WASHINGTON—America’s Public Television Stations (APTS) honored two members of Congress from both sides of the aisle at its annual meeting here with the “Champion of Public Broadcasting Award.”

Reps. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) and Mike Simpson (R-ID) received the organization’s highest honor, “given annually to champions in Congress and state government for their extraordinary support of public television,” the APTS said.

Here are the announcements:
“Congresswoman Debbie Dingell has shown unwavering leadership as a champion of public television for her entire Congressional career and beyond, recognizing the valuable services public broadcasting provides to the people of Michigan and throughout our nation,” APTS said.

“Congresswoman Dingell has been a stalwart and effective supporter of public media,” said Kate Riley, President and CEO of America’s Public Television Stations. “Time and again, Congresswoman Dingell has shown steadfast leadership on our issues by consistently supporting our annual funding requests, helping stations address pressing infrastructure needs, supporting the efforts of stations like Detroit PBS to meet the challenges of the COVID pandemic and provide the highest quality resources to their communities when they were needed most.

“We greatly appreciate Congresswoman Dingell’s keen understanding of the unique role of local public television stations in the media marketplace and our extraordinary public services from education as demonstrated by the Michigan Learning Channel, to our role in public safety through the PBS WARN system and all that our local stations do to connect communities to each other and highlight the stories, history and culture that are uniquely theirs.

“America’s Public Television Stations are profoundly grateful for Congresswoman Dingell’s leadership and support, and it is my honor to present her with the well-deserved 2025 Champion of Public Broadcasting Award.”

“Public television stations provide an irreplaceable service by sharing public safety, educational and local programming, every day, for free, and remain among the most trusted sources of information for their communities,” said Congresswoman Dingell. “We must continue to invest in public broadcasting, which benefits every American, especially those in rural communities. I am honored to be a Champion of Public Broadcasting, and will continue to advocate for strong federal support for public TV.”

Congresswoman Debbie Dingell represents Michigan’s 6th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. She is a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee and the Natural Resources Committee, where she leads on critical issues including affordable and accessible health care, clean energy and water, domestic manufacturing and supply chain resilience, and protecting our wildlife and natural resources.

Growing up in beautiful Michigan, Dingell, who chairs the Great Lakes Task Force, has always been an advocate for the outdoors and commits her work in Congress to protecting the environment for generations. Congresswoman Dingell is focused on bringing people together – in Congress and in her communities – to support Michigan’s families and the economy. This is most evident in her work to strengthen the American auto industry, maintaining America’s competitiveness and ensuring good-paying American jobs.

Before being elected to Congress, Dingell – a self-proclaimed car girl – worked in the auto industry for over three decades, where she was President of the General Motors (GM) Foundation and a senior executive responsible for public affairs. She was also Chairman of the Wayne State University (WSU) Board of Governors and to this day continues to fight for affordable and accessible education in Congress. She chaired the Michigan Infant Mortality Task Force, the Children’s Leadership Council of Michigan, the Early Childhood Investment Corporation, the Baby Your Baby public education campaign that reduced infant mortality rates in Michigan, and has served on the board of Michigan’s Children, a statewide independent voice advocating for public policies in the best interest of children of all ages.

An active civic and community leader, Dingell is a recognized national advocate for women and children. She successfully fought to have women included in federally funded health research and advocated for greater awareness of women’s health issues overall, including breast cancer and heart health. She is a founder and former chair of the National Women’s Health Resource Center and the Children's Inn at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Congresswoman Dingell currently resides in Ann Arbor. She holds both a B.S.F.S. in Foreign Services and an M.S. in Liberal Studies from Georgetown University.

Congressman Simpson’s longstanding support has been invaluable to advancing the public service mission of local public television stations, particularly those serving rural areas, APTS said.

“Congressman Simpson has been an unwavering supporter of the essential value of local public broadcasting stations and the important role stations like Idaho Public Television play in communities throughout the nation, especially in serving rural communities,” said APTS president and CEO Kate Riley. “He has always been an effective champion of public broadcasting, and we are proud to have earned his enduring support.

“We are extremely grateful for Congressman Simpson’s ongoing, strong commitment to ensuring all Americans have access to the essential local services provided by public television stations, from emergency alerts and warnings, to high-quality, educational resources and local programming and events that foster community connections. We are honored to present Congressman Mike Simpson with the 2025 Champion of Public Broadcasting Award he so richly deserves.”

