In response to regulatory filings and posts by the Consumer Technology Association opposing a government mandate for NextGen TV tuners and a firm shutoff date for existing broadcast signals, Jerald Fritz, a former ONE Media Technology executive and a broadcaster for more than 50 years, is defending the need for new FCC regulations to speed the transition to NextGen TV broadcasts.

In an article sent to TV Tech, Fritz argues the CTA members and broadcasters should be aligned in supporting the move to NextGen TV and that the CTA’s current arguments against mandates fall apart when seen in a wider, more nuanced context.

The CTA’s current position opposing those mandates “needs some context since the argument over ‘mandates’ is much more nuanced than [CTA CEO Gary Shapiro] portrays,” writes Fritz, a principal at Communications Policy Consulting and who has held multiple staff positions at the FCC, including chief of staff to Chairman Mark Fowler during the Reagan Administration. “In fact, Gary and his CTA members ought to be in lock step with broadcasters in fully realizing the benefits to consumers AND his constituents.”

“Gary understands nuance,” Fritz noted. “He’s been running CTA for almost 35 years and has that excellent legal and Capitol Hill background … And he knows about overregulation—the very situation that has locked broadcasters into the untenable position they are in today.”

In his efforts to describe a more nuanced view of the debate, Fritz stressed that broadcasters and set manufacturers have long operated under government mandates for “rigid standards on both the transmission and reception side” dating back to the period just before World War II. “It needs to be noted that, while Gary stresses over his philosophical opposition to mandates, CTA has been for decades and continues to operate under them as we speak.”

Unfortunately, while technology has been rapidly changing, with mobile phones, personal computers and other devices changing how consumers access content, there has been “until recently 0% change to the mandated TV transmission standard,” Fritz added. ”No mobile applications to watch TV in a car or commuter train. No significant enhancements to picture or sound quality. No hyper-localized or personalized programming, advertising or emergency alerts. And no ability to provide consumers and businesses with an extraordinarily robust one-to-many data platform.”

ATSC 3.0 addresses those issues with many new features, but the current FCC rules governing its implementation create a kind of “a Rube Goldberg implementation plan” that has “the sad effect of requiring all broadcasters to continue to use the old standard in parallel with the new one,” Fritz complained.

This means there are few incentives for “Gary’s CTA companies or TV consumers to implement the new standard if there’s only limited immediate upside,” Fritz wrote. “This hamstrings stations and CTA members from fully realizing the extraordinary capabilities of the NextGen TV standard.”

“This crazy implementation regime is equivalent to saying to Gary’s constituents that no new 5G or 6G phone can be sold until every existing 3G user can use the new tech,” Fritz argued.

This background provides an important context for Shapiro’s other criticisms that broadcasters haven’t heavily invested in or marketed 3.0 broadcasts and that consumers haven’t embraced the technology, Fritz added. “To the contrary, with both hands tied behind their backs broadcasters have deployed the NextGen TV standard to more than ¾ of the U.S. population, and CTA member companies are including the tech in millions of TV sets.”

The current rules also make it nearly impossible for broadcasters to showcase the real advantages of 3.0 broadcast, Fritz argued.

“Fully 88% of the broadcast channel capacity structured to deliver NextGen TV services is stuck behind this nonsensical regulatory wall,” Fritz said. “And there’s the nuance. CTA’s constituent companies should be clamoring to provide products capturing these new services. It means new products to develop and sell. It means new markets to exploit. It means profits. Broadcasters and CTA members are already locked behind an iron curtain wall of government regulations. Let’s free the markets. The government has already approved the standard. Now it needs to ensure that all parties are using it for the benefit of all. To paraphrase President Reagan, ‘Mr. Shapiro, help tear down this wall!’ ”

For more than a half century, Jerry Fritz has been at some of the most momentous turning points in the broadcast and telecommunications industries—much as the fictional character Forrest Gump was an up-close part of and witness to major events in U.S. history.

As a broadcaster, lawyer, FCC Chairman chief of staff and most recently a key player at the vanguard of NextGen TV during his tenure with ONE Media, Fritz has witnessed and influenced a lot. 

On July 1, he will say farewell July 1 to ONE Media and the industry. Reflecting on his career, Fritz likens himself to Gump. But to be sure, the parallel is only circumstantial—not intellectual.

In this interview, Fritz offers his insights on the progress of NextGen TV, the importance of an ATSC 1 shutoff, the future of UHF spectrum auctions, how the regulatory landscape has changed over his career and what he will do in retirement.

