COVID-19 Affecting ATSC 3.0 Launch, Audience Expectations, Say NAB Panelists

COVID-19 is affecting the launch of ATSC 3.0 stations and creating uncertainty about when they will begin airing the new standard, said broadcasters and NextGenTV advocates Thursday on an NAB Show Express streamed panel. “We’re still on track to get a bunch of markets launched this year,” said John Hane, CEO of Spectrum Consortium (Spectrum Co).

Travel restrictions are slowing station launches, said Hane. Stations in Portland, Oregon, and Las Vegas were to launch before the ultimately canceled April NAB Show, but travel restrictions prevented the needed staff from being on hand.

ATSC 3.0 advocates looked at all options -- including a private plane -- but ultimately had to defer, Hane said. Las Vegas is now to launch later this month, and Portland in July. Stations in Pittsburgh, Salt Lake City and Nashville are also to launch this summer, but ongoing COVID-19 restrictions could cause delays. Broadcasters are keeping launch dates until it's absolutely clear that they need to defer them, Hane said.

Capabilities with the new standard apply to this emergency situation, said E.W. Scripps Vice President-Strategy and Business Development Kerry Oslund. The tech’s ability to geotarget could let broadcasters provide information about local grocery store inventory or emergency room wait times, he said. Nexstar Chief Technology Officer Brett Jenkins expected consumers to show increased interest in the increased emergency information 3.0 could allow broadcasters to air.

In a panel on COVID-19's effect on broadcasting, Neuhoff Communications CEO Beth Neuhoff said her stations are helping local schools by broadcasting lessons for students that don’t have ready access to internet resources. Hane said 3.0 outlets could provide similar services on an increased scale “without breaking a sweat.”

Broadcasters expect consumers' viewing and listening habits to change from pandemic levels after a reopening but not to go back to what they were. People returning to work likely means less at-home listening and viewing, and increased listening in cars for radio, they said. Increased news consumption is likely to continue, said Hearst Television Vice President-Digital Sales Jonathan Sumber: “The hunger for information is high and will continue to remain high.” Entercom Chief Digital Officer J.D. Crowley said many broadcasters have had increased engagement with digital content and offerings like podcasts, and expected that to continue through a reopening.

Several compared the economic slowdown to the 2008 recession and its effect on broadcasting and advertising. Companies that continued ads during the recession came out of it sooner, said Sumber. Crowley said in the current crisis, broadcasters have the advantages of more robust digital offerings to present to advertisers as an alternative to the airwaves, and more advanced methods of audience attribution.

Broadcasters should avoid airing ads for marijuana products and treat CBD goods with caution, said all the broadcast attorneys on a third panel on “Vicevertising.” State laws differ, but marijuana remains a controlled substance under federal law, said Fletcher Heald's Francisco Montero.

Broadcast licenses mean stations are more vulnerable than others to federal enforcement, he said. Montero said officials in the FCC chairman’s office told him the agency would take a dim view of broadcasters carrying ads for substances that are against federal law. Protecting the license is the first rule of being a broadcast attorney, said Joshua Pila, Meredith general counsel.

CBD products aren’t as problematic as marijuana but still present difficulties, the attorneys said. FDA rules for CBD products say they can’t be marketed for ingestion, but most are edible, Montero said. Stations seeking to carry ads for CBD products need to ensure the product abides by both local and federal laws, and doesn’t make illegal health claims, the lawyers said.

Many banks -- also federally licensed -- don’t deal with companies that sell such products, Pila said. That raises additional concerns about whether broadcasters carrying such ads will be able to be paid, he said: It’s “a new layer of risk.”