Congressman Mike Simpson is a proud Idaho native who was born in Burley and raised in Blackfoot. Simpson graduated from Utah State University and earned his DMD from Washington University School of Dental Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri. After graduation, Simpson joined his father and uncle at the Simpson Family Dental Practice in Blackfoot before serving in the Blackfoot City Council and eventually in the Idaho State Legislature.

After spending four years on the Blackfoot City Council, Congressman Simpson was elected to the Idaho Legislature where he served until 1998. Simpson also served as Speaker of the House during his last six years in the State Legislature.

Congressman Simpson was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1999 and has served Idaho’s second congressional district for thirteen terms.

Currently, Congressman Simpson serves as Chairman of the House Interior and Environment Subcommittee on Appropriations. He also serves on the House Energy and Water Development Subcommittee and the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education Subcommittee on Appropriations.

The head of a public TV advocacy group this week warned that threats to cut funding to public broadcasters could impact public safety.

In an address to the annual meeting of America’s Public Television Stations (APTS), the organization's president/CEO Kate Riley recalled the critical role public broadcasters have provided over the past year, citing numerous natural disasters.

“We have seen time and time again how local stations are a lifeline of local information and resources during emergencies,” Riley said. “That was evident during the hurricanes in Florida and the Southeast in the fall and the wildfires in Southern California earlier this year and the floods in Kentucky just last week, among many other examples your role as a local broadcaster some of the last in this country, and the critical role that all public television stations play in enabling PBS WARN [Warning Alert & Response Network] to deliver emergency alerts to our cell phones, makes you an essential public safety service provider.”

“Simply put, cuts to public broadcasting funding significantly jeopardize public safety,” Riley added.

This year’s APTS meeting is Riley’s first as president, succeeding long-time president Patrick Butler last year. And since public TV is no stranger to periodic funding threats, Riley was soberingly realistic when assessing the new political environment on Capitol Hill under the Trump administration.

“We face a new political landscape with significant uncertainty and growing threats, some predictable and many unpredictable,” she said. “Throughout our over 50 year history, the public television system has faced numerous challenges, and we have always overcome them.”

The most immediate concerns revolve around funding. In December, then President-elect Trump called for Congress to eliminate all funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has initiated an investigation into NPR and PBS to determine whether their underwriting announcements violate federal prohibitions against commercial advertising on public broadcasting stations.

Riley emphasized the value of public broadcasting, telling broadcasters that communicating with their Congressional representatives about how educational programs and initiatives impact local communities and help “build the echo chamber of positive information about the valuable services your stations provide and why federal funding is essential to that work.”

“We must say that federal funding is essential to the local services that each one of your station provides,” she added.

Threats to public broadcast funding are not new and nearly every Republican administration and/or Congress has called for curtailing or outright ending public broadcasting with opponents accusing the network of liberal bias. But the fervor threatens to reach a fever pitch this time given the intensity of the current administration towards removing such “biases” from media, in particular one that receives a portion of funding from Congress, which, through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, provided $525 million in FY 2023.

Riley said public broadcasters have an obligation to help bridge the political divide, which has become more polarizing in recent years.

“We have a responsibility and a long history of reflecting and serving the broad range of thought and experience in each of our communities,” she said. “People share many of the same goals, to be safe and healthy, to have opportunities for their family, but each person's own experiences, perspectives and priorities influence how they determine the best ways to achieve these goals for themselves and their families.

“Even though they share many of those goals, there is a real need for greater understanding of and appreciation for how and why people with similar goals draw different conclusions and take different actions,” Riley added. "Public television is uniquely positioned to reflect and share the broad range of views and experiences in each of our communities in a way that helps foster greater understanding of our neighbors and fellow Americans.”

After she explained the complexities of the looming Congressional budgeting timeline and process, Riley added that “we are tracking this process closely and working to ensure that it does not negatively impact public media.”

Riley concluded her address by citing recent surveys illustrating the support behind public broadcasting. “Seventy-six percent of Americans think that public television is a good investment; 88% of parents think PBS Kids is a safe and trusted place for their kids; 65% of people who voted for President Trump think PBS is either adequately funded or underfunded. And for the 22nd year in a row, public television is America's most trusted institution,” she said.

WASHINGTON—As U.S. broadcasters continue their transition to ATSC 3.0, public broadcasters are playing a critical role, from testing new emergency alerting technologies to providing the myriad of services available, from datacasting to on-demand programming. 

Leaders of several state public broadcasting organizations took the stage this week at the annual APTS Public Media Summit in Washington to discuss the transition and share ideas on how best to harness future technologies. 

