The FCC approved an NPRM seeking comment on a proposal to change FM booster rules to allow geotargeted radio broadcasts (see 2010280062). The full commission OK'd the NPRM, released Tuesday. Commissioner Mike O’Rielly concurred. “The rollout of the Notice seems a bit hasty, given its substantial implications for reshaping FM radio policy,” O’Rielly said. “Any rulemaking that considers taking steps that rely on a proprietary technology should be done under a watchful and extremely skeptical eye.” Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, who has repeatedly endorsed the proceeding as a way to aid minority-owned broadcasters, did so again. GeoBroadcast Solutions’ advertising revenue sharing model would allow smaller stations to install the tech without having to acquire upfront capital, he said. “In the absence of more robust analysis, the assumption that these changes will promote diversity of voices, much less ownership, is incredibly premature,” said O’Rielly. Targeted ads could lead to some broadcasters receiving less advertising, he warned. Starks and Commissioner Brendan Carr said they partnered in support of the item. Getting this NPRM “across the finish line required more than a few oars in the water,” Carr said. As expected, the draft item hews closely to the proposal from GBS, which owns the zoned-broadcast technology enabling geotargeting. The item doesn’t seek comment on proposals from some broadcasters to allow content origination on FM translators. It doesn’t appear to contain any tentative conclusions, seeking broad comment on the technical aspects, how similar programming originating on an FM booster must be to a station’s primary stream, and whether the proposal would affect loyalism, diversity or competition. "The prospect of hyper-localizing over-the-air radio content has great potential for the industry in reaching underserved audiences, as well as providing news and alerts on a regional basis, and improving the advertising revenue for the stations,” emailed a company spokesperson. GBS is "optimistic" that rules for zoned broadcast coverage will be enacted in 2021, the spokesperson said. Starks rounded up supportive comments in a separate news release. "As we battle the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important for hyper-localized content, like news and emergency alerts to be delivered to the communities that need this tailored content the most," said Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y. "This undoubtedly would boost the ability of minority broadcasters to compete in a highly competitive marketplace and reach underserved audiences," said Clint Odom of the National Urban League. Among those also quoted: National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters President James Winston; Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council President Maurita Coley; and Rep. Tony Cardenas, D-Calif.
Country of origin cases
The Senate Commerce Committee appeared on track before its Wednesday meeting to advance FCC nominee Nathan Simington’s confirmation to the full chamber. That's despite continued uncertainty about whether panel member Dan Sullivan of Alaska will join other Republicans in backing the nominee. Opponents of Simington’s confirmation claim President Donald Trump picked him to displace Commissioner Mike O’Rielly because the nominee supports the push for a rulemaking on its Communications Decency Act Section 230 interpretation (see 2011100070).
“The profusion of crystal-clear, widescreen digital HDTV sets in almost every American home and office, we just take for granted today,” former FCC Chairman Richard Wiley told a commemorative industry Zoom call Monday. Wiley chaired the FCC Advisory Committee on Advanced Television Service for 12 years. Saturday was the 25th anniversary of ACATS' final report to the commission, recommending adoption of the Grand Alliance HDTV system as “better than any of the four original” DTV proposals and “superior to any known alternative system.” Wiley doubts ATSC 3.0 “would be possible were it not for the work of the Grand Alliance and the advisory committee,” he said. What “really surprised” Wiley about the Grand Alliance proposal “was how much opposition we got from government and business leaders,” he said. “It all seems still very odd to me,” he said: “Yet all the credit” should go to ACATS and Grand Alliance members “who just continued to plod along and do your work, criticism notwithstanding, and stayed the course and made HDTV a reality.”
