‍After showing off technology to merge OTT streaming services with over-the-air broadcasts and NextGen TV at the NAB Show in April, FreeCast has announced it will begin selling SiliconDust’s popular HD HomeRun box under its FreeCast Home label. 

FreeCast is also making the FreeCast app available to current owners of the HD HomeRun device, allowing them to access the same hybrid OTT/OTA TV experience at no additional cost.

FreeCast integrates ATSC 3.0 broadcast channels into the same FreeCast guide that already features over 700 free streaming channels and more than 500,000 on-demand movies and TV episodes. 

With the FreeCast app installed on an HD HomeRun device attached to a wifi router, all of this content is made available on all devices on the network. FreeCast’s software supports all necessary digital rights management (DRM) for encrypted digital content and OTA broadcasts, allowing for a reliable, secure, and fully legal television experience that unites streaming and local over-the-air TV.

HD HomeRun models that are supported by the FreeCast apps include the Duo (gen 2 and up), Flex, Flex 4K, and Scribe 4K. Those who already have these devices, or who purchase them from other sources, will still be able to download and install FreeCast. Additionally, HD HomeRun customers can add FreeCast to their Smart TVs, mobile phones, tablets, streaming sticks, and laptops, to take advantage of powerful features and the aggregated streaming guide for which the service is best known.

‍“What we’re doing is pairing the latest in TV software, our SmartGuide, with the latest in TV hardware, HD HomeRun boxes with next-gen ATSC 3.0 tuners and DVR functionality,” explained William Mobley, FreeCast’s CEO. “These are great devices to power our FreeCast service, and we’re excited to be able to offer that to current device owners too.”

‍HD HomeRun users can register for FreeCast and then download the app here. 

CINCINNATI—EW Scripps reported a drop in Q4 earnings this week but said it expects strong political advertising for the 2022 mid-terms and increased national network viewership. The station group—which owns 61 stations in 41 markets—also announced that it would launch an initiative to promote its free over-the-air broadcasts to cordcutters. 

Scripps predicts that it will log about $270 million in political advertising revenue this year, up about 40% from the last mid-term election year and would help drive an approximately 50% year-over-year increase in 2022 free cash flow, to a range of $400-$450 million.

Net income dropped to $40.2 million, or 43 cents a share, in the fourth quarter, from $244.7 million, or $1.35 a share, a year ago. Q4 revenue was up $5.3% to $622 million, which Scripps attributed to its acquisition of Ion Media.

CEO Adam Symson said Scripps’ five Nielsen-rated entertainment networks increased viewership year over year, contributing to fourth-quarter revenue. And unlike most station groups, which have ignored promoting their free over-the-air broadcasts, (despite the growth in cordcutting over the past decade), Scripps said it will launch a campaign to promote its national networks. It left out any mention of NextGen TV, however. 

(Read: Free TV Once Again Relevant & Vibrant In the Self-Bundling Era)

“Scripps Networks already capture 25% of viewing in the expanding OTA marketplace, and as we move through 2022, we are devoting ourselves to continued viewership and revenue growth,” Symson said. “Among our plans is a marketing campaign on how to watch over-the-air TV and the wide range of quality content you find on it. 

"This campaign is  part of Scripps’ effort to carve out our own valuable corner of the television ecosystem: free, ad-supported  platforms such as OTA, FAST [free, ad-supported television] and AVOD [ad-supported video-on-demand] that serve subscription-weary Americans.”  

FAIRFAX, VA.—The FCC repack has significantly impacted OTA Broadcasting, a six-year old broadcast station group started by computer entrepreneur Michael Dell. During the transition, 10 of our stations will permanently go off the air, while the rest will be repacked.

ALL IN WITH R&S
Fourteen of our stations already have Rohde & Schwarz transmitters in operation. Once we reprogram their frequency agile exciters and replace the mask filters, those stations will be ready for the repack. Thanks to some really talented engineers, adaptive precorrection makes it easy to retune on the new channel, ensuring a relatively straightforward process.