(An edited transcript.)

TV Tech: During your 56-year career in the broadcast industry, you’ve held many roles. I want to start off with NextGen TV. At ONE Media you have worked to make NextGen TV a reality. As you retire, what’s your assessment of where the rollout is today and the challenges facing broadcasters? 

Jerry Fritz: I'm heartened by the rollout. This is a hockey stick acceptance when you compare it to other transmission systems that have rolled out.

Our company alone is already launched in 46 markets. We're [as an industry] at over 70% of the country. We have patent pools formed so that manufacturers can have a one- stop shop to get their technology into devices. 

So, I'm very heartened—not just domestically, but internationally as well. We not only got it approved at the FCC, but now we've got it approved at the ITU [International Telecommunications Union] as one of the four international standards. It's obviously here in the U.S. and in Korea, but now we're looking for Canada, Mexico, Brazil and India. So, we're quite heartened at the rollout.

TVT: What are your thoughts about bringing ATSC 1.0 to a close? How and when will it happen?

JF: The sooner the better, and I'm directing that comment to the government. We need to have a rapid termination of ATSC 1 because all of the capabilities of ATSC 3.0 are handcuffed due to this requirement of simulcasting. 

We're using all of this valuable capacity, where we could be doing not just video, but all of the data operations. I will tell you that if broadcasters are successful in this BPS [Broadcast Positioning System], being the supplement to GPS [Global Positioning System], that's going to put enormous pressure on the government to get all broadcasters—not just some in these 70 [existing ATSC 3.0] markets we're in but all broadcasters in all markets—to convert so we can have this redundant and complementary system to GPS.

It's a national security issue, and that should really give the government pause to move forward on the deployment of 3.0. It’s so much more advantageous than what we have today. It's remarkable that we're still hamstrung.

TVT: Has there been any movement on the part of the government when it comes to evaluating BPS as a GPS complement? 

JF: I don't know about any official decision, but we in the broadcast industry are making plans to do this testing. We have a robust test to demonstrate to the Transportation Department [the agency charged with finding a complement to GPS] the value of broadcasting as this supplement. So, I think we're moving full steam ahead, and hopefully they will because they want to move quickly, and we can move quickly. We have an infrastructure that's already in place.

TVT: FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr suggested earlier this month at the ATSC annual meeting in Washington, D.C., that another spectrum auction is around the corner. What are your thoughts about that? And how does the industry pursue avoiding a succession of UHF spectrum auctions going forward?

JF: That ties right back to what we were just talking about as relates to BPS. If the Defense Department and the Transportation Department are looking for a viable alternative and substitute and supplement to the satellite-based geo positioning system we have today, then broadcasting is it.

If you do that with broadcasting, you're not going to be taking away broadcast spectrum. It is going to be locked in. It is a national security imperative, and I believe that if that comes to pass, there will be no more spectrum auctions.

TVT: How important is it to broadcasters to augment their existing business with revenue from new 3.0-enabled services such as datacasting?

JF: The flexible use of broadcast spectrum is absolutely crucial. The broadcast spectrum we've been licensed should not be siloed into just a television service. 

There are lots of television services out there. Lots of distribution from cable to satellite to Internet. A lot of people are competing for eyeballs.

If broadcasters want to remain in that business—and we do—no one has ever invented a better way to reach a mass audience than broadcast television, bar none. No one’s even close. If we're going to continue that business, and it's a very expensive business, we need supplemental income.

Retrans is going to cap out—whether that’s from satellite, cable, and hopefully virtual MVPDs as well. We need to do more than just television. The datacasting businesses is crucial. As you know, Sinclair [ONE Media’s parent company] just launched Broadspan as the first foray into this. I believe truly that within a decade and a half, broadcasters can make more money from renting their spectrum—renting their bits—than they make today from advertising. 

TVT: Does the government generating revenue from FCC spectrum sales skew the larger mission of the agency when it comes to advancing the public interest?

JF: In the 90 years that the FCC has been in existence, there have been, I think, 33 chairs. I've known 21 of those chairs. I've worked with seven. I've worked for four of those chairs, and I've seen this enormous swing of the pendulum of what the public interest means—from Newton Minow talking about the public interest and having a government control over the content that is seen, and that was his vision of the public interest, which continues today for many people, to the swing back under Mark Fowler.

