NAB's Smith and Public TV Groups Visit FCC on ATSC 3.0

“The time is right” for the FCC to approve an order on ATSC 3.0, said NAB CEO Gordon Smith in a meeting with Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel Tuesday, recounted an ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket 16-142. Rosenworcel, in a Thursday speech, said the FCC needs to go back to the drawing board on the proposed 3.0 transition (see 1710120019 or 1710120057). Smith said the FCC should loosen ownership rules and increase the flexibility of broadcasters to meet deadlines in the post-incentive auction repacking. CTA President Gary Shapiro praised the new standard in a statement Friday (see 1710130056).The FCC should permit flexibility and have a “light regulatory touch” for the simulcasting requirements for broadcasters transitioning to ATSC 3.0, said officials from PBS, the CPB and America’s Public Television Stations in a meeting with an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai Friday and a meeting with Media Bureau staff Wednesday, according to filings in docket 16-142. Many public television stations may be barred by geography from sharing facilities for simulcasting that would allow them to duplicate their current contour, the public TV groups said. Content requirements also should be flexible, since it may not be possible for stations to offer the exact same content on the current standard that they will be offering on 3.0, the filings said. The public TV groups don’t want the transition to cause any changes to carriage rules, they said. “We expect that many of the technical upgrades to multichannel video programming distributors’ facilities that are necessary to carry ATSC 3.0 programming will be driven, in large part, through marketplace negotiations with commercial stations,” the filings said.