LAS VEGAS -- DOJ's view of broadcast competition as concerned only with spot TV advertising is narrowly defined and unlikely to change, broadcasters and broadcast attorneys told us Tuesday. Their remarks followed an NAB 2019 panel headlined by Owen Kendler, chief of the Antitrust Division's Media Entertainment and Professional Services Section.
LAS VEGAS -- Radio license renewals are moving to a new system, the delayed FCC decision on a top-four combination in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, isn't related to the quadrennial review, and the chairman's office nixed a prison phone company deal before it reached other eighth-floor offices, said commissioners and Media Bureau staff on panels Monday and Tuesday at NAB 2019. There was heated onstage back-and-forth between Commissioners Mike O'Rielly and Geoffrey Starks on pirate radio. And Video Division Chief Barbara Kreisman suggested broadcasters walk back calls to relax some reporting requirements.
Expected House passage of the Save the Internet Act net neutrality bill (HR-1644) is unlikely to spur the Senate to take up the bill's companion version (S-682) or to rejuvenate a fledgling working group in the chamber aimed at writing alternative legislation, lawmakers and lobbyists told us. HR-1644/S-682 would reverse the FCC order rescinding its 2015 net neutrality rules and restore reclassification of broadband as a Communications Act Title II service (see 1903060077).
LAS VEGAS -- Industry luminaries at an NAB Show briefing Monday to announce the rollout of ATSC 3.0 to the top 40 U.S. TV markets by the end of 2020 seemed intent on dispelling worries that the commercial introduction of 3.0 broadcast services won’t come without consumer electronics industry support. A “broad coalition” of TV station groups, including network-owned-and-operated stations and affiliates, plus public broadcasters, will participate in the rollout starting this year, said the announcement.
LAS VEGAS -- Pearl TV and partners have learned a “ton of things” from their ATSC 3.0 model-market deployment in Phoenix, including “Lesson No. 1” -- the “big” realization that equipment “implementations aren’t complete yet,” Peter Van Peenen, technology consultant to Pearl, told the NAB Show Sunday. “I think everybody’s running hard to get that stuff done.”
A treaty updating broadcasting protections could be finalized next year if governments can finally resolve "fundamental issues" such as scope, object of protection and rights to be granted, said delegates at the April 1-5 World Intellectual Property Organization Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR). They approved a recommendation, set out in Chairman Daren Tang's draft summary, that WIPO's general assembly asks governments to keep working toward a diplomatic conference in 2020 or 2021. Broadcaster and civil society groups were less than enthusiastic about the outcome.
October’s nationwide emergency alerting test was mostly a success, though there were glitches, the FCC Public Safety Bureau reported Monday. The early read on the test was that most cellphones got the test wireless emergency alert and most broadcasters transmitted emergency alert system messages (see 1810030051), albeit with plenty of problems. The test was the first nationwide for WEAs. The report includes recommendation for making both wireless and broadcast alerts more effective, including a WEA database.
FCC moves to update orbital debris rules in light of proposed non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) mega constellations raised questions of authority, as expected (see 1902080009). The Commerce Department in a docket 18-313 posting Monday said the FCC could be duplicative with other federal agencies, sowing confusion. The department asked the agency delay the proceeding until,White House space policy directives wrap up.
With Colorado poised to enact net neutrality legislation, observers said the state might be less likely than others to attract a lawsuit. Longtime net neutrality supporter Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) is expected to sign SB-78 to restrict high-cost support or other state broadband funding to companies that adhere to open internet principles, and require government entities give preference in procurements to ISPs that follow rules.
LAS VEGAS -- Antitrust Division Chief Makan Delrahim said DOJ's view of broadcaster sharing agreements hadn't changed. He indicated such arrangements are being investigated, in a Q&A at the NAB Show Monday with NAB CEO Gordon Smith. The FCC Media Bureau meantime will "hopefully" release a form to allow broadcasters to transition to ATSC 3.0 before June, Chief Michelle Carey told us. Broadcasters have been waiting for that paperwork (see 1904070001).