A panel session on the harmonization opportunities ahead for ATSC 3.0 and 5G at this week’s virtual Fall TV 2021 event was about as confused as they come. The broadcast community’s obsession with fronting 5G networks as some kind of picture-perfect sidekick – the Robin to their Batman, the Gromit to their Wallace – is a dangerously optimistic narrative. Apparently, there is a new research paper doing the rounds exploring the topic of ATSC 3.0 with Access Traffic Steering, Switching and Splitting (ATSSS), a technology first introduced by wireless standards group 3GPP in 2019 with Release 16. ATSSS was originally defined to integrate non-3GPP networks like WiFi and wireline into 5G, including accommodating IP-based broadcast standards like ATSC 3.0. We…