Monty Tayloe

Broadcasters see the progress of the ATSC 3.0 rollout as one of several promising signs for the future of broadcast TV, despite the difficulties of the COVID-19 pandemic, said industry officials at the virtual NAB Show New York event Thursday. COVID-19 is “a double-edged sword” because the increase in TV and over-the-top viewing brought by the pandemic plays to 3.0 strengths, said John Taylor, LG Electronics senior vice president-public affairs and communications.

The timing of the FCC’s move to new headquarters remains uncertain, and 87% of frontline FCC employees hope to telework full time until an effective COVID-19 vaccine is in wide use and the pandemic “subsides,” said a survey by the National Treasury Employees Union Chapter 209, which represents FCC employees. “At this juncture, I can’t provide you with a definite timeline for these next steps” in the agency's relocation, wrote FCC Chief of Staff Matthew Berry in an agencywide email at the end of September. “But I hope to be able to do so in mid-October.”

An FCC order on allowing AM stations to go all-digital wouldn’t codify a specific technical standard or impose additional interference restrictions on the fledgling service and would require a 30-day waiting period for stations to provide notice, said the draft Tuesday. The order was released with other drafts for the Oct. 27 commissioners’ meeting (see 2010060056).

Calls to use ancillary service fees generated by ATSC 3.0 datacasting to fund consumer purchases of compatible equipment are a “red-herring,” said One Media in replies in docket 20-145 for Monday’s midnight deadline for responses to a June NPRM (see 2008180060). Statute requires the fees be deposited into the DTV Transition and Public Safety Fund, One Media said. Instead, the FCC would be “well-within its authority” to delay imposing fees on 3.0 datacasting for five years, said the company. NAB called the idea from Public Knowledge and the Open Technology Institute “legally questionable.” NAB urged the FCC “to move expeditiously to conclude this proceeding without adding regulatory hurdles for broadcasters.” Don’t nullify broadcaster obligations to pay such fees, said PK and OTI. “Revisit its ancillary and supplementary services rules as applied to Broadcast Internet services to ensure its fees and other regulations provide regulatory parity and reflect broadcasters’ evolving business ambitions,” asked CTIA. The public interest groups and NCTA again said the FCC should upgrade requirements for broadcasters to mandate an HD stream. “In considering whether the provision of such services unlawfully derogates broadcast television services, the Commission should be guided by the current state of technology and consumer expectations,” the cable association said. That the agency should “mechanically define ‘advanced’ with reference to a certain pixel count specified in a 1996 technical standard is obvious folly,” said ATSC 3.0 consortium BitPath. The FCC should “take measures that add protections for LPTV stations during the nation’s progression toward the offering of robust Next Gen TV services,” said the National Religious Broadcasters.

ATSC 3.0-focused entities BitPath, OneMedia and Pearl TV want the FCC to delay or ameliorate congressionally required ancillary services fees on broadcaster datacasting, while public interest groups believe those fees should be used to cover costs to consumers from purported disruptions in the 3.0 transition, said comments posted at the FCC in docket 20-145 (see 2006090055). Noncommercial educational broadcasters want to be exempt from the fees, and low-power TV groups seek more flexibility to benefit from 3.0.

The FCC will allow employees who are teleworking now to continue doing so until at least June, and delayed its move to new headquarters until September over concerns over staff exposure to COVID-19 during the packing process. The decision allowing staff to continue teleworking until next summer was made “in light of recent announcements by school districts as well as the ongoing nature of the pandemic,” wrote Chairman Ajit Pai’s Chief of Staff Matthew Berry in a memo emailed to workers Friday that we obtained. “We want to provide those with concerns ranging from childcare to their own health with the peace of mind that they will have the flexibility they need over the coming months,” said Berry. Telework will be mandatory until the move to the new headquarters is complete in September, he told employees.

The newly formed Independent Broadcasters Association (see 2007100040) is intended to let independent radio stations cooperate to get some of the financial advantages the largest station groups enjoy, not as a lobbying group or alternative to NAB or RAB, said the group’s members in interviews last week. The IBA will be a buying group and one-stop shop for national advertisers, not a lobbying organization, said founder Ron Stone, CEO of Adams Radio Group. NAB and RAB “do an outstanding job,” said IBA member and Renda Broadcasting CEO Tony Renda. “Why reinvent the cow?”

