An FCC proposal to allow channels larger than 25 kHz in the enhanced specialized mobile radio (ESMR) portion of the 800 MHz band is good for consumers, Sprint Nextel said in comments filed at the agency. The FCC sought comment in February (CD Feb 24 p10) on a June petition from Sprint asking the FCC to clarify that its rules allow the larger channels. Other industry groups filed in support of Sprint, which owns a big chunk of the ESMR spectrum.
Continuing Comcast’s drive for a more advanced access architecture for cable operators, the company has issued a request for proposals (RFP) to vendors for equipment complying with the industry’s new Converged Cable Access Platform (CCAP) specifications. And equipment makers including Cisco and Motorola Mobility are introducing new CCAP equipment and getting orders for them, their representatives said in interviews.
LAS VEGAS -- The next-gen ATSC 3.0 over-the-air broadcast standard under development at the Advanced TV Systems Committee for terrestrial ultra-high-definition TV (UHDTV) delivery won’t be backward-compatible with existing ATSC or the coming ATSC 2.0 standards, said Jim Kutzner, senior director of advanced technology at PBS. The standard will represent a “major fundamental technology shift” from the current system, he said Sunday at the NAB Show’s Broadcast Engineering Conference. Still, ATSC 3.0 is needed to “keep broadcast television relevant” amid growing competition from other content-delivery players, Kutzner said.
A spectrum sharing order, set for a vote April 27, will move the FCC a step closer to holding an auction of broadcast spectrum, a key component of recently enacted spectrum legislation, agency and industry officials said. Meanwhile, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is poised to make a high-level appointment of someone to oversee FCC follow up on the legislation, working, at least at first, with former Wireless Bureau Chief Ruth Milkman.
The FCC ought to move on several proceedings that have been pending for years on limiting the amount of commercials children see on cable and broadcast TV, and curbing interactive ads televised to them, children’s advocates told us. Two groups last week asked FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski to act on rulemakings and inquiries started as early as 2008, and also act on requests made in 2004 to deny license renewals to TV stations that broke children’s ad rules.
House lawmakers will hit the ground running with two cybersecurity markups upon their return from the congressional spring recess. Both the House Homeland Security and Oversight committees plan to mark up cybersecurity bills Wednesday as GOP leaders gin up support for its upcoming “cyberweek,” committee aides told us Friday. Meanwhile, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., will delay the introduction of his legislation to update and reform the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), a Judiciary Committee aide told us.
Two months after the FCC’s declaratory ruling to “remind” carriers about the longstanding prohibition on traffic restriction, call completion problems aren’t getting any better, several rural carriers and state public utility commissioners told us. Call completion will remain a problem until the FCC actively enforces rules already on the books, they said, stressing the inability of state commissions to deal with problems that cross state lines. According to a survey by network and infrastructure company Anpi Zone presented Thursday at the “IP Solutions” conference in Indianapolis, more than 60 percent of ILEC and CLEC respondents said call-quality problems have either not improved or gotten worse since the declaratory ruling.
A minor wave of investment in the last two years has funded social TV technology and companies that use automatic content recognition (ACR) software to handle interactive TV applications on TV sets, smartphones and tablets. Though the price tag for getting in on this nascent industry has been relatively low, few major media companies have invested in the technology. Add up all the disclosed investments in the space and the total is less than $150 million, according to data compiled by Sharp’s social TV chief Anne-Marie Roussel on her personal blog: http://xrl.us/bm3k2h. She counted more than 30 new companies in the sector. Some haven’t disclosed their funding, so the total that’s been invested in the cohort is presumably higher.
There was strong audience interest in last month’s Supreme Court oral arguments on healthcare reform law, broadcast executives told us. During the three days the case was heard and covered extensively, Fox News saw an average daytime audience of 1.2 million viewers and 213,000 in the core demographic of ages 25 to 54. Primetime drew 2.4 million viewers, among whom 613,000 were ages 25-54 on average, according to Nielsen Media Research numbers provided by Fox News. The court provided same-day audio recordings and transcripts of the arguments and didn’t allow the hearings to be aired live, something executives hope will change but aren’t optimistic will anytime soon.
The 9th U.S. Appeals Court struck down the FCC’s ban on political ads that run on public radio and TV stations. A panel of judges in the San Francisco-based court decided 2-1 Thursday that the ban on public issue and political ads is unconstitutional and violates the First Amendment. The ruling could alter the dynamic and character of noncommercial stations, some noncommercial broadcasters and analysts said. The court also upheld a ban on airing on noncommercial stations ads for goods and services of commercial entities.