The FCC should establish a timeline for a nationwide TV transition to ATSC 3.0, with stations in the top 55 markets -- covering 70% of the U.S. population -- shifting to 3.0-only broadcasts by February 2028, NAB said in a petition for rulemaking Wednesday. Under the proposed timeline, the remaining markets would transition to 3.0 -- which ATSC 1.0 TVs can't receive without a converter -- by February 2030. The petition also asks the FCC to change its rules to require new TVs to be able to tune ATSC 3.0 channels and require manufacturers to make accessing broadcast channels easier on new devices. “Without decisive and immediate action, the transition risks stalling and the realistic window for implementation could pass,” NAB said in the petition. “The time for half-measures is over.”

Consumer groups representing the blind support NAB’s request for FCC clarification of its audible crawl rule, according to comments filed in docket 12-107 by last week’s deadline. The FCC has continuously waived the rule for nearly a decade because compliance isn’t technologically feasible, according to broadcasters. Last week, the FCC granted its latest, a six-month retroactive waiver (see 2412200055). “To the extent that information provided in an accessible text crawl is the same as the information provided by a nontextual graphic, we are tentatively supportive of a minor modification of the rule,” the American Foundation for the Blind and the American Council of the Blind said in a joint filing. In addition, any FCC effort to enforce the audible crawl waiver would be “legally suspect’ in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling overturning Chevron deference, Gray Local Media commented.

The Media Bureau has granted NAB’s request for an expedited retroactive extension of the audible crawl waiver, said an order Friday. The waiver applies from Nov. 26, 2024 -- the date of the last waiver’s expiration – until May 27, 2025, or until the FCC rules on NAB’s separate petition for a longer term waiver. Broadcasters have said that the expiration of the waiver, which had been continuously in effect since 2015, caused stations to pull radar maps from their severe weather coverage (see 2412170056). “We note that this action will maintain the status quo that existed prior to the expiration of the waiver on November 26, 2024, while the underlying petition is considered and this action does not prejudge the issues pending in that underlying petition,” the order said. Because the waiver would maintain the status quo from before it expired and no one has opposed NAB’s request, “we conclude that special circumstances warrant a further temporary waiver from this aspect of the Audible Crawl Rule for a brief period,” the order said. Though NAB asked for the temporary waiver until the FCC rules on the longer term request, the order limited it to six months because “grant of a temporary waiver that does not include a specific time period would be inconsistent with our prior actions in this area,” the order said. “Consistent with prior waivers, we continue to strongly encourage broadcasters to provide the critical details of graphically displayed emergency information in an accessible manner whenever possible during the pendency of this waiver.”

The FCC should grant broadcasters a brief retroactive waiver of the agency’s audible crawl rules to allow them to adequately display emergency information until the agency decides on a longer-term solution, nearly every commenter said in docket 12-107 responding to a recent NAB petition (see 2411290007).

The FCC submarine cable NPRM now asks about ensuring cable licensees don't use equipment or services from entities on the agency’s covered list of organizations that pose a U.S. security threat. Commissioners at their open meeting Thursday unanimously approved the subsea cable NPRM, as expected (see 2411120001), as well as a robocall third-party authentication order. They also approved 5-0 an order creating a permanent process for authorizing content-originating FM boosters, which let broadcasters geotarget content within their broadcast reach for up to three minutes per hour (see 2411140053). The meeting saw the four regular commissioners praise Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, who said Thursday she would step down Jan. 20, the date the next presidential administration takes power. Minority Commissioner Brendan Carr, who is slated to become chair (see 2411180059), discussed his agenda with media (see 2411210028).

Broadcast executives during Q3 earnings calls were hopeful for ownership deregulation and progress on ATSC 3.0 from a Republican-controlled FCC, but FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr -- the perceived front-runner to chair the agency -- said Thursday that scrutinizing broadcasters is among his priorities. “We're very excited about the upcoming regulatory environment,” said Sinclair Broadcast CEO Chris Ripley during Sinclair’s call Wednesday. “It feels like a cloud over the industry is lifting ... and ... some much-needed modernization of the regulations will be forthcoming.” In a news release Thursday, Carr said when the transition to the next administration is complete “the FCC will have an important role to play reining in Big Tech, ensuring that broadcasters operate in the public interest, and unleashing economic growth while advancing our national security interests and supporting law enforcement.”

Broadcasters shouldn’t wait for the FCC to gradually phase in audio description requirements in all markets over the next 10 years, said consumer groups in comments filed in docket 11-43 by Friday’s deadline. Broadcasters should “voluntarily advance the rollout of audio description for people who want and need to access audio description now and not in five, ten, or twelve years,” said the American Council of the Blind. “There is no reason why some communities must wait more than a decade to benefit from technology that already exists and is in use elsewhere.”

The FCC shouldn’t extend broadcasters’ waiver of the 2013 audible crawl rule without gathering more information on NAB’s efforts to implement audible crawls or setting specific benchmarks for implementation, said the American Council for the Blind and the American Foundation for the Blind in comments posted in docket 12-107 Tuesday. “We are concerned that outreach related to this waiver petition is being performed to check-the-box and will continue to prove insufficient for finding or developing a solution to this problem,” said a joint filing from the consumer groups. Compliance with the 2013 rule requiring broadcasters to provide audio description on a second audio stream of emergency information conveyed through graphics was originally required by 2015, but the agency granted an 18-month waiver and has repeatedly extended it (see 2304100058). NAB requested a two-year extension for the current waiver, which expires May 26. In comments posted Tuesday, the Society of Broadcast Engineers backed NAB’s request. “The technology for automated audio description of a dynamic image simply does not yet exist to permit broadcasters to effectively and efficiently abide by the non-textual component of the Audible Crawl Rule,” said SBE. The FCC should determine whether NAB has reached outside the broadcast industry to technical experts in AI and emergency alerting, the consumer groups said. “Without proactive outreach and engagement by broadcasters to the technology sector” a solution ”will not materialize and consumers with disabilities will never receive full and equal access to emergency alert information.”

The FCC draft ATSC 3.0 report and order circulated to 10th-floor offices would extend the substantially similar and A/322 physical layer requirements indefinitely (see 2303030064), grant NAB requests on multicast hosting in part, and doesn’t take up the matter of a 3.0 task force, FCC and broadcast industry officials told us. The item is expected to lead to a lot of lobbying from industry and negotiating among commissioners, and isn’t expected to be voted soon, industry and FCC officials told us.

A draft further NPRM on expanding audio description requirements to all broadcast markets within 10 years is expected to be unanimously approved at Thursday’s FCC commissioners’ meeting with few changes, said agency and industry officials. The proposed expansion is the most the FCC can do for audio description within the bounds of the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, said Clark Rachfal, American Council of the Blind director-advocacy and governmental affairs, urging Congress to pass legislation to require audio description for all video. The 10-year phase-in in the NPRM means blind and visually impaired consumers in smaller TV market state capitals such as Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, or Juneau, Alaska, may not have audio-described broadcasts until 2035, he said. “These are not insignificant places within the U.S.,” said Rachfal.