Monty Tayloe

FCC inaction on an NAB petition for clarification of ATSC 3.0 rules is making the transition to the new standard more difficult, broadcasters said. The petition was filed in November and has been a focus of NAB lobbying in recent months and was again Friday (see 2011100067).

Emergency alerting officials and broadcasters see information-rich messaging and increased geotargeting as their biggest needs, and are looking to ATSC 3.0 as a possible solution, said speakers at the Advance Warning and Response Network’s virtual summit Tuesday. More authorities are including links and additional information in their alerts, and that’s information that can’t be “effectively delivered” using the current emergency alert system, said Wade Witmer, deputy director of the Federal Emergency Management Association's Integrated Public Alert Warning System. Last year, there was an almost 200% increase in use of wireless emergency alerts compared with 2019, and a 135% increase in EAS use, Witmer said. Nearly every panelist said richer information and more-targeted alerts could help reduce “milling,” a response to emergency alerts identified by social scientists wherein the public tends to search for additional information and confirm details before acting. “Milling is inevitable,” said Denis Gusty, branch chief with the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate. Alerting officials said more-informative alerts from trusted sources could reduce the time gap between the public receiving emergency info and acting on it. “When you put that information in the first message, it speeds up the whole process,” said Rebecca Baudendistel, New York City Emergency Management Department director-public warning. Better-targeted alerts can cut down on alert fatigue, and make it less likely the public will opt out of receiving needed alerts, said National Weather Service Physical Scientist Michael Gerber. Technology that allows officials to limit alerting to only the most serious storms and emergency events similarly helps reduce alerting fatigue, Gerber said. ATSC 3.0 can carry more complete information, said WJLA-TV Washington meteorologist Veronica Johnson. WJLA owner Sinclair has been a big 3.0 backer. Johnson suggested 3.0 could allow viewers who want additional information about an emergency to watch it on one stream while allowing those unaffected by the emergency to continue watching their expected content. It could let emergency information be sent to gaming devices or connected cars, she said.

NAB President-CEO Gordon Smith will step down at the end of 2021 and be replaced by current NAB Chief Operating Officer Curtis LeGeyt, the group announced Wednesday. Broadcasters and broadcast attorneys told us LeGeyt is seen as having extensive contacts among Capitol Hill Democrats.

Beasley Broadcast Q4 net revenue fell about 5% to $68.5 million from Q4 2019. That “primarily reflects a year-over-year decrease in commercial advertising revenue due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, partially offset by growth in digital, esports and political revenue,” the radio station owner reported Wednesday. “Esports allowed us to make lemonade out of lemons last year,” CEO Caroline Beasley told investors. Operating income was $19.6 million vs. $11.2 million, the result of lower operating and corporate expenses, lower impairment losses and a land sale, the release said. The Q4 “results reflect the ongoing recovery of our business,” said the CEO in a release. The company has continued to generate month-over-month revenue growth if political ads are excluded from the calculation, she said. Caroline Beasley expects revenue from events to “hopefully” begin returning at the end of 2021 and continue into 2022. She said the company is focused on digital and attracting new advertisers in the coming year.

NAB, E.W. Scripps and Tegna asked the FCC to clarify how FCC licensing rules affect TV stations multicasting during the ATSC 3.0 transition, in replies for Monday night’s deadline in docket 16-142. “The clarification and rule changes NAB seeks in this proceeding are ministerial in nature and intended only to ensure that the Commission has a consistent regulatory framework,” said NAB. Recognizing or codifying rules around broadcasters hosting programming streams for other stations is needed to clarify the arrangements don’t create attributable interests for ownership purposes, and that the stream’s originator is responsible for ensuring it complies with FCC considerations such as kidvid and emergency broadcast rules, Tegna said. The clarification would “provide regulatory certainty and efficiencies that would facilitate the deployment of ATSC 3.0 technologies,” said Scripps.