Our other stations with older, non-R&S equipment no longer supported by the manufacturer, will need new transmitters. We are already making plans for OTA stations in Charlotte, N.C. (DMA #22), Seattle and Bellingham, Wash. (DMA #14), Palm Springs, Calif. (DMA #146), and San Jose, Calif. (DMA #6). Every OTA station that needs a transmitter will get a new Rohde & Schwarz.

George Maier checks on the Rohde & Schwarz liquid-cooled transmitter at WYCN in Nashua, N.H.

We’ll go with air-cooled TMU (UHF) and TMV (VHF) models for sites that require 3kW or less, and we’ll consider THU9 (UHF) and THV9 (VHF) models for markets that require more power. The R&S liquid-cooled technology is as good as you’re going to get. They offer multiple levels of redundancy and are extremely quiet in operation.

DOUBLE COVERAGE
Our choice is a testament to the operational simplicity and overall reliability of R&S transmitters. R&S’ depth of diagnostics is second to none—sensors are integrated into every major module of the transmitter, with readouts available locally on the front panel or remotely via web-based GUI. Without any external tools, we can monitor the speed of the cooling pumps and fans on the outside heat exchanger, as well as all key operational parameters in each subsystem; we can practically tell you the outside air temperature based on how hard the pumps are working.

We’re also looking to the future with ATSC 3.0. From an engineering standpoint, ATSC 3.0 requires more power in reserve than current transmitters, because you have to account for a vertical transmission component as well as a horizontal component. That also means your antenna has to be upgraded to support a vertical component. At least we know our new R&S transmitters will be easy to upgrade once the ATSC 3.0 standard is finalized.

George Maier is the engineering manager for OTA Broadcasting, owners of independent TV stations across the U.S. Contact him atgmaier@otabroadcasting.com.

For more information, please visitwww.rohde-schwarz.comor call 888-837-8772.

To follow our online coverage, visit our repack silo,www.tvtechnology.com/repack.

WASHINGTON—OTA Broadcasting wants to be able to sell stations to wireless providers in a post-auction aftermarket. OTA specifically wants to the Federal Communications Commission to release its TV channel repacking data as soon as possible to see what stations that did not sell in the auction would be in the way of a timely repack. 

“Free-market forces also can be harnessed to simply eliminate some stations that present a bottleneck or that constitute part of a linked station set” OTA said in informal comments filed with the Federal Communications Commission. (Click on the image below to bring the filing up in a separate window.)

OTA did not mention its own intent to sell, but the Fairfax, Va.-based subsidiary of Michael Dell’s investment firm, MSD Capital, was identified as a seller that stood to make $4 billion its $80 million TV portfolio, according to a Jan. 13, 2016 article in The Wall Street Journal.

However, the $4 billion was based on opening bids set by the FCC that would have generated about $40 billion in revenues, while the auction is topping out at less than half of that amount. Also, a broadcaster’s participation did not guarantee the sale.

OTA said an aftermarket would expedite wireless provider access to spectrum they won at auction, and give those broadcasters who failed to sell spectrum at auction another chance, as well as giving channel-sharers an incentive to vacate spectrum before they complete construction on new facilities.

“Using the flexibility provided by the commission for temporary channel sharing, free market forces can be used to induce broadcast stations voluntarily to vacate channels in the new wireless band even before their new permanent facilities have been constructed,” the filing said.

At the 84 MHz to be cleared to make way for wireless broadband, a total of 1,274 stations will have to move to new channel assignments, according to the Sept. 30, 2016 Post-Incentive Auction Transition Scheduling Plan Public Notice, which also outlines the timeline and procedure of the repack. Of those 1,274 stations, 710 are “linked” to others in a sort of interference daisy-chain, thus moves must be coordinated among those linked stations.

The National Association of Broadcasters said the mandated 39-month move window was not enough time to repack 1,274 stations, particularly when more than half are tangled up with neighboring stations. OTA said an aftermarket will help move things along.

OTA owns KAXT and KTLN in San Francisco, KVOS in Seattle, WYNC in Boston, WEPA in Pittsburgh, WTBL in Lenoir, N.C.; W2ICK in Charlotte, N.C.; WEBR in New York; KUGB in Houston; KPSE and KMIR in Palm Springs, Calif.; and W24BB in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Pa.

For more TV Technology coverage, see our spectrum auction silo.