‘Laughable’ That Pay-TV Cares About ‘Welfare’ of OTA Viewers in 3.0 Transition, Says NAB

NAB ridiculed pay-TV's “ludicrous advocacy” that over-the-air viewers would lose programming in the ATSC 3.0 transition, in meetings Thursday with staff of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and the Media Bureau, said an ex parte posted Monday in docket 16-142. MVPDs’ “assertion” they “care deeply about the welfare of over-the-air viewers is laughable,” because they include “some of the least popular companies in America due to their unique commitment to providing dismal customer service,” NAB said: The companies “seek to pad their profit margins not only by dragging retransmission consent issues kicking and screaming into any proceeding that even tangentially affects television service, but now apparently by claiming to care whether viewers receive over-the-air signals.” NCTA CEO Michael Powell in Oct. 30 meetings with Commissioner Brendan Carr (see 1711030059) emphasized “the need for the Commission to ensure that the broadcasters’ voluntary roll-out of ATSC 3.0 does not disrupt consumers or impose costs and burdens on cable operators and their customers, said a Nov. 1 filing. “Back down here on planet Earth,” NAB recommends the FCC “adopt a standard for expedited processing of applications that mirrors the coverage area standard” the commission used during the DTV transition. The “flexibility” given broadcasters during that transition “applies with equal force” to 3.0, it said. NAB’s analysis suggests that, under the draft 3.0 order’s standard, 22 percent of TV stations “would have no available simulcasting partners that could qualify for expedited processing, and an additional 12 percent of stations would have only a single potential partner,” it said. NAB wants the agency to “clarify” language in the 3.0 order on encryption to say that while free next-generation signals may be encrypted, “they do not require special equipment programmed by a service provider.”