The ATSC 3.0-focused public-private partnership announced by FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel will likely hold its first meetings in mid to late June, said ATSC President Madeleine Noland at a Media Institute Luncheon Tuesday (see 2304170056). NAB expects similar timing, a spokesperson told us. The Future of TV Initiative will consider possible solutions for ATSC 3.0 backward compatibility and what the eventual sunset of ATSC 1.0 will look like, Noland said. “A renewed focus by the FCC is very good news,” Noland said. “We need to chart a path forward together.”
TV broadcasters are getting presidential campaign ad buys earlier than in any previous race, expect opportunities for sports deals, and vary on whether a possible recession is affecting their businesses, said executives from E.W. Scripps, Gray, Sinclair and Nexstar on recent Q1 earnings calls. “We candidly don't see current signs of recession looming on the horizon,” said Gray co-CEO Hilton Howell last week. “There is no question that there are economic headwinds out there,” said Nexstar CEO Perry Sook Tuesday.
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. -- Quickly restoring FCC spectrum auction authority is critical with the World Radiocommunication Conference approaching in late fall, said government officials at the FCBA annual seminar Friday and Saturday. FCBA members heard from FCC commissioners and NTIA officials on a variety of other issues, including possible "Buy America" waivers for the broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program.
LAS VEGAS -- Broadcasters and broadcast CEOs believe the FCC’s Future of TV Initiative (see 2304170056) will speed the ATSC 3.0 transition and that datacasting revenue could start flowing to TV stations as early as 2024, they said on panels Tuesday at the NAB Show 2023.
LAS VEGAS -- The structure of FCC regulatory fees and the way they’re applied to broadcasters is a thorny issue that's complicated to change, but this year’s fees will be “closer to a regulatory fee balance,” said David Strickland, media adviser to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, on a panel at the NAB Show Monday. , Media Bureau staff and 10th-floor aides in panels also discussed AM inclusion in cars, media ownership, virtual MPVDs and other topics. The FCC has authority to add Big Tech companies to the payor base, said Adam Cassady, media adviser to Commissioner Nathan Simington: “It may be time for a broad rethinking” of the regulatory fee structure.
LAS VEGAS -- ATSC 3.0 could be used to create the only viable backup for GPS and address a major U.S. national security vulnerability, said broadcasters and experts at this week's 2023 NAB Show. The U.S. power grid, financial markets and telecom industries rely on precise timing based on GPS to function, and would grind to a halt within days if it were rendered inoperable, said Key2Mobile founder Patrick Diamond, a member of the National Space Based Position, Navigation and Timing Advisory Board.
LAS VEGAS -- The FCC will create a public-private partnership to generate a road map for the ATSC 3.0 transition, announced FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel at the NAB Show Monday.
Broadcasters are expecting to talk ATSC 3.0, the future of AM radio in cars, and FCC regulatory fees at 2023’s NAB Show in Las Vegas, which kicks off Saturday. It's the second in-person show since the 2020 and 2021 iterations were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Broadcasters, attorneys and industry officials told us they expect the show to be the best attended since 2019. “I don't think there's any question that will be a lot more people than last year's show,” said Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorney David Oxenford.
A pilot project using ATSC 3.0 to disseminate advanced emergency information was launched in Washington, D.C., and Virginia’s Arlington and Fairfax counties by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments and One Media 3.0. The program will provide “free, over-the-air redundancy” to emergency messaging currently sent by local governments via text, email, and social media, said a news release Tuesday. One Media’s parent company, Sinclair Broadcast, will also provide “rich” supplementary information to those messages using newsrooms at its local TV stations. The pilot program will initially use the facilities WIAV-CD Washington, D.C., and then migrate to ABC affiliate station WJLA-TV Washington, D.C, which has broader reach, the release said. “Rather than simple text crawls across a TV screen that a tornado is approaching, for example, NextGen Broadcast powers a much more robust signal that can render real time doppler radar, weather images, evacuation routes, shelter locations, flood maps -- and do it in multiple languages,” the release said. The pilot is an outgrowth of an Advanced Warning and Response Network (AWARN) Alliance roundtable event in D.C. in December (see 2212080044, the release said. “Anyone in the WIAV viewing area who has a NextGen TV set or a NextGen set-top converter box should be able to receive the emergency messages from WIAV,” the release said. The program will eventually incorporate other devices and jurisdictions, the companies said.
A draft ATSC 3.0 order on sunsets for the substantially similar and A/322 physical layer requirements remains a moving target that's unlikely to be voted quickly, said FCC and industry officials (see 2303130068). The draft report and order circulated in February would extend the substantially similar and A/322 physical layer requirements indefinitely, but broadcasters said there should be a specified date for the requirements to end. Under current FCC rules, the substantially similar requirement would end in June without FCC action. The A/322 physical layer was to sunset in March, but that was temporarily stayed by the agency last month.