He pursued marketplace regulation, which really lets the marketplace determine what the public interest is. I’ve seen this swing, and it goes back and forth at the commission depending on who’s the chair. And the Congress has different ideas of what the public interest is. 

Recognize that the entire notion of the government owning the spectrum dates back to Herbert Hoover trying to say that it is a good idea for the government to control this because he couldn't control the newspapers.

But courts in 1924 were in the process of allocating private property rights to broadcast channels, using the idea of trespass. So, there's nothing inherent that says the government has to own these things.

The government, the FCC, has for many years had the silo approach to regulation based on content. The broadcasters have content. The common carriers have different types of public interest.

But there's no reason it has to be allocated that way. You could get rid of the silos. You could get rid of the Media Bureau and merge it into what is originally the original Wireless Transmission System, which is broadcasting.

Broadcasting can merge into the Wireless Bureau, and you could have the flexible use of broadcasting channels regulated in a different way and spin off the 15 or so content regulations that the FCC imposes specifically on broadcasting, and Congress has imposed on broadcasting. You could do that.

You could have a much more flexible approach to licensing of spectrum in the public interest, so that the public gets the benefit of all of the things that spectrum can do, not just television.

TVT: Isn’t spectrum scarcity the fundamental reason the government can avoid being at odds with the First Amendment in regard to regulating TV and radio? They aren’t making any more of it.

JF: There's nothing available in the universe on an unlimited basis. Everything is scarce. Land in Manhattan is scarce. If you're going to put up a billboard in Manhattan, does that give the government the right to say what goes on that billboard? 

There's really nothing available in limitless quantities. The scarcity principle was written in the Red Lion decision in 1969. The government made it a question of law as opposed to a question of fact.

If you take a look at the number of voices that are out there today via the Internet and the competition that broadcasters face from the from big tech, tell me where the scarcity is. There's no scarcity of viewpoints.

It's just this notion that the government needs to own spectrum because it's scarce. Well, timber in the United States is scarce. That doesn't mean we get to control the newspapers.

TVT: What do you plan to do in retirement?

JF: I don’t know the answer to that question. I've been thinking about it long and hard. I'll continue to teach. I love teaching and the broadcasting business.

I feel sort of like Forrest Gump in my career, having been in the background of all of these big ticket items that went on in the last 56 years. 

My first job in television was at WMAQ, the NBC-owned station in Chicago in 1968. I remember walking out of the studio during a break and taking a deep breath, and there was sort of a pungent aroma in the air. You know what it was? It was the tear gas wafting over from Grant Park during the 1968 Democratic Convention. And here we are going full circle with the Democrats going back to Chicago this year.

I've been extraordinarily fortunate, you know. I was there when cellular was approved in 1981 with Fowler. We deregulated long-distance rates and implemented the AT&T divestiture. I was part of the group that finally got rid of the hated Fairness Doctrine, along with the personal attack rule and the political editorializing rule.

We changed broadcast ownership. It used to be you could only own seven AM, seven FM and seven television stations. Only five could be in the top 50 markets, which is crazy.

So, we went from a station to an eyeball test. We got rid of the Top 50 policy; we got rid of the regional concentration of control rule, and we wanted to get rid of the local rules. The Commission's tried, but we're stuck in this rinse and repeat cycle in the courts to try to change the ownership rules.

I was there for the analog-to-digital transition when I was on the NAB Board. Did the first retransmission consent contracts and was involved in creating News Channel 8 and the first local cable news channel and was part of the team that formed Politico.

So, I've been [like] Forrest Gump [all over this industry]...Now I'm kicking back, and saying, “Well, I'll probably do some writing. I'll probably do some teaching, and I want to give up the list of to dos.”

I just read a book called “Table for Two,” and the author, Amor Towles, had a great quote in there that “lists are the foot soldiers of tyranny.” So, I'm giving up lists.

ARLINGTON, Va.—Jerald “Jerry” Fritz, executive vice president for strategic and legal affairs at ONE Media Technologies, LLC, a subsidiary of Sinclair, Inc., has announced his retirement. After an illustrious career spanning more than 55 years in and around the broadcast and communications industries, Fritz will step down on July 1, the company reported. 

For the past decade, Fritz has been responsible for the long-term strategic planning and public policy for ONE Media, supporting the adoption and deployment of the broadcast industry’s groundbreaking NextGen Broadcast (ATSC 3.0) transmission standard. 

