Pearl TV Seeks 6-Year Readjustment Period for Broadcaster Service Contours To Facilitate Channel Sharing, ATSC 3.0

Proposals connected with the incentive auction's vacant channel proceeding that would freeze the service contours of broadcasters could impair TV broadcasters' ability to take full advantage of ATSC 3.0, said a group of broadcasters in meetings last week with Commissioner Mike O'Rielly and aides to Chairman Tom Wheeler and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, according to an ex parte filing from pro-ATSC 3.0 group Pearl TV. Pearl's members are Cox Media, Graham Media, Hearst TV, Media General, Meredith, Raycom Media, Schurz Communications and Tegna. ATSC 3.0 development is in its final stages, is being promoted by Samsung along with Pearl and will be launched in South Korea in time for the 2016 Summer Olympics, the filing said. Under the new ATSC standard, it will be easier for broadcasters to channel share, but doing so would involve possible changes to service contours, the filing said. Proposals to prevent that would leave broadcasters with “no ability to adapt to the very different engineering and technical landscape that will exist post-repacking,” the ex parte filing said. The FCC should allow six years after the repacking to allow for broadcaster adjustments, it said. “That period will give broadcasters an opportunity to respond to the repacking process. It also will give broadcasters interested in channel sharing the confidence that they can enter the auction and be able to serve their existing audience,” Pearl said in the filing.