Substantially Similar Rule Holding Back ATSC 3.0, Say Broadcasters

Broadcasters want the FCC to allow the ATSC 3.0 substantially similar requirement to sunset and remove other limits on 3.0 broadcasts, but MVPD groups and Public Knowledge say those restrictions must remain to avoid pressure on consumers, according to comments posted Tuesday in docket 16-142.

“By moving all of their advanced programs to an ATSC 3.0 signal, broadcasters will have an incentive to try to force consumers to upgrade to new TVs to continue receiving their current content,” said Public Knowledge and The Open Technology Institute at New America in joint comments. “It is unrealistic to expect broadcasters to fatally undermine their business in a ham-fisted scheme to compel consumers to buy new equipment.” said NAB. Commenters also discussed ATSC 3.0 patents, receivers and the A/322 mandate (see 2208090040).

The substantially similar requirement, which requires broadcasters to air similar content on their 3.0 and 1.0 streams, is scheduled to sunset in 2023. Allowing it to do so would allow broadcasters to try different programming, maximizing the new tech’s features on their 3.0 streams, said NAB, Pearl TV, One Media and others. “The effect in the near term of the elimination of the requirement would likely be changes to stations’ 3.0 programming, not changes to their 1.0 programming,” said NAB. “Broadcaster revenue is maximized by reaching the maximum number of viewers,” said Pearl TV. “Thus, broadcasters would only harm their own bottom line by restricting their most popular programming to a subset of their viewership.”

Broadcasters are only speculating that those incentives will protect consumers, said NCTA. “The broadcasters themselves don't know how this marketplace will evolve or how their financial incentives could change as the 3.0 transition progresses.” The FCC should keep the substantial rule, reexamining the sunset lapse in five years, and issue case-by-case waivers in the meantime, said the American Television Alliance and NCTA.

The FCC doesn't compel other industries to “intentionally slow the pace of competition,” said NAB, noting the rollout of 5G. The agency never considered “imposing requirements that carriers only offer the same services they could offer with 4G or 3G, despite the fact that literally no consumer can take advantage of 5G service using this spectrum without buying a new phone.”

The FCC should use broadcast ancillary service fees generated by 3.0 datacasting to fund a consumer “coupon” program for access to low-cost 3.0-compatible TVs, PK and OTI said. NAB countered concerns -- often raised by Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel (see 1711160060) -- that 3.0 threatens consumer access to free over-the-air TV. “If the Commission is concerned about multiple tiers of video programming, the Commission’s top broadcasting priority should be helping broadcasters improve the only free video programming option under the Commission’s jurisdiction,” NAB said.

All the broadcast industry commenters also targeted other 3.0 requirements, such as broadcasters having to maintain a simulcast 1.0 stream, or cover 95% of a station’s coverage area with a hosting arrangement. Those rules mean transitioning a market to 3.0 strains the broadcast spectrum capacity, which could eventually cause transitioning broadcasters to drop multicast channels or degrade their signals, BitPath said. “In many and perhaps most of the smaller markets, there simply are not enough stations to support 1.0 simulcasting. Those markets will have to be flash cut when conditions permit.” The coverage rules have made it difficult for public TV stations, which are sometimes part of statewide networks, to transition, said America’s Public Television Stations, CPB and PBS in a joint filing.

A lack of capacity and inflexibility in the FCC’s hosting rules are the biggest barriers to the transition, BitPath said. The FCC “must understand and accept that insurmountable capacity constraints will likely make it impossible to achieve a standard of zero consumer disruption,” said NAB. Several commenters suggested the agency contemplate issuing targeted waivers of the simulcast requirement. “We are fast approaching a point at which the transition progress will slow and potentially stall if the requested multicast hosting relief is not forthcoming very quickly,” said BitPath (see 2207290054).

Pearl TV and others asked the agency to lower the amount of notice that must be given to MVPDs of a 3.0 transition from 90 days to 30. NAB said the FCC should roll out some ATSC 3.0 Further NPRMs, including on examining the eventual ending of the 1.0 broadcasting requirement and the coverage rules. NAB also said the agency should resolve a long-stalled Microsoft petition against the agency’s distributed transmission system rules (see 2109130037).

“There has not been a single complaint from any MVPD alleging that anything untoward, or even anything they don’t like, has been done,” said BitPath. The FCC should monitor the way 3.0 interacts with retransmission consent negotiations, said NCTA. The agency should prevent MVPDs from being forced to carry a broadcaster's 3.0 stream as part of a retrans agreement for the 1.0 stream, they said. “We are not aware of any carriage, and certainly not widespread carriage, of 3.0 signals by MVPDs,” BitPath said. “But there really has been very little impetus for such carriage given the substantially similar requirement.”

MVPD and broadcast groups also disagreed whether 3.0 is a “trial” technology or “the future of television.” The service has been launched in 52 markets which cover over 60 million households, NAB said. “Viewers in 29 markets, representing approximately 36 million television households, have access to the 'Big-4’ networks via NextGen,” NAB said, adding 3.0 is “emphatically” not a trial technology.

NCTA saw the numbers differently. “The 3.0 transition is still in its early stages and has not progressed as quickly as the Commission assumed it would in 2017,” said NCTA, saying in most of the transitioned markets, only one full-power station is licensed to host 3.0, serving as the lighthouse for multiple station’s 3.0 programming. “The ATSC 3.0 marketplace has not developed meaningfully,” ATVA said. “Even if substantially more stations were to begin broadcasting in 3.0 soon, most consumers would still depend on 1.0 signals to view broadcast programming,” NCTA said.