Throughout his tenure, Fritz also played a critical role in shaping ONE Media’s and Sinclair’s national and international spectrum use and intellectual property positions. His work on the adoption of ATSC 3.0 as a global digital broadcast standard was recently recognized by the North American Broadcasters Association with its prestigious International Achievement Award.

“No one knows broadcast television better than Jerry. He brings a unique blend of legal expertise, policy know-how, and technical facility that has made him instrumental in the industry’s advancement of ATSC 3.0,” said Patrick McFadden, senior vice president global public policy and communications. 

Mark Aitken, ONE Media’s president added, “We honor the incredible legacy of Jerry, one that has impacted our entire industry. His wisdom and contributions will be deeply missed, but his influence will continue to inspire and guide future generations.”

Fritz joined ONE Media from Allbritton Communications Company and POLITICO where he served as general counsel and director of strategic affairs for nearly 30 years. Previously, he served as the chief of staff to FCC Chairman Mark Fowler, where he was a key member of the team that pushed to deregulate the broadcasting and telecommunications industries including abolishing the Fairness Doctrine, dramatic loosening of station ownership rules, implementing the AT&T divestiture, approving the first cellular phone service, and deregulating long distance rates. He had a hand in helping to form multiple new ventures including the nation’s first local cable news channel and launching POLITICO. Prior to joining the Chairman’s staff, Fritz was in private practice at Pierson Ball & Dowd specializing in communications law, held several staff positions at the FCC and taught on the adjunct faculty at George Mason University Law School.

Fritz has also served on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Broadcasters, where he chaired the NAB-X.com Task Force, served on the Digital Television Implementation Team and the EEO and Copyright Committees. He is a past Governor of the ABC Affiliates Association and was former chair of its Government Relations Committee. Fritz is also a former Governing Committee member and Division Chair of the American Bar Association’s Communications Law Forum and a past co-chair of the Pre-Publication Review Committee for the Media Law Resource Center. He has been a mainstay on the NAB’s Broadcast Leadership Training Program’s faculty for a quarter century.

Over-the-air television distribution as a business is at a tipping point. No one has ever invented a  more efficient way to distribute content to mass audiences. At the same time, it is existential that  broadcasters rethink how we are using our core asset—the spectrum that carries our TV channels—to  provide that distribution. 

Yes, we will continue to serve the public by providing free-to-air local and  national news, information and entertainment programming that is the quid pro quo for our licenses  to use that spectrum. It’s a good business. But it is plateauing. Embracing the other uses of that  spectrum—datacasting uses—will be critical to growing our industry, supporting the existing model  and venturing into whole new experiences that ensure our relevance in a world dominated by the  internet services of big technology companies. Wired and wireless! 

Status quo is not an option. And reliance on a diginet business model to augment our over-the-air  revenues will be insufficient to ensure our long-term survival. Niche rerun channels will not be the  savior of our current business model. It’s good-tasting candy when we really need a banquet of  nourishing food to grow. 

To mix metaphors, why rent out spare bedrooms in a single-family home  when we can erect a skyscraper on the same chunk of land using the ground floor to live in and renting  the upper stories to multiple businesses? That is the spectrum reuse enabled by NextGen  Broadcasting. That is what datacasting is all about. 

Making the Most of Spectrum
KEY: Deploying NextGen Broadcast (ATSC 3.0) capabilities and providing multiple  non-TV use-cases will be critical to sustaining our ability to remain in the content  distribution business. 

Across industries and around the world, virtually every spectrum  user is constantly striving to improve service offerings with existing spectrum. The beauty of the IP based NextGen Broadcast transmission standard is that broadcast spectrum can be used for so much  more than simple delivery of one-way, unenhanced television program streams. 

It needs to be seen  as an essential element of internet distribution that has never-before been possible. In economic terms,  this is the market’s way of maximizing productivity and is the essence of how spectrum can be used  most effectively. In business terms, it permits broadcasters to match and exceed the best features of  competing video delivery platforms while also bringing new services to the public that will provide  new revenue streams. 

This has been a part of the “digital promise” since broadcasters converted from  analog transmissions and has been anticipated by regulators and broadcasters alike for many years.  Developments to-date justify analysts’ predictions that, in the next decade, broadcasters will develop  a third revenue stream as robust as advertising and retransmission fees for the content we produce or  license.  

The government-defined deployment rules, however, complicate this promise. Rather than providing  temporary additional spectrum to ease the transformation to this remarkable IP-based broadcast  service, the deployment plan is hampered by a requirement that broadcasters simulcast programming  in both the current ATSC 1.0 and new NextGen Broadcast standards. 

