ATSC is taking its annual member meeting and NextGen Broadcast Conference “on the road” for a June 7-9 run at the Westin Book Cadillac in Detroit, said President Madeleine Noland Wednesday. The event customarily is held late May in Washington’s Reagan Building. This year’s conference will feature a private-access “strolling dinner” reception June 8 at the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation in Dearborn, she said. The in-person conference will also have a virtual component, as did last year's when it was rescheduled in late August, said organizers. Michigan has three markets on the air with ATSC 3.0 services, they said -- Detroit, East Lansing and Grand Rapids-Kalamazoo.

The FCC should let ATSC 3.0 “substantially similar” requirements sunset July 17, 2023, as is currently scheduled, said Pearl TV representatives, including Managing Director Anne Schelle, in a call Thursday with an aide to FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington, according to an ex parte filing in docket 16-142. Markets that are further along in 3.0 deployments than others, such as Phoenix and Detroit, “should not be artificially constrained from offering new, beneficial programming,” said Pearl. “Broadcasters have every public interest and economic incentive to continue to provide their programming in ATSC 1.0 to their audiences who still have ATSC 1.0 sets,” said Pearl. “The ‘substantially similar’ requirement is not driving that decision today, and the sunset of the requirement will not change those incentives.” Getting rid of the requirement would let broadcasters run a demonstration channel of 3.0 programming to be a “barker” to attract new viewers, Pearl said. “Pearl understands that the Commission will consider the issue of the sunset more fully later this year, and urges it to keep these points in mind at that time,” the filing said.

Hybrid ATSC 3.0 streaming video service Evoca-TV and emergency alerting company Digital Alert Systems have developed a method for transmitting broadcast emergency alerts to viewers watching programming via the internet, said an Evoca news release Monday. “Because the Evocasolution is both an over-the-air and an over-the-top system, we’re able to deliver alerts directly to the viewer,” said Evoca’s Michael Chase, vice president-systems. Evoca’s receiver “can insert emergency alert information right on top of programming being watched by a viewer, regardless of what that channel happens to be,” the release said. The method is “a unique solution” that works because Evoca “controls both the transmission and reception of signals that reach the viewer,” for users of its service, the release said. The two companies are going to continue studying the matter, the release said.

Sinclair’s One Media 3.0 will sell its majority stake in Saankhya Labs and keep a minority interest in Tejas Networks after Tejas announced a definitive agreement to buy 64.4% of Saankhya and said it plans to acquire the remaining shares in the chipmaker in a “secondary acquisition.” One Media teamed with Saankhya five years ago to “fast-track” development of ATSC 3.0 receiver chipsets for mobile phones, promising to make the handsets commercial-ready in less than a year (see 1703280044). The broad commercial aims haven't yet materialized. One Media President Mark Aitken praised the “close relationship with Saankhya” Thursday as having been “critical to moving our company forward” in NextGenTV.

“Unnecessary and ill-advised” limitations on the deployment of new ATSC 3.0 multicast streams for broadcasters will harm viewers, said NAB in a call Friday with FCC Media Bureau staff, according to an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 16-142. Broadcasters have launched additional multicast streams since the release of the FCC’s further NPRM on ATSC 3.0 multicasting “and will continue to launch additional programming in the future,” NAB said. NAB “continues to be willing to work with the Commission,” but the FCC should “move forward expeditiously without being distracted by bad faith arguments designed to frustrate innovation,” the group said.

News directors and “broadcasters on the sidelines” need to get involved now in ATSC 3.0-enhanced emergency alerts to prevent a government mandate, John Lawson, executive director of the Advanced Warning and Response Network Alliance, said on a webinar Tuesday hosted by Sinclair's One Media. That way, “even if someday the federal government steps in, at least it’ll be our idea,” Lawson said, comparing the possible future of advanced emergency information (AEI) to what happened with wireless emergency alerts. WEA rules have been “a long struggle” between industry and the government, and broadcasters need “a voluntary system,” Lawson said. He advocated for agreements between broadcasters and their local emergency managers to discuss the production and use of the more fulsome emergency information and media that could be utilized with 3.0. Recent FCC rulemakings and the Reliable Emergency Alert Distribution Improvement Act “revitalized” state emergency communications committees but not too much of the discussion is focused on older emergency information systems rather than the newer tech, Lawson said. The FCC has open proceedings on making the legacy emergency alert system more accessible and improving it (see 2112140062). Pete Sockett, Capitol Broadcasting director-engineering and operations, said there’s a great deal of misunderstanding about the difference between the EAS and the supplemental, more detailed emergency information that's the focus of discussions about AEI.

Cable groups and broadcasters are at odds over how FCC proposals loosening multicast rules for the ATSC 3.0 transition should restrict the number of multicast channels broadcasters can offer, according to reply comments filed in docket 16-142 by Monday’s deadline. The FCC “should rely on its predictive judgment about how reasonable actors motivated by financial gain could act in this undeveloped space,” said the American TV Alliance. ATVA wants the agency to limit broadcasters hosting each other in the transition to the number of multicast streams they have in ATSC 1.0. NAB said broadcasters should be limited to “carry only programming that they could carry on their own facilities as constrained by state-of-the-art technology.” Broadcast consortium BitPath suggested the “cable interests’ concerns can be fully addressed by plainly stating that no station may, through the hosting rules, end up with more capacity than it started with.” Broadcasters wishing to launch new multicast streams above their capacity by hosting them on other stations should be required to simulcast them in ATSC 3.0, said NCTA. The proceeding just codifies and streamlines procedures the FCC has been allowing for two years through grants of special temporary authority, said One Media. “The cable lobby has voiced phantom concerns that are aimed at slowing down or upending ATSC 3.0 deployments they view as a potential competitor to the pay-TV industry,” said NAB. “The routine grant of waivers by the FCC over the past several years to accomplish what the Second FNPRM proposes to codify has not strained cable capacity in any way,” said America’s Public Television Stations and PBS in a joint filing.

Though ATSC “is not directly involved in patent licensing, we are pleased to hear the announcement of the ATSC 3.0 patent pool” by MPEG LA (see 2201200058), emailed ATSC President Madeleine Noland Friday. “Recognizing that patent pools often add licensors over time, we are delighted to see this group of thirteen licensors working together to simplify and accelerate ATSC 3.0 adoption into an expanding line-up of NextGenTV products.”

Consumer "acceptance" of ATSC 3.0 is “rapid,” said Pearl TV representatives, including Managing Director Anne Schelle, on a Jan. 14 call with an aide to FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington about the progress in deploying the new standard, according to a filing posted Wednesday in docket 16-142. ATSC 3.0 services are in “over 46 markets” and 35 more will launch in 2022, said Pearl: "In less than two years, nearly 3 million NextGen TV receivers have been sold, and it is projected that 4.5 million sets will be sold this year as more consumers upgrade to smart TVs. This rapid acceptance of the technology is one of the fastest penetration rates for a new consumer technology."

A survey by an ATSC 3.0 industry group shows consumer demand for the technology's enhanced emergency information capabilities, said Sinclair and subsidiary One Media, which sponsored the research. The survey, done by the NextGen Video Information Systems Alliance, showed “almost two-thirds of American consumers” want geotargeted alerts. Over half want the ability to curate which alerts are received and the ability to opt in to a stream of emergency information. “Almost two thirds of American consumers said they would pay an extra $5” for a mobile phone with enhanced emergency information and “almost half said they would pay an extra $10,” the release said.