France Télévisions is partnering with the French Tennis Federation to offer 360-degree live broadcasts in 4K and virtual reality of all French Open matches played on the tournament’s three main courts, the broadcaster said in a Monday announcement. An RG360 virtual reality app, created by French startup FireKast and available for free on iOS, Android and Samsung Gear VR, will let fans view live or replayed matches in “full immersion” 360-degree 4K, it said. To make the content available to everyone, France Télévisions will also be trying out new functions on the YouTube Live 360 player on the French channel francetvsport, it said. And 360-degree replays will be available through francetvsport’s YouTube and Facebook platforms, it said. For the fourth straight year, the French Tennis Federation and France Télévisions also will offer a special event channel for the men’s and women’s singles semifinals and finals matches, it said. A French telco will broadcast these matches in Ultra HD on digital terrestrial TV in the Paris area and by satellite for the rest of France, it said.

ATSC for the first time identified publicly the six high-dynamic-range proposals vying to be selected as ATSC 3.0's technical solution as the video codec of the next-gen standard gets elevated to the status of proposed standard from candidate standard (see 1605100047). The proposals to be evaluated are from Dolby, Ericsson, NHK/BBC, Qualcomm, Technicolor and a joint proposal on open HDR10 from Qualcomm, Samsung and Sharp, ATSC President Mark Richer emailed us Friday. "ATSC is making great progress in our consideration of HDR technologies for ATSC 3.0." ATSC's S34-1 ad hoc group on ATSC 3.0 video "will review HDR proposals and demonstrations in late June," he said. S34-1 representatives have said the group hasn’t decided whether to go with a single HDR technology or with multiple solutions, and that the selection will follow comparative demonstrations of the various proposals in mid-June at CBS Labs in New York. S34-1 representatives have said it plans to finalize its selection by July 31, when ATSC 3.0 video's candidate standard period is set to expire.

The FCC Media Bureau denied three must-carry complaints filed by PMCM against Time Warner Cable, RCN Telecom and Service Electric Cable TV, said orders issued Tuesday. In all three cases, PMCM argued the carriers were violating must-carry rules by failing to carry PMCM's station WJLP Middletown Township, New Jersey, on Channel 3. PMCM has been seeking for months to broadcast its station on virtual Channel 3.10, though Channel 3 is already assigned to another TV station. The cable carriers were carrying WJLP on Channel 33, which corresponds to the DTV Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) assigned by the Media Bureau. The bureau was “unpersuaded” by PMCM's arguments that must-carry channel assignment shouldn't be based on PSIP, the orders said. The bureau also rejected PMCM's request that the complaints be ruled on by the full commission, saying the complaints don't present “novel” questions.

The deadlines for comments on the petitions for reconsideration of the FCC's new rules for restricted use FCC registration numbers were set, said a notice in the Federal Register. Comments and opposition filings on the petitions filed by several noncommercial education stations (see 1605050058) are due June 2, while replies are due June 13 in docket 07-294.

Broadcast cross-ownership rules should be eliminated, NAB said in a meeting with FCC Media Bureau staff Thursday, said an ex parte filing posted online Monday in docket 14-50. “Retaining the cross-ownership rules in today’s media market would be arbitrary and capricious,” NAB said. The market has changed as newspapers have greatly declined while online news has become much more competitive and diverse, NAB said. “This should not come as a surprise, as the Commission, in contexts other than the broadcast ownership rules, has recognized the revolutionary nature of the Internet on competition and diversity.”

