It is the owner of the CBS affiliate in Milwaukee, and its flagship station is an unaffiliated property branded as “The U” serving the Chicago DMA. It also happens to be the parent of an array of digital multicast TV networks headlined by the MeTV Network, which focuses on second-run and classic television shows.
Weigel Broadcasting‘s business model has been largely successful, and as such is wary of a “mandated flash cut” to ATSC 3.0-powered NEXTGEN TV as proposed by the NAB. The company owned by Norman Shapiro and operated on a day-to-day basis by Neal Sabin says it is very much a matter of economics.
In an ex parte letter submitted to the Commission on Thursday (6/4), Weigel President Evan Feldman spoke on behalf of the company, sharing that he and VP of Technology Kyle Walker traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet with separately with representatives from Commissioner Olivia Trusty’s office and Commissioner Anna M. Gómez’s Office, and with Acting Media Bureau Chief Alex Sanjenis and five other Bureau members.
In these meetings, Feldman and Walker reiterated the company’s opposition to any hard stop to ATSC 1.0 broadcasts, first shared in ex parte comments submitted in January to the Commission.
For Weigel, it has not veered in its previously expressed belief that ATSC 3.0 “makes a free service expensive and simple service complicated,” and that broadcasters may elect to degrade (or not improve) broadcasting in favor of non-broadcast services, such as gambling, pay television services, and private data delivery services. Lastly, Weigel contends that consumers, primarily those in rural areas underserved in terms of content and connectivity, “may be the most harmed by a transition to ATSC 3.0.”
What specific remedies does Weigel have to address its ATSC 3.0 concerns?
First, it wants the FCC to maintain the simulcast and substantially similar rules until consumer adoption thresholds are met. It also wants the FCC to adopt a “Broadcast PLP” to ensure that sufficient broadcast spectrum remains designated for free over-the-air television, as viewers, broadcasters, and market participants expect — such as broadcast television without fees, without the Internet, and without having to purchase a new antenna.
Walker and Feldman then discussed how a Broadcast PLP can provide the “Best of Both Worlds” for the viewer experience and broadcaster optionality to monetize and experiment with ancillary services.
Also in the discussion: Internet connectivity requirements to receive ATSC 3.0 DRM encrypted channels. Weigel shared its testing of “low cost” converter devices across four television markets and how it observed that when these devices were not connected to the Internet, EAS messages were not delivered.
“In ATSC 1.0, there are no Internet connectivity requirements for EAS,” Weigel said in the ex parte letter detailing the meetings at the FCC.