That process eats up virtually  all of the NextGen digital capacity earmarked for new services. It’s like trying to grow new sequoia  trees but having to contend with dwarf, bonsai tree clipping protocols. That needs to end.

Spectrum Aggregation
KEY: To be clear, that means that broadcasters must have complete and unfettered  access to all of their digital capacity, not just the remnants left over after hosting our  competitors on our broadcast towers. And that means a sunsetting of the 1.0  simulcasting rules as soon as possible. 

While individual broadcasters will use a portion of their NextGen  spectrum capacity for enhanced traditional linear video services, they may use any “excess” capacity  for other offerings. Those offerings can include advanced features such as ultra-high definition and  high dynamic range video and immersive audio. 

They can also include datacasting. Scaling that  service on a regional and national basis will require broadcasters to aggregate their capacity and offer  it for non-video use cases. The fundamental mission of BitPath, the joint venture between Nexstar  and Sinclair, is this aggregation process. The possible use cases for this one-to-many datacasting  service are limited only by imagination. 

The most promising of several initial data uses include in-vehicle video entertainment enhanced and telematics.

 The NextGen  Broadcast standard is uniquely designed to synergize OTA broadcast and broadband 5G services.  Nowhere will this be more immediately beneficial than in automobile servicing. Recent  demonstrations by CAST.ERA, a joint venture between Sinclair Broadcast Group and SK Telecom  from Korea, and Hyundai Mobis highlighted in-vehicle video entertainment with enhanced geo targeting capabilities, including hyper-local, location-based, targeted ad and content insertions.  

Connected vehicles are rolling computers that need servicing. Using NextGen Broadcast capabilities,  providers of data services to vehicles will be able to deliver software updates simultaneously to an  infinite number of IoT devices in their smart vehicles to upgrade software for new functionality,  infotainment, bug fixes, and navigation. Safety updates can be delivered within hours, not days.  

Services can be provided to hundreds of thousands of devices instantly and simultaneously with no  network slowdowns since broadcast architecture is not subject to cell phone network bottlenecks. Live  updating of 3D mapping, for example, requires huge amounts of data so that autonomous driving vehicles  don’t bump into things. 

You can’t do that with WiFi. You can’t do that via a spotty cell phone system.  You can do that through a robust, one-to-many broadcast system. And broadcasters with complete access  to their NextGen IP capacity will be perfectly positioned to provide those needed services.  

Content Distribution Offload
KEY: Positioning the broadcast industry to take advantage of these new services  requires thoughtful advance planning to deploy NextGen Broadcast capability now,  not some date in the future. Accelerating the deployment is essential. 

Well over 80% of all consumer Internet traffic  today is for video with more than 1.1 million minutes of video streamed or downloaded every second.  Those are one-to-one events. In other words, streaming a 1 GB movie to 50 million people would  consume 50 million GB of spectrum capacity. 

That’s extraordinarily inefficient when compared to  the one-to-infinite broadcast architecture that could cover all 210 Nielsen markets with a collective 210 GB. For the math aficionado reader, that’s using a mere 0.00042% of the broadband streaming  model. If Netflix or some other streaming service wants to complement its data offloading options—viewing NextGen Broadcast as a content delivery network extension—renting broadcast bits to  provide the exact same service at a fraction of the expense seems to be a worthwhile pursuit.

Signage
KEY: To ensure that capacity exists to provide these types of services, developing  the local, regional and national networks now is essential. That means both station  deployment and access to the full NextGen digital capacity—sunsetting the 1.0  simulcasting requirement. 

From electronic billboards to transit signs in buses, trains and taxis to  elevator screens to gas station pumps and electronic vehicle charging stations, businesses attempt to  grab our visual attention. The marketing tools are omnipresent. But content needs to get to those  places. 

Doing that efficiently and inexpensively is a datacasting service that makes broadcasting part  of a holistic 5G distribution plan for any advertiser. Sinclair’s spectrum delivery pilot on USSI  Global’s electronic vehicle charging stations is the precursor of many more applications to come. 

Augmented GPS
BitPath has demonstrated its NavPath and BitPoint systems  which can put broadcasters in the center of the fast-growing Positioning, Navigation and Timing  market while enhancing their public service commitments. Using a trivial amount of a station’s NextGen digital capacity, these enhanced GPS services can provide vast improvements to location  accuracy for an unlimited number of users, vehicles and devices – all at a small fraction of the cost of  existing services. 