Early 1.0 Shutoff
One of those ideas is the concept of “flash-cutting,” which would mean shutting down ATSC 1.0 before a deadline for is determined by the FCC but not before also providing 3.0 auxiliary devices to consumers. Franz Joachim, GM and CEO of New Mexico PBS pointed to the unique circumstances surrounding a particular market in his state. 

“We're looking at flash cutting one rural community in the southern part of our state,” he said. “It's a 5G community, interestingly enough, and it's a small town that has a greater than average membership base—I think we figured out that about 10% of the community members are members of our station.”

Joachim said such a high percentage gave them “a lot of context with what we're looking at” and that the community’s rural status left them without an option to share facilities via “lighthouse” arrangements where broadcasters transmitting 3.0 in the same market share transmission facilities. “We’re flash cutting that community over to ATSC 3.0 because there isn't an opportunity to ‘lighthouse’ ourselves or duplicate [transmissions].

Spectrum efficiency is top of mind among all broadcasters, not just public. However, public broadcasters may have better opportunities to soon take advantage of the new services enabled by 3.0, Joachim added.  

“On our ATSC 1.0 signal, we're carrying two HD and three SD channels and we have just a tiny little bit of room left over to do some datacasting, and with ATSC 3.0, we're using about 55% of that 6 MHz channel to do exactly the same thing,” he said. “So I've got 45% of my space left over to try things to play with things. So we're rolling out ATSC 3.0 and opening it up and looking for partners.”

Joachim added that NM PBS is also looking into acquiring more low power transmitters to help rural areas of the state transition to 3.0 and even help bring new services enabled by 3.0’s integration of broadcast and broadband to underserved markets.

“We’re looking at starting to transition to low power translators,” he said. “We have a large translator network that covers a good part of our state, and we're working with equipment manufacturers, we're prototyping low power transmitters to roll out ATSC 3.0 into rural communities. I think this is where we start tackling the real issue of this which is the digital divide and how ATSC 3.0 can be a tremendous bridge to that.”

Streaming the Prime Driver of Growth
Andrew Russell, president and CEO of PBS SoCal in Los Angeles emphasized the impact that streaming has had on public broadcasting and the advantages of free in a world where consumers are being hit with constant subscription fee increases. 

“What is our big growth driver? Of course, it's streaming, that’s where viewers are going,” he said. “We're all trying to figure out what's the mix, because having broadband to participate in the economy is really a necessity.”

Ad-free content and localization are key differentiators separating public broadcasting from streaming, which is trending towards ad-supported services, Russell added. 

“I think the two opportunities that I don't think you see Disney+ or Netflix or others are going to do—one is to be locally focused and locally based,” he said. “That's our core strength. It's really hard to replicate the presence that we have in every community, and to use streaming for that purpose.

“The second is performance service,” he added. “We've been in the business of doing what the commercial market cannot and we've seen content that we know doesn't work. And while we went through this big streaming boom in the last few years, a lot of money was being thrown at that content and it is now receding. Now as we see streaming returning to advertising, it starts looking familiar—all of a sudden we see pullbacks in areas like high quality kids programming from the commercial market.” 

Stacey Decker, SVP, Innovation and System Strategies for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, urged attendees to continue to point to the intrinsic value of free over the air broadcasting, particularly during emergencies. But he also had a warning to his fellow broadcasters on the continuing dilemma of recruiting new blood.

“You got vertical real estate that's very valuable, and I think you should look to your neighbors and your partners to leverage that vertical real estate and point to the fact that cell phone towers are not as resilient, we know that; it's proven," Decker said. "The other thing I would say is that there's not a lot of RF engineers running around. I talked to people on a frequent basis that are concerned about supporting their infrastructure, because they have a shortage of staff. It's a skill set that's not widely available."

Whether or not some of that shortfall could be partly rectified by artificial intelligence, the other hot tech topic of the moment, is up for debate.

“A lot of our engineers have been working in the AI space for a long time,” Decker said. “It’s called ‘automation.”

“AI is going to change our lives,” Decker predicted, referring to a study from Goldman Sachs that estimates that as many as 300 million positions could be affected by AI. At NAB, there's a camera that's going to be announced that basically takes care of lighting and angles and you don't have to be a videographer. So certainly, there's a lot happening in the AI space. I think it will impact the broadcast infrastructure heavily.”

WASHINGTON—Throughout its 50+ year existence, PBS has had a long history of using technological innovation to serve its viewers and communities—from educational and interactive services to datacasting, emergency alerting and coverage of local events. But as the past three years have shown, the disruption caused by the pandemic—which coincided with the emergence of streaming as the dominant force in television—is prompting public broadcasters to explore ways to use new technology to enhance and expand their presence in communities large and small. 

