Many Stations Affected by Repack Have Funds Left, FCC Incentive Auction Chief Tells Pubcasters
The “vast majority” of broadcasters are “nowhere close” to exhausting their initial allocation of repacking reimbursement funds, according to their expense filings, said Incentive Auction Task Force Chief Jean Kiddoo at Tuesday’s America’s Public Television Stations’ Public Media Summit. The timing of the agency’s release of a second allocation will be based on how quickly the first portion of funds is drawn down, Kiddoo said. “So far, we don’t see stations maxing out." Kiddoo said the IATF monitors the status of reimbursements “daily.”
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Legislation infusing money into the repacking reimbursement fund likely would change the FCC calculation of the amount or timing of a second reimbursement allocation, Kiddoo said. It’s clear that the $1.75 billion fund is inadequate, Kiddoo said. She said the FCC welcomes the recent discussion in Congress of adding to the reimbursement fund. The agency has so far paid out “millions” in repacking expenses, said Media Bureau Deputy Chief Hillary DeNigro. Transition progress reports on the repacking are due April 10, the IATF said.
The repacking transition plan is “operating smoothly,” 10 months in, DeNigro said. Forty-eight stations have implemented channel sharing, out of 93 granted sharing construction permits, she said. The agency has granted requests by 52 stations to change their phase completion date, 50 of which were requests to transition early, De Nigro said. Forty-four stations have been allowed to move before phase one, which will reduce the drain on resources during the actual repacking phases, she said. Stations moving early shows the transition can be accomplished “efficiently” without using all the time allotted by the FCC, DeNigro said. Many of the stations transitioning early received aid from T-Mobile to do so, she said.
Implementation of channel sharing led to the first stations changing locations and altering the character of their signal due to the incentive auction, and is thus one of the first aspects of the auction to trigger consumer feedback to the FCC, DeNigro said. The agency has online resources in multiple languages that stations can use to inform consumers about the auction, the repacking and rescanning channels, said IATF spokesman Charlie Meisch at the summit. Stations should pay special attention to communicating with viewers who are the hardest to reach, Meisch said.
ATSC 3.0
Public TV is looking to ATSC 3.0 to expand its reach and become more worthy of underwriting and protection from funding cuts, said speakers Tuesday at the summit. APTS gave ATSC President Mark Richer an award for “excellence in innovation."
Data collection and applications of the new standard complement the public media donation model, said WGBH-TV Boston Chief Operating Officer Bob Godley. Tying public media to emergency communications will help save lives, said Art Botterell, senior emergency services coordinator-public alert and warning for the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services. He compared a bigger role in emergency communications for public TV to “wrapping Big Bird in the American flag.”
Public TV stations have “a huge head start” over other broadcasters in maximizing data collection and targeting aspects of 3.0, because they already collect data on viewership through the donation process, Godley said: “We start with more insight than most broadcasters.” Stations eventually will be able to marry the data set from a donation to the corresponding viewer data that ATSC 3.0 will let them access, and this will let them create a more complete picture of an individual public TV viewer, he said.
With more information and the capabilities of the new standard, such stations will be able to “super serve” viewers with catered content, Godley said. That could have permutations in donations and underwriting, said PBS Vice President-technology Eric Wolf. The standard could let stations target viewers who donated with a message of thanks in place of the request for more donations that most viewers see, Wolf said. It could increase its value to audiences, he said. The increased use of data with 3.0 would highlight the need for stations to act to protect privacy, Godley said.
Public TV station managers should already be talking with other broadcasters in their areas about possible sharing arrangements for the 3.0 transition, Wolf said. He said 2018 likely will be a year of educating the industry about the standard and what it can do for public TV, 2019 will involve increased experimentation with the technology, and by 2020, public TV stations will be in “implementation mode.”
With 3.0, public TV stations could speed up dispatch of emergency vehicles, said WUNC-TV Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Senior Director-Technology Fred Engel. Under the current system of radio-delivered broadcast tones, it can take over a minute to tell first responders which emergency vehicles and units should go where, said Red Grasso, FirstNet single point of contact for North Carolina. Now, public TV stations could make it possible to send all the information instantly to mobile devices, Engel said. WUNC-TV is transmitting dispatches as a “proof of concept,” he said.
If public TV is positioning itself as a “pillar” of emergency communication, it will have a responsibility to maintain service, said former Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate. “We are saying we will be there in time of need.” If public TV’s bandwidth can get information to first responders, the outcome of emergency situations can be changed, Fugate said. KVIE Sacramento is also engaged in a public safety pilot program, to meet an FCC request for an earthquake warning option (see 1604080057) that can transmit a warning in under three seconds, said California's Botterell.