Sinclair TV Standard Push Could Lead Back to ATSC 3.0, Say ATSC Panelists

Sinclair’s willingness to look outside Advanced Television Systems Committee 3.0 for a new TV standard friendlier to mobile uses caused disagreement among panelists and attendees at an ATSC conference Thursday. Sinclair’s plan (CED May 8 p4) to create a new platform that supports broadcasting across all media and then seek a standard for it could lead to two coexisting standards, said Jay Adrick, consultant to GatesAir. That would be “a disaster” for the industry, Adrick said. Other panelists praised Sinclair for investing in new technology but said they hoped the company’s efforts would end up being incorporated into ATSC 3.0. Offering two standards to the FCC would be “a bad idea,” said Lin Media Chief Technology Officer Brett Jenkins.

Adrick said having two simultaneous standards in the same industry would be an intolerable problem for the CE industry, which would have to decide which standard to manufacture. “You may not have anyone to build the consumer devices,” Adrick said. Sinclair isn’t planning on “derailing” the ATSC process, said Vice President Mark Aitken.

It’s unlikely that Sinclair’s effort would lead to multiple systems, because any standard outside ATSC 3.0 is unlikely to get much support, said Adrick. Jenkins said he didn’t see multiple standards as a likely result of Sinclair’s effort, and that it would benefit the ATSC 3.0 process. “Our function is to come up with the best technical solution for industry,” Jenkins said.

Sinclair is looking at alternatives to the current ATSC process because the company “has a fundamental belief that mobile is getting short ended” said Aitken. Adrick, Jenkins and NBCUniversal Senior Vice President Shawn Makhijani identified mobile applications for broadcasting as among the most important goals for ATSC 3.0. Broadcasting to mobile devices “should be as good as the living room” under the new standard, Makhijani said. With Nielsen soon to offer cumulative ratings that include multiple viewing platforms, mobile uses for broadcasting will become easier to monetize, he said. “I don’t think there’s any disagreement about the importance of mobile,” said ATSC President Mark Richer in an interview, saying the organization devoted a great deal of work and consideration to mobile broadcasting.

The ATSC 3.0 process doesn’t focus enough on mobile for Sinclair because it’s “starting with a terrestrial fixed service and squeezing mobile into it” rather than beginning with a clean slate that favors mobile, which Aitken said is the future of a viable broadcasting industry. NAB President Gordon Smith made a similar point during his keynote at the conference, saying broadcasting has a “duty to innovate.” If broadcasters don’t embrace hard choices to ensure that broadcasting is available on multiple and mobile platforms, it’s making “a decision to decline,” Smith said. “This is a crucial time for stakeholders to work together.”

Though the ATSC 3.0 standard hasn’t been completed, broadcasters should begin planning for the transition to the new standard, said Capitol Broadcasting Vice President Sam Matheny. “The transition is too important to put off planning for it.” Matheny said many of the issues will be the same regardless of the technical details of the new standard. Globally, TV transitions take an average of ten years, with even the fastest ones taking around six years, he said. Despite the need to plan, Matheny conceded that numerous questions about such a transition remain, such as whether it should be phased, or if it will coincide with the post-incentive auction repacking.

Getting the FCC to align the repacking with the ATSC 3.0 transition would be “a very big mountain to scale” said BIA/Kelsey Chief Economist Mark Fratrik. The commission is unlikely to be interested in changing the timing of the auction to work with ATSC, he said. Though Adrick suggested holding the auction at the planned time, but delaying the repacking, Fratrik said such a delay would lower the prices bidders would be willing to offer for broadcast spectrum in the auction. “The dollar amount goes down much more quickly” if bidders can’t use the spectrum right away, Fratrik said.