NCTA, APTS Weigh In on Broadcast Internet Proceeding

Don't close off options on how to calculate broadcaster ATSC 3.0 datacasting ancillary service fees until such services start being used “and the arrangements between broadcasters and other parties become clearer,” NCTA this week told aides to all FCC commissioners except Chairman Ajit Pai, said an ex parte filing posted in docket 20-145 Thursday. The FCC should "decline at this time to exclude from gross revenue the value of in-kind facility improvements and should refrain from determining how the fee should be calculated in instances where a broadcaster leases spectrum to a third party,” NCTA said. It's “premature” to make any adjustments to the basis for calculating the fee, it said. America’s Public Television Stations “strongly” urges the FCC "to adopt its proposed Broadcast Internet Order to promote innovation, experimentation, and greater use of broadcast television spectrum, including spectrum licensed to public television stations,” said APTS CEO Patrick Butler in a news release Thursday: “The critical importance of Broadcast Internet services has never been clearer than during the pandemic.”