LAS VEGAS -- ATSC 3.0 is finally in a position to generate cash for TV stations and remains the industry’s hope, according to interviews with broadcasters and several 3.0 product announcements at NAB Show 2024. However, not everyone is convinced and even 3.0 supporters concede the transition still faces challenges. “We need a date certain” for the end of the FCC’s substantially similar requirements, said BitPath CEO John Hane. “If we had some relatively minor adjustments in the transition rules, a lot more stations would be converted.” “I’m sure it’s gonna pan out, it just won’t happen as fast as Americans like,” said Byron Allen, Allen Media CEO, in an interview.
LAS VEGAS -- The FCC Media Bureau’s Audio Division has been stretched by a spate of recent licensing windows but has added resources and hopes to catch up with delayed filings, said Audio Division Chief Albert Shuldiner on a panel with other Media Bureau staff at the NAB Show 2024 here Monday. The panel, which included Media Bureau Chief Holly Saurer, also discussed proposals to prioritize some broadcaster filings, the recent approval of geotargeted radio, and pirate radio enforcement. “Delay is not our No. 1 goal,” said Shuldiner.
Verizon representatives met with aides to FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr on net neutrality rules and network slicing. A draft order appeared to look for middle ground on how slicing would be treated under the rules (see 2404050053). “Network slicing is a promising technology that will help drive exciting network innovation and enable new capabilities and services for the benefit of consumers in ways that previously were only possible over wireline networks,” said a filing Friday in docket 23-320. The technology will “help enable more efficient use of wireless networks, while also enabling capabilities and services that will support investment to deploy and add capacity to next-generation wireless networks,” Verizon said. Meanwhile, Barbara van Schewick, director of Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society, blogged Thursday that the proposed rules on slicing could create “a huge problem” and make it possible for providers “to start picking applications and putting them in a fast lane.” Major wireless carriers are "testing ways to create … 5G fast lanes for apps such as video conferencing, games, and video where the ISP chooses and controls what gets boosted,” she said: “The FCC’s draft order opens the door … so long as the app provider isn’t charged for them.... These kinds of ISP-controlled fast lanes violate core net neutrality principles and would limit user choice, distort competition, hamper startups, and help cement platform dominance."
The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau extended until Dec. 31 Hamilton Relay's conditional certification to provide fully automatic IP captioned telephone service (see 2204200052). The bureau said in an order Friday in docket 03-123 that the FCC "requires additional time to evaluate Hamilton's application for full certification."
A reshuffle of the House Appropriations Committee’s leadership has shifted Rep. Dave Joyce, R-Ohio, to be Financial Services Subcommittee chairman, new panel Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., said Thursday night. The subcommittee handles federal funding for the FCC and FTC. Former Financial Services lead Steve Womack, R-Ark., now heads the Transportation Subcommittee. Cole took the House Appropriations gavel last week, replacing now-former Chair Kay Granger, R-Texas. Cole said Friday that Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., who spearheaded an unsuccessful attempt to end advance federal funding for CPB as part of the FY 2024 appropriations cycle (see 2307140069), will remain chair of the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Subcommittee. Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., will continue to chair the Commerce, Justice and Science Subcommittee.
Local and regional crisis call centers around the U.S. are bullish on the FCC's move toward requiring georouting of wireless calls made to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline to the call center nearest the caller. The commissioners will vote on a draft NPRM at their April 25 open meeting that proposes requiring 988 calls be routed to a call center nearest to where the caller is (see 2404030051). The FCC, as well as Health and Human Services, have pushed for georouting of mobile 988 calls (see 2309280085).
The net neutrality draft order on the FCC's April 25 open meeting agenda (see 2404030043) will face much the same legal arguments as the 2015 net neutrality order did, with many of the same parties involved, we're told by legal experts and net neutrality watchers.
A third party's petition that reinstates Spectrum Five's attempt to get a pair of Intelsat satellites' FCC licenses revoked is a private contractual dispute between petitioner BIU and SF, the full commission said in an opinion and order released Thursday. As such, it's better that a court, not the FCC, handle the situation, the opinion and order said. The docket 20-399 order dismissed BIU's application for review seeking to undo an Enforcement Bureau rejection of a BIU petition to have the SF complaint alleging license term violations by Intelsat reinstated (see 2311150031).
Shelby Broadcast must pay a $16,500 forfeiture for operating a translator station outside the parameters of its FCC authorization and not disclosing it, according to an order in Wednesday's Daily Digest. The forfeiture concerns translator W252BE Tarrant, Alabama, which for years after a cable was severed in 2015 Shelby allegedly operated at a different height and power level than authorized, according to the original notice of apparent liability (see 2401170066). Though the penalty represents a significant percentage of the station’s gross income, the Media Bureau declined to reduce the forfeiture amount because the station is slated to be sold for $184,000. “Further, due to Licensee’s history of noncompliance, including unauthorized operations, and the extended duration of the violations, we find no basis to reduce or cancel the proposed forfeiture,” the order said.
The FCC Enforcement Bureau warned property owners in Beacon, New York, and San Francisco of possible forfeitures over pirate radio stations allegedly emanating from their buildings, according to letters in Wednesday’s Daily Digest. Property owners The Cesar Ascarrunz Living Trust in San Francisco and Donald and Theresa Bell in Beacon could see forfeitures of up to $2.3 million, the letters said. The property owners have 10 business days to respond and must submit proof that broadcasts have ceased, the letters said.