FCC Should Require 90-Day Notice to MVPDs for ATSC 3.0 Moves, AT&T Says

Broadcasters relocating ATSC 1.0 signals during the move to ATSC 3.0 should be required to give MVPDs 90 days' notice, AT&T said Friday in FCC docket 16-142. Stations should have to provide an additional 30 days' notice if the shift happens during the repacking, AT&T said. “Relocation of broadcast stations’ ATSC 1.0 signals will result in significant and costly burdens for nationwide satellite distributors such as AT&T.” A broadcaster relocating its signal requires engineers to make physical changes to AT&T’s equipment, which is often in remote locations, it said. Difficulty is exacerbated during the incentive auction repack “given the potential need to coordinate among repacking stations, channel sharing stations, and ATSC 3.0 transition stations simultaneously and across the nation,” AT&T said. Broadcasters haven’t shown why the notice requirements requested by MVPDs are a burden, it said.