FCC's Pai Says He Hopes to See ATSC 3.0 NPRM Released This Year

With South Korea having adopted the ATSC 3.0 broadcast TV standard earlier this year, the U.S. needs "to get moving, too," FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai told the Kansas Association of Broadcasters Convention Monday, hoping for an ATSC 3.0 NPRM to be issued before year's end. In remarks posted, Pai said the FCC's goal should be adoption of rules authorizing ATSC 3.0 use in the first half of 2017. "This shouldn't be controversial; all we are talking about is giving broadcasters the option of using ATSC 3.0," Pai said. "No one would be required to do so." On radio issues, the Media Bureau has received 957 FM translator applications from AM radio stations, and granted 854, Pai said. He said he plans to press for two other application windows for AM broadcasters applying to the FCC for new FM translators to open "as soon as possible in 2017." Some have raised concerns about possible interference (see 1609230067). Pai said the agency "should take action" early next year on some AM revitalization issues that enjoy broad consensus, such as relaxing the main studio rule. Pai also said he hopes the FCC will lift the public file requirement on broadcasters by year's end. And he criticized the agency's retention of the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership rule: "It was all about politics. And I fear that at the rate we are going, the ... cross-ownership rule will outlive newspapers themselves, absent judicial intervention."