These new BitPath service offerings will support dozens of use cases, including  Internet of Things applications, autonomous vehicle tracking, precise drone delivery, and emergency  response. BitPath has committed to make NavPath and BitPoint available to first responders at  no cost. 

Advanced Emergency Information
The targeting and IP capabilities built into  the NextGen Broadcast standard make advanced emergency information services a natural fit for  broadcasters. The expanded capacity of NextGen broadcasts combined with its pinpoint targeting  capabilities enables more than a simple crawl on the screen warning of a crisis. 

Now, viewers can see  the weather report, Doppler Radar images, evacuation routes, and shelter locations, and hear them in  multiple languages. Similarly, a hazmat spill, school lockdown or AMBER alert can be targeted to  specific geographic regions, and viewers can have instant access to critical information. 

And since  the robust over-the-air broadcast system architecture is based on a “one-to-infinite” capability (where  the system can never be overloaded), it provides a RELIABLE and dramatic enhancement to current  emergency notifications, especially in relation to the fragile cell phone system that does not weather  storms or natural catastrophes well.  

Redundant First Responder Platform
KEY: NextGen Broadcasting can save lives. It’s imperative that the government  act swiftly and decisively to accelerate NextGen Broadcasting deployment with  access to all of a station’s NextGen digital capacity, enabling these critical services.  

In a successful display of the advanced  emergency datacasting features of the NextGen Broadcast standard, SpectraRep recently  demonstrated a sophisticated deployment of advanced interagency sharing protocols for emergency  communications in connection with the 2022 U.S. Marine Corps Marathon.

 It did the same for  activities surrounding the July 4th celebrations in the nation’s capital. The company deployed its  redundant datacasting solution during the complex and dynamic security event to deliver encrypted  video, alerts, and file sharing among eight public safety agencies. 

All data was delivered securely  over-the-air on a broadcast station without the need for internet or wireless data transmission (LTE) services. With NextGen datacasting, public safety departments can communicate and exchange alerts  without having to rely on cellular systems that can become overloaded at large scale events.  

E-Learning
KEY: FCC, please take note. This is a life-saving application of NextGen  Broadcasting. Access to all of a station’s NextGen Broadcast capacity can hasten  these services. 

NextGen’s datacasting capabilities are being specifically targeted for  enhanced e/ and distance learning. The need for these services was dramatically demonstrated during  the COVID pandemic as educators struggled to reach students where broadband connectivity was  limited or unavailable. 

All broadcast stations—commercial and public—will have the capability to  improve the learning environment of students significantly across the country, especially in places  where the Internet just doesn’t reach. In cooperation with SpectraRep, Sinclair has been demonstrating  those services over existing NextGen stations. Today that’s done with a separate reception box—a  gateway—but tomorrow the reception capability will be built into all receivers. 

Developing the Distribution Network
The datacasting use cases described above are just the  low hanging fruit. Many, many additional applications are waiting to emerge as we devise tools and  protocols to aggregate NextGen Broadcast spectrum. 

Two additional fundamental requirements are  also under development that will help spread these sophisticated new services offerings. They are: 

CORE NETWORK. Connecting multiple NextGen-transmitting stations with potential  customers in need of diverse datacasting capacity is a critical new but economically rewarding  challenge. Never before have we had the ability to connect television stations logically as a  distribution platform. Stations existed as islands—separate, independently addressable, disparate  entities. 

We now have the ability to link them. That infrastructure does not yet fully exist but is in an  active planning stage. Cutting edge broadcasters are on the cusp of designing, building, and operating  an innovative and interconnected broadcast platform intended to provide a wireless broadcast  backbone for IP data delivery across the country. 

ATSC, itself is supporting some of this activity  through a Specialist Group to develop standards for a “core network” that will enable datacasting and  permit it to scale across multiple stations and markets.  

BROADCAST MARKET EXCHANGE (BMX). Maximizing the efficiency of matching  aggregated spectrum capacity from multiple broadcasters with the needs of data users is the holy grail  of an efficient datacasting network. 

This will eventually be accomplished in the cloud using artificial  intelligence in a broadcast market exchange—BMX—giving data users and other distribution platform  operators an alternative distribution tool. Sinclair has been at the forefront of designing the  underlining BMX superstructure that will be integral to the core backbone network. 

KEY: Creators and innovators need an environment to succeed. A network this  complex doesn’t just happen. It requires advanced planning and, importantly, a  regulatory environment that nourishes this type of evolution. 

