air alternative content to “address, for example, breaking news, features or content that cannot be transmitted using ATSC 1.0.” Broadcasters should be able to get waivers of a simulcast requirement if they can’t find a simulcast partner, NAB said. “Rural markets should not be shut out of innovation solely because they do not have enough broadcast stations to participate in partnership arrangements.” NAB also proposed that the FCC allow broadcasters to rely on both components of the 3.0 physical layer, A/321 and A/322, and that it not require use of A/322 for other services that use 3.0. NAB asked the FCC not to mandate consumer education efforts for the 3.0 move and said it doesn’t object to allowing low-power stations to transition to 3.0 without simulcasting.
House Communications Subcommittee members generally signaled Thursday they want to provide additional funding for post-incentive auction repacking, but there was less agreement on the extent to which Capitol Hill should allow exceptions to the 39-month repacking timeline. Three broadcast officials said during a House Communications hearing they want Congress to give additional flexibility on the repacking deadline in cases where circumstances are beyond a station's control. CTIA Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Scott Bergmann urged Congress to maintain the 39-month deadline and National Association of Tower Erectors Chairman Jim Tracy said the focus should be on ensuring crews are able to complete the repack safely without regard to the current deadline. Their testimony was expected (see 1709060070).
Hogan Lovells hires Edith Ramirez, ex-FTC, as partner and co-head, Antitrust, Competition and Economic Regulation practice and she will also help Privacy and Cybersecurity practice ... Acting FTC Chairman Maureen Ohlhausen picks Ian Conner, in Antitrust & Competition group at Kirkland & Ellis, as acting deputy director, Competition Bureau, effective Sept. 18 ... 21st Century Fox elevates Peter Rice to president ... Nutter law firm adds from Stroz Friedberg Seth Berman as a partner and working in areas including the Privacy and Data Security practice group.
The FCC likely will loosen its broadcast ownership rules for top-four TV stations, which could give broadcasters increased leverage and make retransmission consent negotiations with MVPDs tougher, Cowen analyst Paul Gallant emailed investors Wednesday. Broadcaster ability to own two must-have stations in a market "would clearly enhance prospects" in retrans talks, Cowen said, pointing to Time Warner Cable's subscriber losses in its 2013 dispute with CBS (see reports in the Aug. 26 and 30 issues of this publication). Cowen said since Chairman Ajit Pai said MVPD consolidation hurts broadcasters, it's unlikely the FCC would block that greater broadcaster negotiating leverage with limits on joint retrans. It also said broadcast ownership rules changes could lead to station swaps across multiple markets, with numerous broadcast groups ending up with top-four combinations, giving numerous broadcasters more retrans power without going through large-scale deals like Sinclair buying Tribune. The FCC is less likely to change the UHF discount than to address the ownership rules, and seems likely in coming months to OK simulcasting ATSC 3.0 signals, Cowen said: If the agency sticks to not preventing broadcasters from tying 3.0 carriage to 1.0 carriage, that could also make retrans talks -- including issues of buying equipment and devoting bandwidth to ATSC 3.0 channels -- with MVPDs more tense. Gallant said agency approval of Sinclair/Tribune without conditions limiting joint retrans seems likely, though that might not come this year.
CTIA supports maintaining the existing 39-month timeline for completing post-incentive auction spectrum repacking and believes any delay of that process would have “cascading consequences,” Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Scott Bergmann plans to tell the House Communications Subcommittee during a Thursday hearing. CTIA also supports a “fully-funded repack that ensures broadcasters are made whole for reasonable costs,” but Congress didn't intend the Broadcaster Relocation Fund to “cover the costs of a technology upgrade” like a transition to ATSC 3.0, Bergmann said in written testimony. Congress and the FCC should ensure the 3.0 transition “is not used to delay” the repack, as efforts to link the two processes would “conflict” with statute, he said. National Association of Tower Erectors Chairman Jim Tracy will emphasize the group's focus on ensuring safe deployment of antennas and wireless equipment as part of the repack. He will say “the marketplace will ultimately dictate the time period it will take to achieve this transition," that “we want work to be done properly and efficiently, and that at the end of the day, we want our workers to come home safe.” America's Public Television Stations CEO Patrick Butler, NAB General Counsel Rick Kaplan, Competitive Carriers Association General Counsel Rebecca Murphy Thompson and NewsChannel 5 Network General Manager Lyn Plantinga also will testify. House Commerce Republicans have said they want to discuss estimated repacking costs and potential delays in the post-incentive auction's repack timeline. They also want to examine how low-power and TV translator stations are faring in the repacking process (see 1709050041). The hearing will begin at 10 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn.
The “pace of work” is accelerating on the CTA-CEB32 “family” of recommended ATSC 3.0 practices now that more of the next-generation broadcast system “becomes finalized,” wrote Brian Markwalter, CTA senior vice president-technology and research, in the September issue of ATSC’s monthly newsletter, The Standard. Once work on CTA-CEB32 is complete, it will consist of 11 parts plus an overview that will be “easily mapped to ATSC 3.0 standards,” said Markwalter, an ATSC board member. CTA-CEB32's components “will help close the loop between the broadcast side and receivers through industry agreed-upon guidance so that interoperability can be achieved in a mixed environment of independent broadcasters and TV manufacturers,” he said. CTA-CEB32.5 on ATSC 3.0 audio was the first component to be finalized, and recommended practices for the system’s logical layer (CEB32.3) and video (CEB32.4) are “approaching the ballot stage,” while that for the physical layer (CEB32.2) is being drafted, he said. Work begins next on system integration (CEB32.1), he said.
The FCC needs to study whether the improvements brought by ATSC 3.0 are worth rendering many existing TVs obsolete and disproportionately affecting low-income and minority households, blogged Rosa Mendoza, executive director of the Hispanic Technology and Telecommunications Partnership on Thursday. “Without sufficient answers, low-income and minority families could be adversely affected and we could see the digital divide widen.” The FCC should require that broadcasters simulcast in both 1.0 and 3.0 during the transition, and give consumers enough time to switch to the new technology, HTTP said.