A Broadcaster’s Guide To Washington Issues

Summertime did not slow down the FCC’s deregulatory efforts. Numerous broadcast rules are under review as new FCC Chairman Ajit Pai advances his agenda of reducing the regulatory burden on broadcast stations. Meanwhile, broadcasters and MVPDs have submitted their cost estimates for the repacking, and the current estimate — more than $2.13 billion — is hundreds of millions more than Congress authorized. Broadcasters now look to relief from Congress to cover the shortfall.

At the same time, broadcasters look at the possible adoption of ATSC 3.0 and a flexible approach from the new FCC, as many stations hope to be able to implement 3.0 in connection with the construction of new facilities required by the repacking of the TV band.

Keep up to date with these and other legal and policy issues affecting television broadcasters by reading FCC Watch, an exclusive briefing on some of the major issues currently being considered in Washington prepared by David Oxenford and David O’Connor, attorneys in the Washington law offices of Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP. You can reach Oxenford at doxenford@wbklaw.com or 202-383-3337 and O’Connor at doconnor@wbklaw.com or 202-383-3429.

In alphabetical order:

ATSC 3.0, aka Next Generation TV, is likely to become an authorized new standard for over-the-air digital television transmissions. The Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) has been developing the standard for several years now. It will incorporate Internet-protocol digital encoding and will allow for many other major advances, including 4K capabilities, high-efficiency video coding, enhanced compression and significant improvements for both mobile reception and data transmission.

Read more here: http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/106951/a-broadcasters-guide-to-washington-issues.