FCC chairman Tom Wheeler recognizes the importance and urgency of the still incomplete ATSC 3.0 technology to the future of the broadcast industry and promised that the FCC will begin reviewing ATSC 3.0. At NAB, Wheeler said “ATSC 3.0 is significant. We need to move with dispatch to get that into the public debate. I intend to put that out for public notice before the end of the month. I’ve been hearing about 3.0 for a long time, and they’ve pulled it off technically. The question is, you’ve got the technology part licked; now we’ve got to figure out the impact on the market and on the consumer.”
It’s not hard to figure out the importance of ATSC 3.0 to the survival and prosperity of broadcasters. It’s essential if they want to fight off the ravages of the internet on their dying linear TV and stationary viewing. OTT services, mobility, live streaming and 4K/HDR are already severely wounding the broadcast and pay TV industry.
Wheeler addressed the coming spectrum optimization plan the FCC is implementing, which involves the federal government buying back publicly-owned spectrum that the TV broadcasters had licensed and auctioning it off to wireless phone and broadband services. Wheeler said the FCC will soon have “an idea of the size and the scope of who is showing up” for the auction. He said, “We’ll know the band plan, then we’ll start the reverse auction in May. Wireless providers keep saying they need more spectrum. There will be a very significant chunk of it before the end of the month. Then we’ll know how badly they really needed the spectrum. Then we’ll find out how much they’ll bid, and if they don’t bid enough, we’ll do it again, and again.”
Wheeler also addressed the issue of broadcasters being able to compact their channels into the reduced spectrum within the 39 months the FCC has allotted them. The US Congress has already approved $1.75 billion for the very rich and highly profitable broadcasters to compact their channels. Asked what would happen if that wasn’t enough money and the 39 months was not enough time for broadcasters, Wheeler said “I’ll lead the parade to get more.”
Asked about the retransmission process and the large fees that the FCC forces pay TV services to pay local broadcasters, Wheeler said the FCC’s retransmission was not broken. The commissioner said “it has worked well for a long time. Retrans has existed for more than 20 years. A few things have changed. ATSC 3.0 – what’s the impact on retrans? We’re living through lots of changes.”
When prompted about the impact on local TV stations in smaller markets, Wheeler noted that there may be fewer stations doing local news, which, he said “gives rise to the importance of exclusivity.”
Showing his lack of knowledge about the recent rapid increase in live video streams by individuals, Wheeler said, “If there is a place where the internet has fallen down, it’s ultra-local. And that’s where [broadcasters] are.”
There is nothing more “ultra-local,” as Wheeler calls it, than live streams by millions of people with smartphones and tablets. Yesterday, among many other events, we watched a live stream of a car accident and an auction of Navajo rugs.
Asked about the future of radio, Wheeler praised it for being portable and free by saying, “I’ve got something that’s portable and free. With two criteria like that, never sell them short.” Those are two virtues that the internet has over linear broadcast and pay TV services, which are not portable, in the case of local broadcasters, or free in the case of pay TV services. Wheeler said he listens to the free public broadcaster NPR all day in his office – perhaps he should focus on his job and the corrosive impact the internet is having on local broadcasters and pay TV services that his agency is supposed to regulate for the benefit of consumers.
Want to bet that Wheeler will within a year become a highly paid lobbyist or top executive for companies in the industry he is now regulating? He certainly doesn’t want to spoil that opportunity to get rich by upsetting the industry and bringing it into the future.
Without OTT services, watch “anytime, anywhere on any device,” mobility, 4K with HDR and live streams, the broadcasting and pay TV industry face a bleak future.
This first ran in Rider Research’s Online Reporter.