With the FCC’s moves authorizing the permissive use of the next-generation broadcast television standard known as ATSC 3.0, it seems the FCC accidently hit the delete button a few extra times. As such, the Commission is recodifying language eliminated from three sections of its rules relating to information that must be provided in “non-expedited” applications for ATSC 3.0 service.
Importantly, this doesn’t change any regulatory obligations, Acting Media Bureau Chief Erin Boone noted in an order released on Wednesday.
The matter involves sections 73.3801(f)(6)(iii), 73.6029(f)(6)(iii), and 74.782(g)(6)(iii) of the Commission’s rules.
With the authorization for broadcasters to use ATSC 3.0 on a voluntary market-driven basis, the Commission established a process for considering applications to deploy the service that makes NEXTGEN TV and broadcast data services offered by BitPath, among other new advances, a reality for television station owners.
This process includes coverage requirements for a Next Gen TV station’s ATSC 1.0 simulcast signal, and as part of this endeavor the Commission affords expedited processing and a presumption in favor of grant to applications that provide ATSC 1.0 simulcast service to at least 95% of the predicted population within the station’s original noise limited service contour (NLSC), while applicants that do not satisfy this threshold must provide a more robust public interest showing with their application and will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
Subsequently, in the Next Gen TV Third Report and Order, the Commission modified its ATSC 3.0 rules to, among other things, permit Next Gen TV stations to license multicast streams aired over an ATSC 1.0 multicast host.
The Commission also made updates to the required information for ATSC 3.0 applications in sections 73.3801(f)(6)(i)-(ii), 73.6029(f)(6)(i)-(ii), and 74.782(g)(6)(i)-(ii) of the rules in order to facilitate multicast licensing, but it did not make changes to the requirements for nonexpedited applicants set forth in these three sections.
However, the required information that must be contained in applications that do not qualify for expedited processing appeared in the sections of the Rules that saw inadvertent erasures.
“The Commission never stated or implied in the Next Gen TV Third Report and Order that it intended to rescind these subsections,” Boone said.
