Broadcasters and the media technology industry are continuing to look ahead to broader mobile DTV and mobile emergency alert system (M-EAS) capability, they said. Following pilot projects over the past few years, participants in the development and implementation of next-generation EAS will try to enhance the technology and include it in the next-gen ATSC 3.0 broadcast system, they said.
When it comes to deployment of the next-gen ATSC 3.0 broadcast system, "I think there’s going to be a good business proposition and a good financial proposition for 4K," Dave Siegler, vice president-technical operations at Cox, told us at NAB's Content and Communications World conference in New York Wednesday. Emphasizing that he was speaking in the context of Cox’s broadcast as well as its cable interests, Siegler said: "So much of it comes into implementation."
Recent incidents of illegal use of the emergency alert system tones warrant more industry focus on a fix to flag such messages, EAS experts said. The FCC Public Safety Bureau released public notices Friday on the impact of false EAS alerts, and how broadcasters, cable systems, DBS systems and others are faring with recommendations for EAS system security. False EAS tones aren’t very common, but their occurrence points to flaws in the system and equipment that must be addressed ahead of the next nationwide EAS test, EAS professionals said.
A draft rulemaking notice (NPRM) proposing classifying linear online video providers as multichannel video programming distributors wouldn’t immediately change much for over-the-top companies, said cable and content officials in interviews Wednesday. The NPRM, circulated late Tuesday according to an FCC official, would enable over-the-top services to take advantage of program access and retransmission consent rights to better offer competition to cable incumbents in the video market, said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in a blog post Tuesday (see 1410280053). Retrans rights would still leave OTT services unable to stream broadcast content without also negotiating for content rights, and program access rights apply only to negotiations with vertically integrated distributors, which in practice largely means Comcast, said industry officials.
A draft NPRM that would seek comment on broadening the definition of what the FCC considers a multichannel video programming distributor to include linear over-the-top video providers (see 1410010086) is being shared among some offices on the FCC's eighth floor, and Media Bureau staff has been reaching out to OTT and cable companies to discuss it, said commission officials and industry officials in interviews. Remarks by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and a recent speech by General Counsel Jonathan Sallet (see 1410170039) indicated an interest in the item at the commission's highest levels. Officials at the FCC, in OTT video companies and in the cable industry told us it's not clear if the item is intended to bring online programming into the FCC's purview, provide regulatory certainty for OTT companies like Aereo or increase competition for large cable companies such as Comcast.
Quincy Broadcast Group’s WKOW Madison, Wisconsin, planned to go off the air in the wee hours of Wednesday morning to accommodate the second round of "real-world broadcast field testing" of "Futurecast," the technology developed by LG, its Zenith research and development labs and GatesAir. Futurecast is proposed as the physical layer for the next-gen Advanced Television Systems Committee 3.0 broadcast system.
Iridium said it will provide global emergency tracking technology to the aviation community for free. Through its subsidiary Aireon, Iridium will offer the Aireon aircraft locating and emergency response tracking (ALERT) service, letting rescue agencies request the location and last flight track of aircraft flying in airspace currently without surveillance, Aireon said in a news release Sunday (http://bit.ly/1mCF9RX). The service will work with aircraft equipped with 1090 MHz automatic dependent surveillance broadcast (ADS-B) receivers, it said. ALERT will be available after the Aireon air traffic monitoring system is fully deployed, it said. Iridium plans to launch the first payloads in that system next year (CD Feb 19 p10).
State broadcaster associations from all 50 states savaged the Local Choice proposal, which would overhaul retransmission consent rules and attempt to end TV blackouts. They objected in a National Alliance of State Broadcasters Associations letter dated Thursday and expected to be sent Wednesday to the proposal’s authors -- Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., who had circulated the proposal earlier this month. The letter is the latest volley in a lobbying war with the American Television Alliance, a group of several pay-TV companies that launched a national advertising campaign in favor of Local Choice in recent days (CD Aug 27 p7). The American Television Alliance has now posted its newspaper (http://bit.ly/1qLc4zn) and radio (http://bit.ly/1tWlWJP) ads on its website. “If adopted, the proposal will unjustifiably eliminate television broadcasting’s longstanding statutory right of retransmission consent and unfairly single out the free, over-the-air, local television broadcast industry for mandatory ‘a la carte’ treatment,” the state broadcaster associations said, saying Local Choice “will very negatively impact television broadcasters and all of the nation’s viewers.” They “strongly oppose” including Local Choice as part of Commerce’s Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization legislation, expected to be unveiled in September. Local Choice “will destroy localism, including the backbone of our nation’s Emergency Alert System, by denying fair compensation to broadcasters without providing consumers, who continue to complain loudly about the monthly cost of pay-television service, with any meaningful choice or relief,” the broadcasters said. Local Choice would mean “less resources to invest in newsrooms, journalists, and local programming and perhaps even fewer broadcaster outlets to cover local affairs and emergencies in the future” and it would “chill the willingness of broadcasters to cover controversial issues of public importance.” It could chill “the journalistic and editorial decisions of every station” and throw “the economics of the nation’s local television broadcast system into chaos,” the letter said. Mandated a la carte pricing would “increase prices, decrease programming diversity, and result in fewer -- not more -- choices for consumers,” state broadcasters said, worrying it could “upend the network-affiliate relationship with potentially devastating consequences for the networks, for their affiliates and for the financial markets.” There’s also a good chance Local Choice “will likely become the slippery ‘a la carte’ slope that broadly upsets a vibrant and functioning video marketplace.” The state broadcaster associations listed several questions and considerations, asking about what would happen to existing retrans deals and how pay-TV providers would be held accountable. They asked about how Local Choice would affect reverse compensation agreements, which are tied to retrans fees. They plan to visit Senate Commerce members in Washington and in home offices to “further demonstrate our strong concerns,” they added.
Grant County Broadcasters opposed a proposal by SSR Communications to create a C4 class for FM stations. Creating a C4 class would result in a reduction in Zone II of FM translator and low-power FM opportunities “due to the additional protected coverage created for stations in the new class,” Grant County Broadcasters said in a filing posted Friday in docket RM-11727 (http://bit.ly/1lmcIY0). The stations to suffer the most from additional translator interference are the Class A stations that the original proposal was supposedly designed to “help,” it said. Such stations are the most likely to have significant audiences beyond their primary contours, like Grant’s Class A station WNKR Williamstown, Kentucky, it said. These are audiences that they can protect today, but would be lost and unrecoverable under the modified proposal, Grant County Broadcasters said. Adoption of the modified proposal also would cause major problems within the emergency alert system “as stations become cut off from their monitoring assignments due to the installation of new translators,” it said. Initial comments in the proceeding are due Sept. 18 (CD Aug 15 p10).
The FCC received wide support for use of a national location code to improve the emergency alert system (EAS), in comments on proposed rule changes for EAS. NAB and broadcast engineers backed an approach that isn’t costly to broadcasters, and consumer groups, Verizon and NCTA recommended modifications to the EAS Test Reporting System (ETRS). Comments were due Thursday. Replies are due Aug. 29 (CD July 16 p20).