ACA to FCC: Consider ATSC 3.0 Impact on Smaller Pay-TV Providers

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai plans a vote on a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) at the Feb 23 public meeting that would allow broadcasters to start rolling out the new ATSC 3.0 transmission standard on a voluntary basis. The NPRM will also ask a lot of questions about how that should happen and its effect on the marketplace. American Cable Association commended Chairman Pai for issuing the draft and for asking all those questions. One of those is: “whether small, rural, low-power, and NCE broadcasters would face unique circumstances with regard to the voluntary provision of ATSC 3.0 that we should consider in this proceeding," followed by suggestions on how to ease those burdens. ACA says that is appropriate, but that the FCC should also ask the same questions about small pay-TV providers and how to ease their burdens as well.