Monty Tayloe

An FCC NPRM on ATSC 3.0 is expected to contain few surprises, but it's not clear when it will be issued, broadcast industry officials said in interviews this week. The April petition submitted by NAB, CTA, America's Public TV Stations and the Advanced Warning and Response Network Alliance didn't include a mandatory transition (see 1604130065). So the NPRM isn't expected to be overly complicated, the officials told us.

The FCC Media Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology are working on an ATSC 3.0 NPRM, Chairman Tom Wheeler said in a letter to Rep. Gene Green, D-Texas, posted online Monday. Wheeler was responding to a letter from Green expressing the legislator's worry that an NPRM wouldn’t be issued before 2016 is out.

Wireless carriers and broadcasters disagree about the viability of the FCC's repacking schedule and how it should be changed, according to comments filed in docket 12-268 in time for Monday's comment deadline, which saw some earlier comments from all sides (see 1610310052). Some broadcasters believe FCC prioritization of clearing the 600 MHz band of stations gives too much emphasis to the needs of wireless carriers and not enough to the health and safety of tower crews, while the Competitive Carriers Association argued that not enough emphasis is being given to clearing the spectrum quickly. “Allowing stations to move forward when ready, potentially out of order with the schedule produced by the Phase Scheduling Tool, will remove unnecessary impediments and ensure timely reassignment of stations that may be prepared to move sooner than anticipated,” commented CCA.

The FCC released its first-ever white paper on cognitive disabilities and possible accessibility and technology solutions, Chairman Tom Wheeler said in remarks at a Coleman Institute conference on cognitive disabilities and technology Thursday in Broomfield, Colorado. “We’re not where we need to be when it comes to making sure accessibility issues are a first thought, not an afterthought.” In the white paper, the commission said a lack of outreach to those with cognitive disabilities is a major barrier to their use of technology, along with economic barriers and a dearth of accessible tech. “The perceived complexity of many communications devices may deter their acquisition,” it said. “Consumers and their caregivers may simply assume that a technology cannot be made accessible to them, even when a device has features to address the consumers' accessibility needs.” Communications tools that can help those with cognitive disabilities are “being underutilized because people either don’t know they are available or know how to access them,” Wheeler said. The FCC Disability Advisory Committee’s Sept. 22 approval of a set of industry-supported best practices designed to ensure the needs of those with cognitive disabilities are included in development of communications technology is “groundbreaking and inspiring,” Wheeler said. The practices are consistent with Coleman Institute’s own Declaration of Principles: Rights of People with Cognitive Disabilities to Technology and Information Access, Wheeler said, saying he's now a signatory to the declaration. Under the best practices, companies are encouraged to develop “collaborative relationships” with people with cognitive disabilities and related organizations, and to “keep abreast” of their needs. The practices encourage companies to include those with cognitive disabilities in their development process, and to make it easier for their products to be customized to suit individual needs, Wheeler said. He cited recent guidance from the FCC on how TV stations can make their alerts accessible to those with cognitive disabilities (see 1609300060). Despite such efforts, there's a danger that outreach efforts to those with cognitive disabilities could get worse as technology advances, Wheeler said. “We need to make sure that new barriers are not created through complex display menus and user guides, complicated security and navigation features, and software upgrades that may be well-intentioned, but which often create obstacles for individuals with disabilities,” Wheeler said. “The Commission has rules in place assuring that advanced communications services and equipment are accessible, and we will enforce those rules.” Policymakers should encourage industry representatives to “do their part to raise awareness among their designers, developers, service personnel and customer representatives about the needs of people with cognitive disabilities and their support networks,” Wheeler said. Those with cognitive disabilities also need jobs, he said, noting an FCC program that has led to six employees with intellectual disabilities. The program “has helped everyone at the FCC,” Wheeler said. “Work is getting done -- and well. Training is ongoing. Promotions are occurring. And new relationships and sensitivities have developed.”

While the FCC broadcast incentive auction lasting into multiple stages would appear to give supporters of ATSC 3.0 more time to finish their standard and secure regulatory approval before the repacking, boosters for the new standard told us they don't see it that way. “I don't see more time as a positive or negative for the standard's adoption,” said Sinclair Vice President-Advanced Technology Mark Aitken, an advocate for the new standard. “I don't think it helps anybody for things to go slowly,” said ATSC President Mark Richer. “It was never a concern that anybody would be waiting on ATSC 3.0.” ATSC recently announced the completion of some additional layers for the new standard (see 1610050056).

A draft order that would require pay-TV carriers to provide content via apps to third-party devices was circulated to the FCC eighth floor Thursday, as expected (see 1609060080). It's intended for the agenda of the Sept. 29 FCC meeting, said Chairman Tom Wheeler in a Los Angeles Times op-ed, and said an FCC fact sheet. As expected, the draft item replaces the set-top box plan proposed in the NPRM with a plan based on free apps that don't require a specific platform or technology and uses a licensing regime overseen by the commission. Larger multichannel video programming distributors will have two years to comply with the new rules, while midsize MVPDs will have longer. The smallest MVPDs -- under 400,000 subscribers -- would be exempt, the fact sheet said.

