Broadcasters Want 'Substantially Similar' ATSC 3.0 Rule Gone

LAS VEGAS -- Broadcasters have made great progress toward realizing the promise of ATSC 3.0, but for the transition to succeed long term they need the FCC to sunset the requirement that 3.0 broadcasts be "substantially similar" to ATSC 1.0 content, said several broadcast executives on multiple weekend panels at the NAB Show 2022.

Some markets will be left out of the transition if broadcasters are bound by regulatory “handcuffs,” said Nexstar Chief Technology Officer Brett Jenkins. "Imagine you’re a consumer and you buy a 3.0 television and you turn it on and it's literally the same programming,” asked Sinclair Senior Vice President-Advanced Technology Mark Aitken. Why would any consumer knowingly buy a 3.0 set, he asked.

The FCC’s substantially similar rule was well-intentioned, but the requirement already is “economically enforced” because broadcasters are financially motivated to hold on to their broadcast audiences, said Skip Flenniken, Sinclair vice president-general manager, technology business development. “Not one consumer has been impacted by our transition to NextGen,” said Pearl TV Managing Director Anne Schelle, adding broadcasters need the flexibility to transition stations freely to 3.0 to complete the transition.

BitPath CEO John Hane thinks there's "widespread misapprehension in Washington about what broadcasters are going to do with 3.0,” he said. “They’re worried about us degrading the video service to make money on data ... we’re not going to degrade the video service.” Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley said broadcasters could cover the nation with 3.0 without eliminating the substantially similar requirement, but doing away with it is important for increasing the number of stations in each market that can move to the new standard.

Pearl asked the FCC to sunset the requirement in 2023, the end date in the FCC’s original 2017 ATSC 3.0 order (see 2204120065). FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel voted against that order as a then-commissioner and cited concerns about consumers left disenfranchised by the transition (see 1711160060). “I look forward to talking to the commissioners,” said Schelle. “I think they’re listening.”

Broadcasters need the additional flexibility of being able to transition without providing a substantially similar 1.0 stream because of the limited capacity in some markets, said Kerry Oslund, E.W. Scripps vice president-strategy and business development. The FCC could relieve some pressure by allowing broadcasters to use TV white spaces for the transition, he said. Broadcasters are examining the possibility of changing the data compression methods they use for mulitcast channels to free up more capacity in some markets, said Sinclair President-Technology Del Parks. Doing so could free up enough room to transition one additional station in each market, and wouldn’t degrade the quality of those channels, Parks said.

Sinclair and other NextGen proponents detailed a number of strategies at the show to expand use of 3.0, including a prototype datacasting agreement involving electric-vehicle charging stations, plus open source 3.0 apps, and possible approaches to increasing the number of converted stations in a given market. Ripley said the datacasting trial is “minor,” but it's also a first step toward fulfilling the “digital promise” of broadcasters supplementing their programming business with data transmission, during a media briefing Saturday. Hane said BitPath is emphasizing location services in its exploration of datacasting. BitPath announced Friday it will launch a broadcast data network for location services in several markets in 2022.

The datacasting deal, between Sinclair and digital media company USSI Global, involves using Sinclair stations' spectrum to transmit and collect data from electric vehicle charging stations, and also provide content and advertising for media offerings at those stations. Ripley said Saturday the trial is intended to last 9-12 months in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Sinclair and USSI won't release the deal's monetary details, saying it's a trial. But Ripley said the vision eventually is to commercialize a nationwide network of datacasting EV charging stations, helped by federal incentives to increase the availability of EVs and charging stations. The nationwide network would deploy the spectrum of multiple broadcast groups, Ripley said.

Sinclair also touted its offering of an open source broadcast app that allows broadcasters to take advantage of 3.0's expanded interface options, including through secondary audio streams or richer context about the content being viewed. By making the app open source, Sinclair hopes to lower the barriers to entry to innovate with the new standard, Aitken said. Sinclair also emphasized plans to offer 3.0 content in HDR. Sinclair has 28 stations offering HDR content on their 3.0 streams, and said last week it will transition its regional sports networks to HDR in the second half of 2022 (see 2204220052).

The app also includes functionality to allow transmission of advanced emergency information (AEI), which John Lawson, executive director of the Advanced Warning and Response Network Alliance, said is some of the only progress broadcasters have made toward using 3.0 to improve emergency warnings. Lawson, who recently launched a business intended to provide data connections between broadcasters and emergency response entities, said broadcasters haven’t sufficiently focused on using 3.0 for emergencies. Aitken told us he vehemently disagrees, and broadcasters are working on AEI. “A voluntary system needs volunteers,” Lawson said.