This was the focus of a session at the APTS Public Media Summit this week, featuring John Zeglis, former chairman and CEO of AT&T Wireless and current board member of APTS and WNIT, South Bend, In.; Jeffery Cole, director of the Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California; Andrew Russell, president and CEO of PBS SoCal and KCET in Los Angeles and APTS Board Chair, and Madeleine Noland, president, ATSC.

Zeglis opened the session by paraphrasing his favorite business writer, Peter Drucker, who once said that the greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence, it is to act with yesterday's logic. Aligning that sentiment up with the impact of the last three years was a common thread during the session. 

Zeglis commented on how the pandemic and the increasing dominance of streaming services has impacted how public broadcasters communicate with their audiences and the search for the "that next wave of killer apps."

"[Our panel] is billed as 'discussing a changing media landscape,' but I gotta say that I think it's more like 'rearranging' the landscape because who would have thought that half of all former television content is now being distributed through streaming?" Zeglis mused. "This really has the attention of small stations like us in Northern Indiana—most of what we broadcast we don't produce. so what's our role in the future when suddenly our content can be pulled down from some central server or from that 'great jukebox' in the sky? 

Lessons Learned
Cole reminded attendees that APTS’s last in-person gathering was exactly three years ago, just prior to the March 2020 global shutdown. “We lived through the greatest disruption of our lifetime,” Cole said, adding “your last meeting face to face was within a couple of weeks of that disruption.”

Cole focused on the shutdown’s impact on the film industry which perhaps, among all media, suffered the greatest disruption of all when movie theaters closed and studios were forced to experiment with the traditional method of determining when a movie was released and on which platform. Although the studios had been testing the boundaries of the traditional 90-day window between theatrical release and streaming availability, the pandemic allowed the studios to put such experimentation into reality.

For example, companies like Disney and Warner Bros., which owned both film production companies and streaming services, experimented with premiering new releases on their streaming services as part of the subscription. Cole noted that Warner Bros.,—which had just unveiled its HBO Max streaming service during the early months of the pandemic— was among the most extreme in its experimentation. 

“Warner Brothers wanted to get attention [for HBO Max] and decided that every movie they released in 2021—which included ‘The Matrix,’ ‘In the Heights,’ ‘Dune,’ every single one of them would be available on the day it appeared in the movie theater on HBO Max. While all this experimenting went on, people were wondering ‘would we ever go back to the movies?’” Cole mused. 

All of those experiments failed, Cole said.

“They cannibalized the box office and people didn't see them. We began to learn that you could probably not have a billion dollar movie without movie theaters. If you can't have a billion dollar movie you can't have a $200 million budget.”

Although box office in 2023 is still lagging behind pre-pandemic levels, last year saw the return of the first $1 billion grossing movies since before the shutdown, a return to a sort of semi-normalcy that Cole attributed to one of the only persons on earth with the kind of clout to fill movie theaters again. 

“The guy who saved the movie business—and this isn't an exaggeration— is Tom Cruise,” Cole said. “‘Top Gun Maverick’ was finished before Covid but Tom would not let them release it in ‘20 or ‘21. He had the power of control when it was released. He wouldn’t release it until last May. No one ever sold or marketed a movie the way he did and brought people back for the first billion dollar movie after Covid.” 

As the country began to open up again, viewers started becoming preoccuped with things other than TV viewing, Cole said.

“As we began to leave our homes, 2022 was the year that we learned that streaming was not the answer,” he said. Prior to the launch of Disney+ in 2019, the dominant player in streaming services was Netflix, but with the influx of new streaming services from major studios that happened to coincide with the onset of the pandemic, saturation has taken hold and so has competition for viewers. And with declining subscription numbers impacting revenues, this is leading to companies like Netflix launching lower cost ad-supported tiers. 

“I think it's a war between Disney+, HBO Max and Netflix and the streamers are realizing that they cannot raise their prices, they’ve got to find other ways to enhance their revenue,” Cole said. “That's why they're moving to advertising.”

What does all of this mean for PBS and their commercial brethren? “I think local television got rediscovered during Covid,” Cole said. “Local television usage was over 50%—but so too was cable, and streaming was up 74%.” 

Cole added that the Center for the Digital Future has been tracking viewership of local news for the past eight quarters, and when it comes to what viewers’ primary source of news is, “what we found was really quite astonishing for people who don’t know how good local and public TV is.”

