Monty Tayloe

That broadcasters won their case against streaming TV service Aereo in the Supreme Court Wednesday in a 6-3 decision (http://1.usa.gov/1lbK8Si) makes it very difficult for Aereo to continue operating, several broadcast and copyright attorneys told us. Justice Stephen Breyer wrote the majority opinion, ruling that despite Aereo’s unique technology, the company’s end product was little different than that of a cable company, and should be subject to laws intended to impose copyright restrictions on cable companies. Oral argument was in April (CED April 23 p1).

The FCC Incentive Auction Task Force is deciding what information will be provided to broadcasters as part of the commission’s outreach efforts in advance of the incentive auction, said an agency official Tuesday.

Set-top boxes account for “just 1.3 percent" of a typical home’s energy use, NCTA said in blog post Thursday (http://bit.ly/UifNf4), responding to a recent Los Angeles Times article’s comparison of set-top energy use to a washing machine. A recent industry voluntary agreement on set-top energy use (CD Dec 24 p1) means the devices are improving faster in energy use than a Department of Energy proposed standard would have, NCTA said. Users can check set-top energy use for themselves (http://bit.ly/1iLOobc) by taking advantage of transparency requirements in the voluntary agreement, NCTA said. The L.A. Times article is “incredibly misleading” said NCTA. The L.A. Times stands by the story, its author, Ralph Vartabedian, told us in an email. With multiple set-top boxes to serve multiple TVs, the boxes can be the largest use of power apart from air conditioning, he said. He also disputed NCTA criticisms that the story equates set-top box energy use with a washing machine’s. “We never said the box consumes that much power. In fact, the very next sentence in the story says these [boxes] consume 35 watts continuously,” Vartabedian said. “We checked with other private and government energy organizations and they concurred with our research and say our story is accurate.”

Although there are just three remaining opinion dates this term for the U.S. Supreme Court to issue a decision in the Aereo case, those following the case told us they aren’t surprised a decision hasn’t yet been issued. Oral argument in the case was held April 22 (CED April 23 p1). “It was one of the last cases argued and it’s clearly a difficult case,” said Fletcher Heald copyright attorney Kevin Goldberg, who is not connected with the proceeding. “That’s a recipe for a decision on the last day of the term.”

The FCC shouldn’t include the TVStudy software planned for use in the incentive auction and repacking in its upcoming auction report and order, said NAB auction expert Rick Kaplan in an interview Friday. NAB commented Friday (http://bit.ly/1ghCXqp), urging the commission to use the original Office of Engineering and Technology-69 software instead, because even when running the same specifications as the original software, TVStudy produces different calculations for stations’ coverage area and population served. “Some stations lose and some stations gain, but Congress instructed the FCC to protect all stations,” Kaplan said. FCC officials and industry associations have said TVStudy has features the original OET-69 software doesn’t, and it would be difficult to do the auction without them. “Not only does the new software improve upon the previous iteration, but it also contains features that will be necessary to conduct the incentive auction,” commented CTIA in docket 12-268.

Sinclair’s willingness to look outside Advanced Television Systems Committee 3.0 for a new TV standard friendlier to mobile uses caused disagreement among panelists and attendees at an ATSC conference Thursday. Sinclair’s plan (CED May 8 p4) to create a new platform that supports broadcasting across all media and then seek a standard for it could lead to two coexisting standards, said Jay Adrick, consultant to GatesAir. That would be “a disaster” for the industry, Adrick said. Other panelists praised Sinclair for investing in new technology but said they hoped the company’s efforts would end up being incorporated into ATSC 3.0. Offering two standards to the FCC would be “a bad idea,” said Lin Media Chief Technology Officer Brett Jenkins.

A new effort by Sinclair to bring about the creation of a new TV standard by designing technology to allow broadcasters to send their signals over wireless networks is not likely to capture the attention of an FCC consumed by the incentive auction, said several industry observers in interviews. “Once you get into a new standard it would delay everything,” while the FCC is focused on completing the auction on schedule, said broadcast engineer Don Everist, president of Cohen, Dippell.

A Supreme Court win for Aereo would mean broadcasters continuing the battle in court and in Congress while cable companies strategize against retransmission consent, several attorneys told us in interviews. Though several observers think the court’s decision may be leaning toward broadcasters, the justices seemed conflicted at Tuesday’s oral argument (CED April 23 p1).

Aereo v. ABC remains too close to call after oral argument at the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday (CED April 21 p1), said several communications attorneys who attended the hearing and gave follow-up interviews. They said a decision, which may be 5-4, seems likely to hinge on what’s safest for the cloud computing industry.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s questions and responses to oral arguments Tuesday in ABC v. Aereo will provide some insight into whether the court will side with broadcasters or streaming TV service Aereo when it issues a decision likely this summer, said several attorneys we canvassed, one of whom is actually involved in the case.