FCC approval of the April 13 petition seeking commission authorization of ATSC 3.0's physical layer (see 1604130065) would neither delay the post-incentive auction TV channel repacking nor add cost to the process, said petitioners America’s Public Television Stations, Advanced Warning and Recovery Network Alliance, CTA and NAB in May 12 meetings with staff from the offices of Chairman Tom Wheeler and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, said a Monday ex parte filing at the commission. “Most transmission equipment being manufactured today is capable of being easily upgraded to permit Next Generation TV transmission,” the petitioners told commission staff in a 13-page PowerPoint presentation, the filing said. The market-based approach of the transmission plan will keep it from being a burden to MVPDs or small broadcasters, since they won’t be forced to upgrade to receive or broadcast the new signal, the filing said. “If Next Generation TV offers a compelling viewing experience that consumers demand, MVPDs may choose to negotiate with broadcasters to carry content featuring higher resolutions, higher frame rates” and high dynamic range, the filing said. “No ambitious project can be expected to proceed without challenges,” the filing said. Though the petition asks the FCC to set the stage for the future of television, "it also seeks to protect viewers who rely on legacy equipment that may be unable to receive Next Generation TV programming," the filing said. "Broadcasters propose to lead the transition by partnering with other stations to simulcast their signals in both formats. This will ensure that viewers continue to receive free, over-the-air signals in the current standard, while also allowing broadcasters to begin delivering Next Generation TV signals." The petition underlines an approach that means "there will be no clock dictating the transition" to ATSC 3.0, unlike in the transition to digital from analog, the filing said. "If Next Generation TV provides a superior viewing experience and exciting consumer benefits, consumers will demand Next Generation-capable television receivers to take advantage of these new opportunities. Thus the market, not mandates, will drive the pace of the transition."

Gray Television will buy Clarksburg, West Virginia, stations WDTV and WVFX for $26.5 million from Withers Broadcasting, Gray said in a news release Friday. “For the past several years, Withers has owned and operated WDTV and WVFX as a legal duopoly, under an FCC Failing Station Waiver, an arrangement that Gray expects to continue,” the buyer said. “We plan to close the acquisition in multiple steps between June 2016 and a date after the conclusion of the pending FCC spectrum auction.”

The FCC Media Bureau is seeking comment on the Hispanic TV study done as part of the agency's quadrennial review of its media ownership rules, the bureau said in a public notice Thursday. Comments on the study are due May 26, replies June 3. In recent oral argument before the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the FCC said it would complete the quadrennial review this June. The commission has said the study is part of its efforts to fulfill the 3rd Circuit's requirement that it study the effects of its ownership rules on minority broadcast ownership (see 1604290019). “The Hispanic Television Study is the most comprehensive study to utilize improved Form 323 broadcast ownership data as a core analytical tool,” the PN said. The study and peer review report are here.

“Hybrid delivery” of content and services is “one of the most important things” about ATSC 3.0, LG consultant Madeleine Noland told the ATSC Broadcast Television Conference Tuesday. Since ATSC 3.0 is an Internet protocol-based system, “marrying things together from broadcast and broadband gets a little bit easier,” said Noland, who chairs ATSC’s S34 specialist group that’s responsible for ATSC 3.0's audio, video and interactivity specifications. “From the beginning, ATSC 3.0 was conceived of as a hybrid system, where you can deliver some of your components over broadcast, and some of your components over broadband,” Noland said. “You might even be delivering components over broadcast and broadband that are intended to be consumed in the same service.” For example, a broadcaster may want to carry mainstream content over broadcast, while delivering “interstitials” via broadband as part of an over-the-top service, she said. Hybrid delivery via ATSC 3.0 also can be used as a “temporary handoff” for beaming content to mobile devices, she said. “You’re in your car or you’re walking or whatever, and the signal from the broadcast fades a little bit, and so the device switches to broadband to complete the service, and then switches back to broadcast when it’s all set.”

The deadline was extended an additional month for comments on an FCC NPRM on strengthening state and local involvement in the emergency alert system, said a Public Safety Bureau public notice released Thursday. Comments are now due June 8, replies July 8, the PN said. The extension was granted after requests from the National Alliance of State Broadcasters Associations and the Broadcast Warning Working Group (see 1604290032). Though NASBA had asked for a 45-day extension, the bureau said 30 days was sufficient.