The FCC reminded telecom providers to “follow industry best practices to ensure network reliability, consistent with” Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council recommendations. The Public Safety Bureau said Wednesday this is meant to underscore “lessons learned” from T-Mobile’s June 15 outage (see 2010220030). Providers and public safety entities “should periodically audit the physical, logical, and provider diversity in their networks segment(s) to ensure that a single outage will not simultaneously affect different circuits or equivalent data paths,” the bureau said. It said 911 service and originating service providers need to ensure alternative routing of emergency calls if primary and secondary routing is unavailable. “Consider validating upgrades, new procedures, and commands” affecting networks “in a lab or other test environment that simulates the target network and load prior to the actual application in the field,” the bureau said. Service providers “should use virtual interfaces for routing protocols and network management to maintain connectivity to network elements in the event of an outage due to the failure of a physical interface.” Entities should “actively monitor and manage 911 network components using network management controls, where available, to quickly restore 911 service and provide priority repair,” the bureau said. “Ensure that spare equipment for critical network systems is readily available.”
Comments are due Dec. 24 on NAB’s petition to clarify how multicast streams of TV stations simulcasting in the ATSC 3.0 transition will be treated under FCC licensing rules, said a public notice Tuesday. NAB wants the FCC to clarify that in such arrangements, the licensee originating the programming, not the host station, is responsible for that content. Some stations have concerns about which station is liable for any potential rule violations, the PN said. Replies are due in docket 16-142 Jan. 25.
ISP associations suing over Vermont’s net neutrality law agreed with the state to extend a stay to March 31. It would have expired Jan. 30, but parties agreed to extend it in light of a Jan. 26 hearing in a separate case challenging California’s open-internet law, said Monday's stipulation (in Pacer) at U.S. District Court in Burlington. The court originally agreed to pause the case to see what happened in California (see 2009250073).
Netflix users who most enjoy the service’s original content grew from 35% in 2017 to 49% this year, nearly flat with 2019’s 50%, reported S&P's Kagan Friday. Some 48% of users in a survey say they would subscribe to the service even if it offered only original content. Weekly Netflix streamers were more likely to select original TV programs as the content they enjoy most (35%) vs. 23% of Netflix subscribers who watch less than once per week. Four in five users watch Netflix on a TV, either directly via an internet-connected TV or via another streaming device; a third view on a smartphone; and a quarter view on a PC.
The FCC released the three draft items Chairman Ajit Pai is proposing for the Dec. 10 meeting (see 2011180065). The meeting will be headlined by a report and order implementing the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act, with an NPRM on equipment certification rules and an order on ATSC 3.0 datacasting. Industry officials said it's unclear whether FCC Democrats will consider any of the drafts controversial or major items that should be left for next year under the new commission.
"What's the location of your emergency?" asked a District of Columbia Office of Unified Communications 911 call taker on June 5 just before 4 p.m. The caller, crying as she reported that her 59-year-old mother passed out after experiencing chest pains, answered, “414 Oglethorpe Street Northeast.”
“Many more markets” will go live in ATSC 3.0 in Q1, and “by the summer, we’ll hit the top 40,” Pearl Managing Director Anne Schelle told us. The broadcast industry’s original plans were to have stations in the top 40 TV markets up and running by year-end, but COVID-19 “put us back a bit,” she said. “I’m proud about the number of stations going up,” including “some big ones” going live with 3.0 in December, she said. Pearl TV and its partners in the Phoenix model market test bed project are poised to launch their first NextGenTV branding campaign to raise consumer awareness of the technology and promote its adoption for when people shop for TVs, Schelle noted. “Markets are launching” with 3.0 services, and it’s time to start engaging consumers, she said. The campaign begins Nov. 25 and runs through mid-January, said Schelle. It touts "stunning video," though Schelle said 4K and HDR likely won't become commercial realities before 2021. Service and device enhancements are inevitable as the launch progresses, said Pearl spokesperson Dave Arland, likening this stage of 3.0's debut to the first quarter of a football game. HDR is “not there yet,” partly due to COVID-19 delays, Schelle said. “You will see, I think in 2021, distribution on the various HDR formats from the networks.” Expect the NextGenTV logo to gain a much more ubiquitous presence after the campaign kicks off, said Schelle. We pored through the LG, Samsung and Sony links on the WatchNextGenTV.com consumer-facing website, plus the Best Buy and Amazon online stores, finding the logo mentioned only on Samsung’s e-commerce site. “That is going to change,” said Schelle. “They just haven’t updated it yet. It’s on their to-do list.” She expects more TV brands to jump into 3.0 at the virtual CES 2021 in January.