The number one answer in both the first and final quarters was local television, according to Cole who added that “17% of Americans use local television as the primary source of news; and it grew from 15% in Q1 while cable television dropped from 13 to 10; broadcast television went from 12 to 13 and the internet dropped from 13 to 11.”

“People discovered how much they care about what's happening in the local community,” Cole said, adding that with more streaming services adopting advertising, “public television is now the only place to go to escape advertising.”

“All of a sudden streaming’s looking a lot like cable television,” he concluded.

Maintaining Close Community Relationships
Russell spoke to the unique relationship public broadcasters have with their local communities and the focus on providing the types of services and outreach that other media outlets can’t or won’t, particularly for rural viewers.

“We need to continue to serve those unserved and underserved communities, especially those without broadband content,” Russell said, adding that, in contrast to broadcast’s “one to many” paradigm, public broadcasters should also take advantage of streaming’s unicast model. 

“We must lead into innovation with this powerful one-to-one technology,” Russell said. “We must use this technology, not just for membership, enrollment, and renewals, but also to support and strengthen our wide range of station local business models, such as K-12 education, university services, local journalism, early education, to impact initiatives to address local community issues.”

Pointing to Amazon’s approach to encouraging user loyalty, Russell urged his fellow public broadcasters to focus on the themes that have engaged viewers with their local stations and to use new technologies to enhance those relationships. 

“We care about education and learning; we care about our connection to our communities; we care about engagement; we care about serving and growing,” Russell said. “The underlying technology of screens allows us to build relationships and at scale. We're looking at the beginning of exploring the powerful potential of this technology as examples in our own stations.”

“Now this requires a lot of technology,” Russell added. “It requires data warehouses, adaptive marketing technology, systems and software, artificial intelligence, new tools for our staff. It requires new roles for our staff and our relationship managers to build and curate relationships in our community and with our viewers.”

“As we think about where we stand today, we stand at an open unknown frontier before us,” he concluded. “Our mission is strong and unique. It is about public service. It is about local. It is about using the power of media for public good. Ahead for us is innovation and creativity, using local and national technology at scale, providing tools for all stations large and small, and new efficiencies in the way we can deliver our mission.”

3.0 Outlook and Opportunities
Although deployments of ATSC 3.0 (aka NextGen TV) among PBS stations have lagged behind their commercial counterparts, public broadcasters have developed new ways to use the advanced TV standard to keep communities safe and informed—from PBS North Carolina’s PILOT-funded field tests, using 3.0 as an alternative to the  analog paging systems first responders rely upon, to a pilot project in New Mexico to deliver classroom content via ATSC 3.0 broadcasts to students without broadband services. 

Madeleine Noland, ATSC president updated the APTS audience about where the other half of the 3.0 transition—the consumer side—currently stands. 

Since hitting the market in late 2020, approximately 5 million 3.0-enabled TV sets from Sony, LG, Samsung and Hisense have been sold in the U.S.. While 2023 is considered a transitional year, Noland believes the market for NextGen TV consumer products will reach maturation by 2026. 

As for peripherals such as set-top boxes and dongles that consumers can use to receive 3.0 on their non-3.0 sets? That’s probably the most exciting part of the consumer equation, Noland said. 

Products such as the Zapperbox and HD HomeRun 4K have been on the market for awhile but a new device from Tolka promised later this year will be the first to sport the NextGen TV logo. 

“Having the NextGen TV logo [on such devices] is extremely important marketing for us,” Noland said. “And it's going to potentially include the smallest USB dongle for $75." 

Noland is optimistic about the pace of the transition, especially in terms of the availability of consumer products. 

“If you were to compare where we are with the transition to NextGen TV now versus where we were at this time for the digital transition from analog, we are further ahead,” she said. "And when you consider that the first set-top box that came out for the original digital standard cost $1,700 in today's dollars, and these [3.0 devices] are coming out for $75-$250 already, we're doing really really well.”

Noland urged the audience to take advantage of the wealth of new services enabled by ATSC 3.0, which combines over the air broadcasts with IP, giving broadcasters the ability to offer advanced services including 4K, immersive audio, datacasting and other OTT-type services. It’s through such capabilities that broadcasters will have the ability to compete in the current crowded media market, she said.

“The world is your oyster, but it's really important for you to open the toolbox of NextGen TV,” she said. “Just the power that we have to work with local content, new revenue opportunities for new business models, new ways of doing hybrid OTA OTT services—that’s all for the taking. So I know the transition is hard, but we gotta get there. We cannot compete with 25 year-old technology in today's media landscape.”