The FCC could take up a proceeding on approving ATSC 3.0 before the end of 2016, NAB CEO Gordon Smith said at NAB's Broadcast Innovations event Wednesday. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler told Smith the new standard would become a priority for the commission after "a few things" are taken off the FCC's agenda, Smith said. If a new standard is approved in 2016, broadcasters could be transmitting in the new standard by summer 2017, Smith said. ATSC 3.0 would allow broadcasters to offer better visuals and audio, such as UltraHD, said NBCUniversal Senior Vice President-Advanced Technology Glenn Reitmeier on a panel. Cable and satellite providers don't require regulatory approval to offer services like UltraHD, so it's important for broadcasters to have the new standard approved, Reitmeier said.

Programmers are “strongly opposed” to any set-top licensing scheme that gives the FCC the power to alter the terms of content licenses, representatives of Time Warner, Scripps, Viacom, Disney, CBS and 21st Century Fox said in a Sept. 1 meeting with aides to Chairman Tom Wheeler, staff from the Office of General Counsel, and FCC Chief Technologist Scott Jordan, according to an ex parte filing in docket 16-42. Numerous programmer ex parte filings and industry officials have indicated the FCC is proposing a new apps-based set-top plan that includes commission oversight of a licensing program that would allow third parties to run multichannel video programming distributors' apps on their devices (see 1609060080). Though the ex parte letter indicated programmer support for the FCC’s apps-based direction and plans to enforce copyright rules, the content companies restated their concerns about the licensing aspect. “Any arrangement in which they are forced to allow their content to be distributed on terms or conditions to which programmers would not agree would be tantamount to a compulsory copyright license, which the Commission lacks authority to impose,” the filing said. The American Cable Association also met with FCC officials Sept. 1, to ask that any set-top rules exempt MVPDs with fewer than 400,000 subscribers, and allow those with up to a million subscribers more time to comply, according to an ex parte filing. In a separate letter, TiVo indicated support for the small carrier exemption, and asked that any new set-top rules contain provisions requiring MVPDs to continue supplying CableCARDs. The FCC’s new-set top plan is expected to contain a carve-out for smaller carriers, industry officials told us. In its recent letter, set-top maker Roku asked the FCC not to require that third-party box makers use HTML5, which MVPDs had sought in their own apps proposal. Industry officials and ex parte filings indicate the set-top plan currently pursued by the FCC doesn’t require the use of HTML5, though pay-TV interests are still pushing for it. In a Sept. 2 letter, Best Buy filed in support of the original NPRM, which it said could protect the interests of both MVPDs and consumers.

The FCC asked some follow-up questions of proponents of the pay-TV backed set-top-box proposal, pay-TV officials and an agency official told us. The questions are part of a recent spate of meetings and calls with stakeholders about the proposal, the officials said. Proponents of the pay-TV plan are expected to provide answers to the questions before the end of this week, officials said. The list of questions included queries about whether the licensing agreement for pay-TV apps would allow programmer apps to be included in the universal search function on an equal basis, and whether the pay-TV apps involved would be able to be used on different devices and operating systems. Microsoft visited the FCC and met with Chief Technologist Scott Jordan and Media Bureau staff July 18 on set-top matters connected with licensing agreements, said an ex parte filing. Some of the language in the FCC Unlock the Box set-top plan would interfere with Microsoft's Play Ready content licensing system, said the filing posted Thursday in docket 16-42. Earlier questions from the FCC on the pay-TV plan had led officials on both sides of the issue to say the alternative, the Ditch the Box plan, had momentum (see 1607110042).

The FCC list of entities qualified to bid in the forward portion of the incentive auction contains all the companies expected to provide major bidding muscle but omits two expected new entrants, Sinclair and Social Capital Rama Spectrum Holdings, according to a Friday public notice (see 1607110052). With AT&T, Comcast, Dish Network, T-Mobile and Verizon in the list of 62 qualified bidders, the companies that didn't qualify aren't expected to have much of an effect on the auction, a broadcast attorney told us. Social Capital, a boutique investment firm owned by Chamath Palihapitiya, signaled an interest in buying spectrum, as did Sinclair, but because of the amount of money involved, their lack of participation isn't expected to be a major factor in the auction's success, an attorney who follows the auction told us. Bidders who aren't on the qualified list can't participate in the forward auction or any of its subsequent stages, an FCC spokesman told us. Becoming a qualified bidder required a timely submitted upfront payment, and those on the unqualified list likely chose not to make that payment, attorneys told us. The forward auction bidding system will be available to bidders starting Tuesday, and a clock phase practice auction will be July 25-July 29. A mock forward auction will be Aug.11-Aug. 12, the PN said. The real forward auction will begin Aug. 16 with a single round. “We will set the pace of the auction based upon monitoring of the bidding and assessment of the auction’s progress,” the PN said.