The American Cable Association’s Vice President of Communications, Ted Hearn, has released a letter ACA sent to the FCC Commission recounting a meeting between the parties in which it discussed the broadcasters’ proposed transition to ATSC 3.0. ACA helped draft two proposals, filed by the American Television Alliance which urged the Commission to (1) ensure that any transition to ATSC 3.0 is truly “voluntary,” and (2) ensure, to the extent possible, that the transition does not harm others in the video ecosystem. The ACA also submitted its own comments.
The ACA articulated the harms the proposed transition could cause to ACA’s small and medium-sized cable members, and made suggestions about how the Commission could write rules to minimize such harms.
The letter closed by saying, “Allowing broadcasters to transmit in ATSC 3.0 may provide some long term benefit. The record, however, is clear that the transition to the new standard will cause at least some harm to MVPDs and viewers. The Commission should seek to minimize such harm to the greatest extent possible, particularly for smaller MVPDs and their customers. It can do so by adopting rules consistent with the proposals outlined in the ATVA and ACA filings.”