WASHINGTON—Field testing is about to begin in North Carolina on an ATSC 3.0-based alternative to the analog paging systems first responders rely upon to receive dispatches telling them the location of where they are needed and the nature of the emergency at hand.

That was among the key takeaways from the first day (Feb. 28) of the 2022 APTS Public Media Summit session “NextGen TV & Spectrum Business and Service Opportunities.”

“Although we are confident that ATSC 3-delivered messages will far outperform the analog [paging] messages, we must prove that in a deliberate and accurate way. We cannot make any assumptions,” said Fred Engel, CTO of PBS North Carolina. “People’s lives are at stake.”

PBS North Carolina, which has put two stations—the low-power WUNC in Raleigh-Durham and the full-power WUNK in Greenville—on air with ATSC 3.0 has led an effort under Engels to develop a 3.0 alternative to the 50-year-old analog paging systems used by first responders. 

The Department of Homeland Security has awarded a grant to Morrisville, N.C., -based Device Solutions Inc. to develop a prototype paging receiver using 3.0 technology that can be worn on the body by first responders, said Engel.

The 3.0-based paging system promises to reduce significantly the time it takes to communicate information to first responders when compared to the system in use today.

The advancement grew out of the work of PBS North Carolina and its 3.0 R&D lab, which is also tackling the use of NextGen TV to enable remote learning as well as leading investigations into 3.0-based consumer alerting, high dynamic range and single frequency network modeling and the use of 3.0 with PBS’s WARN system, he said.

Engel was joined by Dana Golub, vice president of technology business operations at PBS, Anne Schelle, managing director of Pearl TV and Mark Aitken, president of ONE Media 3.0 and senior vice president of technology at Sinclair Broadcast Group. Lonna Thompson, executive vice president, COO and general counsel at APTS, moderated the virtual session. 

PBS has moved forward with further development of its WARN (Warning, Alert and Response Network), directed in part by a request from the California Office of Emergency Services, said Golub.

When asked how the system might be improved, the office requested that a feature get added that would allow the state agency to see all of the alerts issued by various localities under its purview, she said.

“The example that was given to us in California was that [someone] sitting at the state agency in Sacramento… [might be unaware of] an alert… issued in Palm Springs,” she said. 

After doing a proof of concept, Golub’s team decided it would be possible to add this capability, which it did.

During the session, Golub showed the interface, which displayed that a Flash Flood was occurring in a part of Alabama at the time. The display also included a 360-character and 90-character alert message flood warning and the specific polygon covered by the alert.

“…{This} really takes it [WARN] to a next level in terms of connecting you to the work you are doing and… [gives] you something that you can show when you engage with lawmakers, with your state agencies [and] with emergency management,” she said.

Aitken, who began by discussing recent international wins for ATSC 3.0 in Jamaica and Brazil pointed out that the advanced emergency alerting capabilities of the standard played “a key part in their decision making” that led to the standards adoption. (Jamaica has adopted 3.0, and Brazil is moving forward with parts of the standard for its next generation of digital television.)

“There’s no doubt that the ability to address the public in ways that go well beyond EAS—that go well beyond currently available techniques—to bring rich media and to bring live weather radar, to bring escape routes, to bring an understanding of the situation and situational awareness to the first responders themselves is an important reason for the adoption of ATSC 3,” said Aitken.

Aitken also touted the success of BitPath, Sinclair’s joint venture with Nexstar Media Group, which has “brought together hundreds of television stations in dozens of U.S. markets’ to begin using the ATSC 3,0 standard for datacentric network activity.

“The opportunities certainly seem real. BIA recently set the bar at perhaps up to $15 billion a year by 2030, leveraging datacasting as a central and core opportunity,” he said, adding this opportunity offers broadcasters a potentially significant boost to their existing TV business revenue.

Aitken showed a BitPath map with the coverage the 400 stations to illustrate coverage of a data service over a wide swath of the country, which will only grow as BitPath and Pearl TV continue to bring more markets online. The Advanced Television Systems Committee has begun looking at how to build a core network that coordinates data delivery across such a network, he added.

Peral TV’s Schelle helped shed light on just how extensive ATSC 3.0 deployment has been, what’s expected for 2022 and how the rollout should unfold.

“We ‘ve launched over 42 markets [as of] the end of last year, which represent about 45% of the U.S. households covered with over 220 stations broadcasting the NextGen TV signal,” said Schelle.