Broadcast entities and white space devices proponents accused one another of attempting to seize control of spectrum they don’t own, in replies posted in docket 20-74 Tuesday in the FCC ATSC 3.0 distributed transmission system proceeding (see 2006150060). Microsoft’s opposition to relaxing interference rules to allow DTS systems is “a back door spectrum grab,” said One Media. The proposed changes “will only benefit a subgroup of broadcasters pursuing their vision of Broadcast Internet by allowing them to extend their respective coverage footprint,” Microsoft said. Though a broadcaster, PMCM also argued that DTS supporters’ motives aren’t pure. “The proposal is essentially a grab for new territory at the cost of decades of Commission adherence to community values,” PMCM said. "The only opposition to this proposal comes from parties with secondary or non-existent spectrum rights that ask the Commission to provide them with unprecedented and unwarranted protections,” said NAB and America’s Public Television Stations. Rule changes are premature because broadcasters have “yet to deploy ATSC 3.0 services in any widespread manner” and they aren’t aimed at improving TV broadcasting, said the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute and Public Knowledge. Assertions that broadcasters aren’t seeking those changes to improve over-the-air TV and would heavily invest in single-frequency networks only to compete in a datacasting market that doesn’t yet exist are naive, BitPath said. Revenue and public service benefits from datacasting won’t justify those sorts of investments on their own “for the foreseeable future,” said the company. “While the Commission does not propose granting the DTS spillover area any protection or rights today, based on the history of ATSC 3.0, we know such a request will be forthcoming,” Microsoft said. “It is only a matter of when.”

About 500 radio station owners will formally band together this week to create scale and sell national ads as the Independent Broadcasters Association, said Adams Radio Group CEO Ron Stone in an interview Friday. The group's members own a combined 2700 stations, he said. The group is Stone’s brainchild, and is intended to help smaller radio stations compete with larger entities such as iHeartRadio and Cumulus. “The concept is to serve independent radio stations in ways we are NOT being served by existing organizations and provide independent operators with ways to drive revenue and achieve cost benefits from scale that cannot be achieved alone,” Adams said on the IBA’s website. The group is focused on competition rather than lobbying, and isn’t intended to duplicate NAB, Stone said. Members will include Adams, Cromwell Group and Dick Broadcasting, Stone said.

The FCC issued the order wrapping up dangling aspects of ATSC 3.0 rules, as expected (see 2006050054). Stations with fewer than three potential simulcasting partners would be eligible to receive simulcast waivers, if they commit to taking reasonable efforts to provide ATSC 1.0 service during the transition. That could be by providing consumers with converters, but the order said the agency would consider other ideas. Waiver applications that include providing free converters to consumers will be looked upon “favorably,” the order said. The order doesn’t grant a blanket waiver to noncommercial educational or low-power TV stations, as some commenters sought. The order also doesn’t allow broadcasters to use vacant channels for the transition, and rejects reconsideration petitions of the 3.0 order from the American Television Alliance and NCTA. “If warranted by market conditions in the future, we may revisit the need for permitting broadcasters to use vacant channels as transition channels,” the order said. Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks dissented in part, raising concerns about the costs passed on to consumers and the order’s lack of requirements that 3.0 patents be licensed on a reasonable and nondiscriminatory basis. That’s inconsistent with past policy, and in this case, “a single broadcaster holds the essential ATSC 3.0 patents and thus can set pricing and terms for any other broadcaster seeking to transition,” said Starks. Sinclair and affiliates are said to hold several 3.0 patents. “By failing to follow history here, FCC is conferring special status on those who hold key patents without requiring fair terms in exchange,” Rosenworcel said. Commissioner Mike O’Rielly voted to approve but said broadcasters should be able to self-certify they can’t find sharing partners. O’Rielly and both Democrats said they agreed with the decision to keep transitioning broadcasters off vacant channels. “This is clearly a premature matter that can be examined later, if absolutely necessary,” he said. The order said stations’ significantly viewed status doesn’t change while their 1.0 channel is being hosted by another broadcaster.