Monty Tayloe

Broadcasters' transition to a new TV standard shouldn't obligate multichannel video programming distributors to make the same transition, said the American Cable Association, AT&T, Dish Network and NCTA in FCC comments posted Thursday and Friday in docket 16-142 on the joint ATSC 3.0 petition from the AWARN Alliance, CTA and NAB (see 1604130065). All full-power broadcast commenters vociferously supported the petition. But pay TV, consumer groups and low-power TV interests said the petition doesn’t take their concerns fully into account, while Dolby Labs hailed ATSC 3.0 for bringing "significant advances" in broadcast audio and video performance (see 1605270024).

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler could face an uphill battle trying to reestablish the joint sales agreement attribution rule vacated by the 3rd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in a majority opinion by Judge Thomas Ambro, broadcast attorneys told us. Along with vacating the JSA rule as expected (see 1604190041) in Wednesday’s Prometheus III decision, the 3rd Circuit took the commission to task for delaying the 2010 and 2014 quadrennial reviews and not abiding by the court’s decision in the previous two Prometheus cases (see 1605250016). That was the subject of a Communications Daily Bulletin.

The FCC unanimously approved launching a rulemaking on proposals to eliminate rules requiring broadcasters to keep physical copies of customer correspondence on hand to be examined by the public and a requirement that cable operators allow public inspection of the location of their control centers. The proposal received no pushback from industry or FCC commissioners, as expected (see 1605060064). “The proposed elimination of these rules will reduce regulatory burdens on commercial broadcasters and cable operators without adversely affecting the general public,” the Media Bureau said in a news release. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler credited Commissioner Mike O’Rielly with suggesting the rule changes and leading on the issue. “Given the very few requests for onsite inspection of broadcasters’ correspondence files or cable companies’ headend information, along with modern options, like email and other social media, these rules look outdated and unnecessary,” O’Rielly said.

The divide over FCC-proposed set-top rule changes remains wide, based on filings in docket 16-42 Monday, the deadline for replies, several of which were posted Tuesday. Early-filed comments likewise showed a divide (see 1605230058). Pay-TV industry-side commenters such as Comcast and NCTA cited a record filled with filings against the plan. Proponents of the set-top NPRM dismissed those comments as anti-competitive obstructionism. Opponents “espouse bogus arguments to obfuscate the debate,” said the Computer & Communications Industry Association. “The NPRM drew far more opposition, from a much wider variety of parties, than it did support,” said NCTA.

With bidding in the incentive auction starting May 31, some stations are “frozen” at their opening bid price, the highest possible amount they could receive in the reverse auction, Incentive Auction Task Force officials said at the FCC reverse auction workshop Tuesday. It included demos of the “dashboard” auction participants will use during bidding, and IATF officials said some dashboards will show an auction status of “FROZEN -- Provisionally Winning” indicating a station has provisionally received its opening bid price. Along with the mechanics of bidding, the workshop showed how reverse auction results will be reported, what information is available to bidders, and Wednesday’s mock auction, which IATF officials repeatedly urged broadcasters to participate in. The mock auction will run from 10 a.m. Wednesday to 5 p.m. Thursday, but participants must be involved from the start to participate in the trial run, IATF Vice Chairman Howard Symons said.

The FCC set-top box proposal is a threat to consumer cybersecurity, goes far beyond the will of Congress and can't accomplish what the agency says it can, said recent filings from legislators, trade groups and companies in docket 16-42. Monday was the deadline for reply comments, and a rule is expected to be issued this summer, industry officials have told us. Only some replies were available Monday. The decision essentially has been written already, disregarding all the industry objections to the proposal, said downloadable security company Beyond Broadband Technology. “Efforts to explain and navigate through the difficult issues raised by the 'proposed' rules are a waste of time and effort.”

A Parents Television Council-led effort to revamp the TV content ratings system isn't seen as likely to lead to FCC or congressional action soon, said broadcast attorneys we informally surveyed. Though a letter asking the FCC to overhaul the TV Oversight Monitoring Board (TVOMB) that oversees the ratings system was signed by 28 organizations and backed by an online petition, it's seen as a complex, controversial area where FCC authority isn't clear, all the attorneys we spoke with told us. With the FCC already neck deep in complicated issues such as the set-top box proceeding and the incentive auction, Chairman Tom Wheeler isn't seen as likely to address the matter before a new president takes office.

The FCC's upcoming quadrennial review of its broadcast ownership rules will be greatly complicated by the ongoing incentive auction and is unlikely to be resolved under the current commission, broadcast attorneys told us. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler repeatedly has said and the FCC told a federal appeals court that a draft quadrennial review order will be on circulation by June 30, but that date almost certainly will fall in the midst of the incentive auction, broadcast and public interest attorneys told us. That means at the time of circulation, neither the FCC nor the broadcast industry itself will know what broadcast stations in what markets will be staying in business, or how diverse the remaining owners will be, the attorneys told us. “The auction is a black hole,” Fletcher Heald broadcast attorney Frank Montero said. “It's going to be extremely difficult to come out with reasoned policy,” he said.

A recent spate of FCC-initiated meetings with stakeholders in its set-top box proceeding may indicate the commission is moving quickly toward releasing an order, industry officials both for and against the proposed rule said in interviews. The FCC-requested meetings are happening with reply comments in the proceeding still not due for nearly two weeks, unusual timing that likely indicates the agency intends to release an order soon after the record is complete, many communications industry officials told us. Pay-TV officials expect an order on the set-top proposal could be released as soon as the FCC's August meeting.

The FCC should refrain from imposing "tech mandates" on the proposed transition to ATSC 3.0 and facilitate "permissionless innovation" for broadcasters, Commissioner Mike O'Rielly said Wednesday at the ATSC Broadcast Television Conference. Along with O'Rielly's keynote, the event had panels on the new standard's chances at the FCC and on the post-incentive auction repacking effort.