The FCC approved 3-2 rules for broadcaster distributed transmission systems -- also called single frequency networks -- said an order Tuesday. Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks dissented in part from the order that's seen as important to the ATSC 3.0 transition over concerns that rules allowing broadcaster “spillover” will interfere with the use of TV white spaces for unlicensed devices. This “threatens to disrupt” a “careful balance” over the white spaces by “moving too quickly,” Starks said. The order replaces the current restriction on DTS signals spilling beyond a station’s service area beyond “a minimal amount” with a hard number dependent on the type of station. The new “bright-line rule” allows for more spillover and clarifies the requirement. That’s a change from the NPRM, which the order said “failed to account for the additive effect of multiple DTS transmissions and thus underestimated the potential interference impact of the proposal.” Starks and Rosenworcel had advocated for an expedited waiver process for broadcasters that sought to use DTS systems, an approach also pushed by Microsoft and New America's Open Technology Institute. “I would have preferred a more fine-tuned approach that would have allowed us to better gauge the effects of these systems on other services that use these airwaves,” said Rosenworcel. The agency is “confident” the order will result in less interference than the proposal. The order won't let stations expand their reach beyond current limits, said Chairman Ajit Pai, whose last full day was Tuesday. "Any DTS transmitters must stay within the broadcaster’s authorized or hypothetical maximum area and must be necessary to ensure better local transmission -- not intended to extend coverage beyond the authorized area." The order “will permit stations to reliably reach viewers that could not otherwise be served by a single transmitter architecture, which is so important in rural and remote areas, in terrains with gaps in coverage, and in urban settings, often in communities with traditionally underserved populations,” said America’s Public Television Stations General Counsel Lonna Thompson in an emailed statement. “We're pleased that the Commission adopted this change to the rules on Single Frequency Networks, since it will help broadcasters roll out NEXTGEN TV more quickly and more efficiently,” said broadcast consortium Pearl TV.

Chairman Ajit Pai’s final FCC commissioners' meeting Wednesday included condemnations of President Donald Trump by Republicans and speculation about future action on social media moderation. Pai said he had planned pre-election to leave the post after a single term, declining to comment on his plans or President Donald Trump's second impeachment. Trump made “a terrible mistake” in strategizing to overturn the election results and responding to last week's attack on the Capitol, Pai told a news conference. Republican Commissioner Brendan Carr made similar comments during his own news conference. “It is clear to me that President Trump bears responsibility,” Carr said, repeatedly emphasizing he's focused on “the peaceful transfer of power.” In meeting remarks, Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel also condemned the attack on the Capitol. “To watch those disowning the hatred that brought us here when for too long they walked too casually alongside it is difficult,” said Rosenworcel. Pai said the decisions social media companies have been making to ban accounts over incitements to violence illustrate the current “very fluid situation” and lack of transparency about how such decisions are being made. It's “unclear” whether social media moderation policies are being applied equally or consistently, Pai said. Carr, who had been vocal on the issue, said he expected the matter of social media moderation to remain important after the presidential transition. He said current policies are “producing errors in both directions” because newspaper content is being taken down while threats and fighting words remain up.

The FCC voted 5-0 to approve an order on ATSC 3.0 datacasting, but Democratic Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks concurred over concerns about consumer costs. “There comes a point -- and I think we’re getting there fast -- where we can no longer afford to ignore this issue,” said Rosenworcel. “We need to do more to figure out how we can help viewers reach this next generation of television technology.”

The final version of the draft order on ATSC 3.0 datacasting is expected to be changed from the draft version to be more palatable to the agency’s Democrats, FCC and broadcast industry officials told us. One other media item added recently to Thursday's agenda -- on a noncommercial educational station’s petition for reconsideration -- has already been voted on, and another on electronic Media Bureau fees isn’t considered controversial, an FCC official said.

An FCC draft order on allowing voluntary all-digital AM radio service is expected to be approved unanimously at Tuesday’s open commission meeting, said FCC and industry officials in interviews. Ben Downs, vice president for early all-digital AM supporter Bryan Broadcasting, told us he’s not surprised by the broad support for the AM radio order. “This is the right thing for everyone,” he said. Items with unanimous support are sometimes voted ahead of open meetings, but that’s unlikely to happen with this, FCC officials said.