The number of NextGen TV models available from LG, Samsung and Sony topped 70 in 2021, with the least expensive being a model from Sony that costs $599. Hisense is jumping into the NextGen TV market with its announcement at CES in January 2022 that it too will offer ATSC 3.0 models. Together, the companies are expected to offer consumers more than 100 NextGen TV models this year, she said.

Looking ahead, 75% of the population will be covered by a NextGen TV signal by the end of the summer, and 34 new markets will be on air by the end of 2022, she said.

The Pearl TV managing director also pointed out to her public media audience the “really unique collaboration” announced in December 2021 coordinated by Pearl and the station groups in Washington, D.C., with Howard University to put ATSC 3.0 on air in the national capitol.

“What’s important about this is it’s a demonstration of the commitment by commercial broadcasters and public stations to work together to bring this new service to consumers,” Schelle said.

The 2022 APTS Public Media Summit continues this afternoon, beginning at 2 p.m. EST. 

More information is available on the event’s webpage.

ARLINGTON, Va.—America's Public Television Stations has announced that the virtual Public Media Summit will feature the FCC Chairwoman and all three Federal Communications Commission commissioners as well as panels on such subjects as NextGen TV. 

The virtual Public Media Summit will be held from February 28 to March 1, 2022. 

The agenda for February 28, includes FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel at 3:20 pm ET; FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks at 3:00 pm ET; FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington at 3:10 pm ET; and FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr at 3:15 pm ET. 

The Monday February 28 programming will also include a panel of technology experts discussing the deployment of the new NEXTGEN TV/ATSC 3.0 broadcast standard, expanding uses of public television datacasting, and other spectrum service and revenue opportunities on the horizon.

Other speakers include: 

• Anne Schelle, Managing Director, Pearl TV
• Mark Aitken, President, ONE Media 
• Fred Engel, Chief Technology Officer, PBS North Carolina 
• Dana Golub, Vice President, Technology Business Operations, PBS
• Moderated by Lonna Thompson, Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel, America’s Public Television Stations 
• Remarks by John Taylor, SVP of Public Affairs and Communications at LG Electronics USA.

 More information on speakers and registration is available here.  

ARLINGTON, Va.—America’s Public Television Stations has shared details of what the virtual 2021 Public Media Summit, taking place Feb. 22-23, will look like, and how it will recognize how public TV stations have been “rising to the challenge” over the past year.

Among the topics APTS’ Public Media Summit will discuss are the response of public TV stations to the COVID-19 pandemic, from remote learning initiatives to providing vital information; the racial reckoning occurring in the country, speaking with Lonnie Bunch III, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and founding director of the Smithsonian Museum of African-American History and Culture, and PBS host Margaret Hoover; as well as exploring the latest technology and service innovations, including NextGen TV.

Other speakers lined up for the summit include:

• Patrick Butler, president and CEO of APTS
• Nikki Bethel, president and CEO, Emma Bowen Foundation
• Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.)
• Ken Burns, documentarian
• Milton Clipper, president emeritus, Public Broadcasting Atlanta
• Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.)
• Susi Elkins, director of broadcasting and general manager, WKAR Public Media
• Dr. Henry Louis “Skip” Gates Jr., historian and filmmaker
• Laura Hunter, station manager & COO, Utah Education and Telehealth Network and KUEN
• Franz Joachim, general manager & CEO, New Mexico PBS
• Ajamu Kitwana, board member, WXXI
• Mark Newman, executive director, Indiana Public Broadcasting Stations
• Madeleine Noland, president, ATSC
• Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)
• Dr. Penny Schwinn, Tennessee commissioner of Education
• Norm Silverstein, president & CEO, WXXI
• Tashanda Thomas, chief human resources officer, WXXI
• John Taylor, senior vice president, Public Affairs & Communications, LG Electronics USA
• Edward Ulman, president & CEO, Alaska Public Media
• Larry D. Unger, president & CEO, Maryland Public Television
• Judy Woodruff, anchor and managing editor, “PBS NewsHour”

The full schedule for the 2021 Public Media Summit is available on APTS’ website. 

WASHINGTON—ATSC has set the benchmark of launching its NextGen TV standard (aka ATSC 3.0) in 40 U.S. markets by the end of 2020, and as a number of sessions discussed during the APTS Public Media Summit on Feb. 25, public television stations can and will be a key part in that effort.

The theme of the 2020 APTS Public Media Summit, which took place in Washington, D.C., is “The Power of Collaboration.” As John Taylor, LG’s senior vice president, told attendees, “moving from the lab to the marketplace requires a huge amount of collaboration among so many stakeholders; really different teams, different leagues, even different sports. No where is the power of collaboration more evident than bringing NextGen products and services to the American public. Together, we’ll make it happen.”

