Edge Networks is drawing cord cutters, CEO Todd Achilles told the NAB Show New York virtual event Tuesday. “They’re tired of paying over 100 bucks for a pay-TV bundle, and they want reliable service, which a lot of the streaming services don’t provide because of the unmanaged internet into their homes." The startup is having strong demand in its first market for its Evoca-branded ATSC 3.0-based content service Sept. 1 in Boise (see 2008210021), the corporate chief said. BitPath, “despite the pandemic,” this year launched seven 3.0 markets, with nine more coming, including Mobile-Pensacola going live Wednesday, said President John Hane. The “big one for this year” will be Seattle in December, with “very wide participation,” he said.

Public TV stations should be exempt from paying fees on datacasting revenue, said America's Public Television Stations and PBS in a Friday call with FCC Media Bureau staff, per a filing Monday. The statutory requirement to collect fees is related to commercial uses, the groups said. “When the revenue is used to support noncommercial services that are in the public interest, there is no need to 'recover' anything else for the public,” the stakeholders said. “Public television stations are providing remote learning opportunities through broadcast datacasting to provide educational content to student households that lack broadband connectivity.” Revenue supporting noncommercial educational activities “would not result in any unjust enrichment,” said APTS and PBS.

The FCC Media Bureau seeks comment on a proposed cap of 10 applications per participant in a 2021 window for noncommercial educational licenses, said a public notice Monday. The bureau tentatively concluded the cap is “a reasonable limit to prevent mass filings by speculators and to permit the efficient and expeditious processing of window-filed applications,” the PN said. Staff want comments on whether there should be any limit and whether 10 is the right number. Dates and procedures for the window will be issued in PNs “in the next several months,” it said.

Microsoft representatives sought additional clarity as part of an order revising the rules for TV white space devices, set for a vote Oct. 27. Microsoft spoke with commissioner aides and Office of Engineering and Technology staff, said a filing posted Friday in docket 20-36. “Make clear that a narrowband white space device can operate as a master device if it incorporates geo-location functionality and contacts the white space database to obtain a list of available channels at its location,” Microsoft advised: “Permit client narrowband white space devices to be clients to mobile and narrowband master devices, in addition to master fixed and Mode II personal/portable devices.”

Next-generation broadcast TV faces an uphill climb despite the “great job” Sinclair is doing with ATSC 3.0, Interpret Vice President Brett Sappington told a Brightcove webinar last week. “Consumers have been trained with" over-the-top, he said. "If you’re going to go to an alternative service, I think it’s more likely to go to OTT than to broadcast’s next-gen delivery." Sappington said 3.0 needs to provide something “uniquely valuable that OTT can’t do. If you can define that, you can win. If you can’t define that, you’re going to struggle.” Cord cutting hasn’t led to a meaningful increase in over-the-air viewing, said Sappington, though he’s curious to see what ATSC 3.0 does for broadcast TV. “That’s going to be a slow roll because people have to have devices, ability to access and then have to learn how to access,” he said. The new standard does allow for ways for “broadcast to grow,” he said.

Insight TV, billed as the first over-the-air 4K HDR broadcast channel in the U.S., launches Thursday in Boise on Evoca, the Edge Networks ATSC 3.0 platform (see 2004030006), said the startup. Insight TV, available 24/7 on the Evoca platform, will feature “original, adventure-focused programming and incredible storytelling,” said the company. “We built Evoca for the more than 50 million U.S. households in mid-sized markets like Boise -- where TV choices are limited and expensive,” said Evoca CEO Todd Achilles.

The FCC will seek comment on petitions for waivers of its freeze on full-power TV channel substitutions from broadcasters in Arizona and Oregon, said two public notices Tuesday. Both broadcasters are seeking to move from a VHF channel to UHF. Multimedia Holdings wants to move its KPNX Mesa from channel 12 to 18, and Sander Operating wants to move KGW Portland from 8 to 26.

The continuing pandemic could bolster arguments to relax media ownership rules, depending on the outcome of a U.S. Supreme Court decision on the FCC’s appeal of Prometheus IV, said NAB lobbyists on a Radio Show panel Thursday. “Broadcasters are under a lot of fire from a lot of competition,” General Counsel Rick Kaplan said. Local journalism has become even more important during COVID-19, and lawmakers will have to realize that preserving it while subjecting only broadcasters to outsized regulation won’t work, he said. A SCOTUS decision in the FCC’s favor could strike down rules such as the eight-voices test but might also involve sending the case back to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals with new standards for reviewing the matter, Kaplan said. “There are many things on the table.” Kaplan expects the high court argument to be heard in January or February, and a decision by June, though earlier is possible, he said. If the election brings a change in the White House, NAB believes an incoming Democratic administration could make media ownership and diversity priorities in its communications policy, said NAB Vice President-Government Relations Grisella Martinez. Kaplan said he expects prospective FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington to approach the job similarly to the ways of the commissioner he would replace, Mike O’Rielly. “He’ll come in willing to learn,” Kaplan said of Simington.

The odds of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' Prometheus IV ruling are better than 50% -- “particularly if Amy Coney Barrett is confirmed to the Court” -- but it's “certainly no sure thing,” wrote Fletcher Heald broadcast attorney Dan Kirkpatrick in a blog post Thursday (see 2010020059). A SCOTUS decision that reestablishes the broadcast ownership rule relaxations knocked down by the 3rd Circuit “could lead to increased broadcast deal-making, and potential consolidation,” Kirkpatrick said. If SCOTUS upholds the 3rd Circuit, the court’s remand to the FCC would proceed, and the matter would likely be part of the pending 2018 quadrennial review, he said. The FCC would likely have to gather the ownership and diversity data required by the court in that scenario, prolonging the review process. “The outcome of any such review would, of course, also be significantly impacted by whether a Republican or Democratic-controlled FCC is conducting that review,” Kirkpatrick said. SCOTUS could also rule separately on whether the case continues to fall under the jurisdiction of the 3rd Circuit, said the blog. Since the statute will still require future quadrennial reviews, “the saga of the FCC’s media ownership rules has a ways to go,” Kirkpatrick said.

Entertainment Studios Network CEO Byron Allen wants to invest $10 billion in acquiring big four network TV and radio stations, he said during a streamed interview for the Radio Show Thursday. Allen said he has invested $500 million in network TV stations over the past 18 months. Radio is “a great business” that's often “underestimated,” he said. “A lot of folks are down on local radio.” Streaming services will have “a tough time” replicating radio’s connection to local communities, Allen said. “I’m chasing Rockefeller,” he said, drawing a line from oil and steel fueling the industrial revolution to “the insatiable appetite” for content on digital platforms. Asked about racism in business, Allen said boardrooms don’t have true economic inclusion. Inequality is hurting the U.S. because the country needs all its citizens to stay afloat in the face of emerging global competition, he said: “Unfortunately, most Americans are set up to fail, especially Black Americans.” Allen wants free healthcare, free education and access to business startup capital, and he described climate change as the No. 1 threat to humanity.