Within 15 years, broadcasters will make as much money selling their bits for data distribution as they will for selling commercial ads in TV programs.

How’s that for an incentive for broadcasters to begin deploying NextGen Broadcast services? We  are at an existential pivot point in time where the fundamental basis of our industry is at stake.  Fortunately, we’ve met the technological challenge to keep our businesses relevant.  

KEY: We now have a data delivery pipe that is the envy of the world— integrated  with the Internet and reaching mobile viewers with targeted programming and ads,  ultra-rich video and audio programs reaching deep into buildings. Perhaps most  important, we now are at the table for a myriad of NEW businesses apart from linear  TV. It’s now time to capitalize on it. 

WASHINGTON—Representatives from the broadcast industry met with public emergency managers recently to discuss the future of emergency alerting in the new ATSC 3.0 standard (aka “NextGen TV”).

The meeting, held last week at NAB headquarters here is part of a series of roundtables sponsored by the Advanced Warning and Response Network (AWARN), an alliance of broadcasters, government officials and manufacturers tasked with developing the new advanced emergency alerting service for the ATSC 3.0 over the air service. 

The ability of ATSC 3.0 to combine broadcast with IP brings the promise of far more detailed and targeted information that can be relayed to the public during emergencies. This ability for broadcasters—whose transmission facilities have to meet FCC requirements for security and reliability— could make a crucial difference in a world where the kinds of cellular services consumers rely on every day are far more vulnerable and likely to fail, as evidenced by recent storms, including Hurricane Ian.

What kind of information, how it’s presented and how best to relay it to the myriad of devices was among the main topics of discussion at the meeting. Jerald Fritz, Executive Vice President for Strategic and Legal Affairs for ONE Media, a division of Sinclair Broadcast Group, emphasized the importance the broadcast community put on improved mobile reception when developing ATSC 3.0; something that could not be achieved in 1.0.

“What we've now enabled is mobility—we can put it in your tablet, on your laptop, or on your phone,” he said. “That's critical in the emergency informing field.” 

Fritz showed several screenshots showing different layouts of how and what information could be relayed on a TV or mobile device screen, from maps of escape routes to sources of additional information, weather maps, school closings, emergency updates, etc. The plethora of information and how it can be presented can be daunting, however. 

During a demonstration of its emergency alerting app that showcased such features, Kevin Wong with ONE Media discussed how the company has approached its development. 

“There's a lot of potential here to show additional information that you expect to get on the internet, including an augmented experience,” he said. “It's really just a matter of what information is available and making it accessible and organizing it. So we're still working on enhancing the experience to provide more information, making it more accessible.”

Although cord cutting has increased and the number of consumers receiving TV over the air has incrementally grown over the past decade, the vast majority of  consumers still watch via cable and/or broadband, so how do the emergency alerting capabilities of ATSC 3.0 fit into the multichannel and mobile device world of today, if they're not available on pay TV?

“[Broadcasters] are currently talking with the MVPDs (multichannel video program distributors)... to make sure that they're going to be taking the 3.0 service—not just the 1.0 service—to transmit to those folks that have cable systems,” Fritz said. “That's assuming that they have electricity and power to run their television station. Because when power goes out, the cable systems pretty much go out as well on their televisions that work. That's why we believe it's critical to have ATSC 3.0 in mobile devices and laptops and tablets and phones.” 

On that note, despite the lack of ATSC 3.0 compatibility on mobile devices, Fritz pointed to the international focus of the standard and ONE Media’s ongoing work with Saankhya Labs, its chip partner based in India and the potential offered by the world’s second most populous nation. 

“With respect to the cell phone companies, we have decided to do it ourselves, to show what the capabilities are,” Fritz said, pointing to the company’s ongoing development of its Mark One Android-based smartphone it’s developing with Saankhya. “India is conducting broadcast spectrum testing in Bangalore and Delhi right now to show what direct to mobile will look like and we believe that it will be successful, and that success will then manifest itself here in the United States.”

Sulayman Brown, Deputy Coordinator for the Dept. of Emergency Management and Security for Fairfax (Va.) County Gov’t., discussed the evolution of the region’s emergency preparedness efforts through the creation of the National Capitol Notification System that, over the past decade, has streamlined the way local governments in the DMV area alert both their internal departments as well as the general public. As communications from pagers and cellphones have evolved to the sophisticated smartphones of today, the notification system has adapted to those changes. 

