Monty Tayloe

Though Monday was the effective date of the ATSC 3.0 order, that milestone will have little practical effect because the technology that would let stations use the new standard is largely unavailable and the portions of the order that govern outlets’ transition to 3.0 are still being approved by the Office of Management and the Budget under the Paperwork Reduction Act, said broadcasters, attorneys and FCC officials.

Sinclair's divestiture trust proposal to bring its planned buy of Tribune into compliance with FCC rules (see 1802210062) doesn’t contain enough specifics to merit turning the deal’s paused shot clock back on, opponents said Wednesday in interviews and filings. “Sinclair hasn’t delivered with this filing,” said Brian Thorn, strategic research associate at the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians (NABET-CWA). “There isn’t enough to assuage our concerns.”

Public TV is looking to ATSC 3.0 to expand its reach and become more worthy of underwriting and protection from funding cuts, said speakers Tuesday at America’s Public Television Stations’ Public Media Summit. APTS gave ATSC President Mark Richer an award for “excellence in innovation."

Broadcasters clashed with Microsoft, MVPDs and unlicensed spectrum advocates responding to an FCC Further NPRM on ATSC 3.0, in filings in docket 16-142 Wednesday. Broadcast entities such as NAB and One Media want transitioning broadcasters to have the option to use vacant channels, but Microsoft, the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute and Public Knowledge said that request is a spectrum grab. Such “a dramatic giveaway” to broadcasters is a legal violation “inconsistent” with the public interest and spectrum policy, and is “likely unnecessary to facilitate the voluntary ATSC 3.0 transition,” Microsoft said. The sides also disagree about the standards to be applied to broadcaster waivers of the 3.0 order’s simulcast requirement.

Sinclair will offload stations into a divestiture trust to bring its proposed buy of Tribune under the 39 percent FCC national ownership cap. The final combination, under the UHF discount, would reach 37.3 percent of households, Sinclair said in an amendment to deal filings Wednesday. In three markets, Sinclair will seek to take advantage of the FCC’s new openness to common ownership of two top-four stations in the same market, and offloads other stations to bring the deal into compliance with current rules.

Tech companies and the U.S. government need to study ubiquitous social media and mobile tech and prevent their use from harming children and society, said legislators, physicians and advocates at a Common Sense event Wednesday. In trying to make apps, mobile video, games and social networking more attractive, tech companies created addictive products that are causing harm, said Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Rep. John Delaney, D-Md. The constant reliance on mobile technology “isn’t a drug, but it might as well be, because it does the same thing,” said Robert Lustig, pediatric endocrinologist at University of California, San Francisco. “It works on the same part of the brain.”

Hawaii’s false missile alert stemmed from lack of safeguards and human error, including a Hawaii Emergency Management Agency employee who repeatedly confused drills and real alerts, said reports from the Public Safety Bureau at an FCC commissioners' meeting and later Tuesday from Bruce Oliveira, the retired brigadier general investigating for HI-EMA (see 1801250061). That staffer was fired and other employees were disciplined. Members of Congress told us they continue to be concerned, as are FCC members.

Questions about the origination of the recent false missile alert in Hawaii should be answered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency rather than the FCC, said FCC Public Safety Bureau Chief Lisa Fowlkes and several senators at a Commerce Committee hearing Thursday (see 1801240046), which FEMA officials didn't attend, despite being invited.

Though ATSC 3.0 will enable advancements in emergency alerts, it can’t address the problems of an outdated, underfunded emergency alert system (EAS) operated by personnel who may be undertrained, said Advanced Warning and Response Network (AWARN) Alliance Executive Director John Lawson at an FCBA event on ATSC 3.0 Friday. Panelists at the event also spoke about the upcoming trials of ATSC 3.0 technology and the process remaining for the new standard to go into effect.

Dallas will be the first test market of plans by a new consortium for the ATSC 3.0 transition and, if things go well, possibly the location of the first commercial offering of the new standard as well, said American Tower and Sinclair executives in interviews Wednesday. “We fully expect this to go on to be a commercial market,” said American Tower Vice President-Broadcasting Peter Starke. “We don’t plan to take this equipment down.” The broadcast consortium of American Tower, Nexstar, Sinclair and Univision hopes to use the Dallas test bed to work out the details of 3.0 simulcasting, connectivity and wireless offerings, said Mark Aitken, Sinclair vice president-advanced technology.