LG, as well as other TV manufacturers, revealed some of their efforts for supporting NextGen TV at the 2020 CES show, but other speakers at the Public Media Summit’s Tuesday sessions spoke more directly how public media can provide assistance and reap the benefits.

FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly spoke about many of the new features that NextGen TV will be able to provide local stations, things like enhanced alert capabilities, better picture quality, immersive audio, datacasting and improvement with interactive educational programming.

“The importance of local television stations to their communities stems from the ability of individual stations to know best what programming and services their communities want and need, and the same will hold true for NextGen TV offerings,” said O’Rielly. He also claims that these new features are likely to help public stations compete with OTT providers. 

“Few entities are as nimble and able to experiment with new technologies as public broadcasters, so it will be very interesting to see the future develop,” O’Rielly added.

O’Rielly also was sure to encourage attendees and their stations to file any comments regarding NextGen TV in the FCC’s ATSC 3.0 proceeding, which is expected in the near future. O’Rielly’s work with KidVid rules was also discussed during his speech. Commissioner O’Rielly’s full speech is available online.

Fittingly, APTS had a representative of one of the public stations that is currently experimenting with NextGen TV technology on-hand at the summit—Susi Elkins, director of broadcasting and general manager at WKAR Public Media in East Lansing, Mich., which launched Apollo PublicTV in December 2019.

Apollo PublicTV is offering broadcasters services that include NextGen TV master classes, ATSC 3.0 receiver and transmitter starter kits, access to NextGen TV broadcast chains and the capability to conduct lab and field trials.

“We see NextGen TV and the Apollo platform as one way for public broadcasters to truly become the digital transformation agents of their local communities and the catalyst for a collaborative national footprint enabling innovations around smart cities, precision agriculture, healthcare, public safety, just to name a few,” Elkins said during her presentation, which was part of the “Collaboration with National Partners on Spectrum Opportunities” panel.

“I hope that as public broadcasters, we will embrace our roots as innovators,” Elkins continued.

Other members of the Spectrum panel included John McCoskey, COO at SpectraRep; Molly Phillips, executive director and general manager for Iowa PBS; and Lieutenant General (Retired) Reynold N. Hoover of RNHoover Consulting. They discussed how datacasting and other technology related to ATSC 3.0 can help with public broadcasting needs. “The possibilities are limited to your own imagination,” said Hoover.

In addition to these sessions, APTS Public Media Summit handed out a pair of awards to public broadcasters. The 2020 Pillar of Public Service Award was given to Tom Axtell, general manager of Vegas PBS in Las Vegas, and the 2020 National Advocacy Award was given to Marty Ryall, director of external relations at Arkansas PBS.

For more information, visit www.apts.org.  

WASHINGTON—FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly will address the APTS Public Media Summit breakfast session Feb. 25 and is expected to discuss KidVid, ATSC 3.0 and other television-related issues, America’s Public Television Stations announced today.

The breakfast, 7:30-9 a.m. at the summit’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel venue, will be followed by a panel discussion on collaborating with national partners on spectrum opportunities, the group said.

The panel, moderated by Craig Fugate, former administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), will include: John McCoskey, COO, SpectraRep; Molly Phillips, executive director and general manager, Iowa PBS; retired Lt. Gen. Reynold Hoover, RNHoover Consulting; and Susi Elkins, director of broadcasting and GM, WKAR Public Media, East Lansing, Mich.

Panelists are expected to discuss new business and service opportunities, such as those stemming from precision agriculture, national security and weather alerting. The panel will also present the latest on the spectrum partnerships APTS is creating with national companies and institutions and a platform for making ATSC 3.0 practical, versatile and successful, the group said.

APTS has published additional information about the summit on its website.  

The address of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel is 1150 22nd St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20037.

WASHINGTON—The America’s Public Television Stations’ annual Public Media Summit will take time this year to honor Mark Richer, ATSC president, with its 2018 EDGE Award for Excellence in Digital Innovation.

The award, which will be presented to Richer on Tuesday, Feb. 27, is in recognition for the “successful and timely completion of the ATSC 3.0 standard, and the integral role the Committee played in ensuring public television stations’ repacking efforts are synched with the Next Generation broadcasting standard,” the official press release read.

The 2018 Public Media Summit will take place Feb. 26-28 in Washington. This year’s theme is “The Power of Public Media,” and will feature presentations and discussions on issues facing public service media. For the full schedule and additional information, click here.