Brown noted the increasing value of using social media for emergency communications. “A lot of our messaging is out on social media," he said. “Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, all of that is now connected to our notification system.”

Brown sees the emergency alerting capabilities through ATSC 3.0 as an important addition to a menu of emergency communications capabilities but is also cognizant of the realities of today’s consumer choices and getting the message to where the consumers are. He also thinks there’s room for improving communication between local broadcasters and emergency officials. 

“Essentially we need better communication about who makes the decisions at the broadcast station,” he said. “Can we get you out to our location where we can walk you through a particular situation? What's our trigger for sending out messages? Is it that big of an emergency so that you feel more comfortable putting that message out? This is the message, so it's got to be trust. I don't know if you have that now.” 

“In a lot of jurisdictions in the National Capital Region, they have a public affairs manager who worked for local stations before so we have that relationship,” he added. “But what I’d like to know is, ‘what do you need from emergency managers?’”

The goal of the roundtables, which will continue in Raleigh and New York in the new year, is to not only provide a tutorial on the emergency alerting capabilities of ATSC 3.0 but to also enhance dialogue between local stations and their local emergency officials to improve coordination during emergencies, as well as use that feedback to improve the design and form of 3.0 alerts. 

The roundtables are helping to open the lines of communication as both broadcasters and government agencies adapt to the evolution of mass media, according to John Lawson, executive director of the AWARN Alliance. “We're trying to build relationships,” he said. “We talk about technology, but this is really about relationships, getting to know your counterparts and finding out the best ways to work together.”

WASHINGTON—The battle over getting Next Gen TV onto pay-TV platforms is heating up.

ONE Media 3.0 LLC, a subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group focused on developing technology for the ATSC 3.0 television broadcast standard, fired back at Charter Communications over the cable operator’s criticism of the lack of standards for carrying ATSC 3.0 signals on cable TV.

Charter recently met with the FCC to voice its concerns about requiring cable TV operators to carry ATSC 3.0, citing the fact that it is not compatible with ATSC 1.0 and that broadcasters have not adopted standards needed for MVPDs to broadcast ATSC 3.0. ONE Media 3.0 said such concerns are “misplaced and premature.”

“At this time and for the foreseeable future, MVPDs will not require equipment to decode ATSC 3.0 signals because, with respect to the primary signal, a broadcast station that is transitioning to ATSC 3.0 must simulcast in ATSC 1.0 per the FCC’s rules,” said Jerald Fritz, executive vice president, strategic and legal affairs for ONE Media 3.0, in a letter to the commission. “As a result, MVPDs will continue to have an ATSC 1.0 source for the primary signal.”

Charter’s criticism over the lack of standards for ATSC 3.0 to be carried on cable TV platforms is also misplaced, Fritz said.

“Charter appears to confuse standards with flexible uses for non-television delivery of data,” Fritz wrote. “One of the extraordinary features of the ATSC 3.0 standard is its inherent flexibility enabling multiple service profiles. Broadcasters have been working closely with equipment vendors to establish basic television service profiles.

“This critical process, however, will have no impact on the availability of television services to MVPD subscribers,” Fritz added. “Moreover, there is no requirement for uniformity among broadcasters in order for MVPDs to make ATSC 3.0’s features and services available to their subscribers at such time as they agree with the broadcaster to carry the ATSC 3.0 signals.”

Fritz advocates a market-based solution to determine what ATSC 3.0 services MVPDs could offer.

“If a MVPD and broadcaster are motivated to add an ATSC 3.0 delivered feature or service to the MVPD’s platform, implementation will be achieved in a reasonable timeframe and based on mutual business objectives,” he said.

Fritz also criticized Charter’s contention that demand for ATSC 3.0 will be limited because some of its features are already available via IP, saying such reasoning was “backwards.”

“Enhancing the broadcast platform with features and capabilities that have already proven to be popular with consumers should increase, not decrease the demand for broadcast reception products and services,” Fritz said, adding that such deployment considerations have “zero impact” on MVPD access to broadcaster-provided programming.

“The implicit suggestion that the Commission should delay the rollout of Next Generation broadcast services because not all potential use cases have been identified and that some services may be available (albeit much less efficiently) by current MVPD internet providers reflects a particularly jaundiced view of the Commission’s regulatory role and should be summarily rejected.” Fritz said. 

For a comprehensive source of TV Technology’s ATSC 3.0 coverage, see ourATSC3 silo.