Digital TV Facts: The Latest

Mobile digital TV transmissions using A-VSB technology, demonstrated by Samsung at the Consumer Electronics Show, won mostly favorable press coverage last week. The proposed A-VSB standard shows real promise for delivering ATSC digital TV broadcasts—over the public airwaves—to mobile devices. Here’s a big question, though, about A-VSB:

What about HDTV?

While A-VSB really isn’t envisioned for HD broadcasts, a station using the technology might be in a position to shortchange its high-definition programming for home viewers. Doug Lung, in another indispensable “RF Report” post, quantifies the problem:

For broadcasters, the cost in terms of bandwidth for transmitting a signal like the one transmitted on Channel 22 by KVMY for the demonstration may be more than they can afford. The demonstration used quarter rate coding, which meant 3 Mbps were needed to transmit a 750 Kbps media stream. In addition to that, an additional 2.8 Mbps was used by the supplemental reference signal (SRS). This barely leaves enough room to transmit one HDTV program.

To support mobile TV, a station that multicasts could choose to degrade its HD broadcasts. Lung notes, however, that the Advanced Television Systems Committee

will be conducting tests of the proposed A-VSB standard, and acceptable reception may be possible with less error correction and less data devoted to the SRS.

HDTV enthusiasts are already on guard against cable and satellite firms, and broadcasters, too, who shortchange the HD signal. As for me, I welcome A-VSB. Free, on-the-go TV via your cell phone or laptop is a deal I simply wouldn’t want to pass up.

Earlier:
• Samsung to demo A-VSB mobile TV at CES
• Local channels on mobile TV: Test shows promise
• Mobile TV signals for free? Maybe, with A-VSB

• Link: TV Technology

A-VSB, an emerging technology that uses broadcast spectrum to deliver digital television to cellular phones and in-car TVs, will get its next test at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas:

[T]he invite-only demonstrations will be the first to use battery-operated handheld TVs, which Samsung will demonstrate in moving vehicles on Las Vegas streets and highways, [Samsung’s John] Godfrey said. The portable TVs, all prototypes, might also be demonstrated inside the convention center, the company said at press time.

(Why not demo it inside, too, at Samsung’s $875,000, 25,000-square-foot exhibit space? They will have sufficient room, I would say.)

A-VSB technology may even offer a path to more reliable reception for some U.S. home viewers whose over-the-air digital TV signals are plagued by interference. (Certain kinds of reception problems can be traced to inherent features 8-VSB, the modulation scheme used by the ATSC digital TV standard.)

HDTV lovers, ever vigilant, worry that bandwidth consumed by A-VSB will shortchange their high-definition signals. That could happen, especially on stations that offer multicasts concurrent with HD programming. Free, over-the-air mobile TV signals may, after all, come at a cost.

• Link: TWICE

The addition of digital multicast TV channels, broadcasting competing networks, is a strategic gamble that appears to be paying off for Gray Television:

To create Fox-affiliated WHSV-DT in Harrisonburg, Va., Gray made use of part of the digital signal being broadcast by WHSV-TV, Gray’s analog ABC affiliate in town. It’s a formula the company has been using for two years to bolster revenue…

Most of Gray’s digital stations, which piggyback on the physical plant and human resources of its analog properties, become cash-positive in four months or less, said Gray President Bob Prather.

What’s interesting here is that we have a station owner making successful carriage deals with cable operators (some of them, anyway) for its multicast channels. This is one more reason why Congress and the FCC should continue to resist calls for “multicast must-carry.”

• Link: TV Week

The Democratic takeover of Congress won’t alter the 2009 digital TV timeline, from all indications. But two DTV issues could get a fresh look:

• The House’s new telecom honchos apparent, Reps. John Dingell (Mich.) and Ed Markey (Mass.), may support mandatory cable carriage of local multicast channels. David Rehr, president of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), now sees a better chance for multicast must-carry. What might seal the deal, Ted Hearn writes, is linking carriage to increased public-interest obligations for broadcasters.

• Rehr also expects Democrats to ante up more money to help consumers pay for the converter boxes that will allow standard analog TVs to continue receiving over-the-air broadcasts. The current $1.5 billion subsidy coupon fund is insufficient to cover all the old, antenna-dependent sets.

The huge telco-driven telecom bill appears all but dead. The telecom agenda, including eased video franchise requirements, could see a renewed push at the state level, though Democratic gains there, too, could be a further setback for telecommunications lobbyists.

Telecom and technology giants did manage to shift more campaign money toward Democrats leading up to the election, National Journal reports. (Dingell is already quoted saying he’s been “very, very helpful” to phone companies.) NAB, too, increased the Democratic slice of its hefty political donations and also added Democrats to its lobbying staff.

• Links: Multichannel News, Broadcasting & Cable, National Journal [1], National Journal [2]

Cable and broadcast lobbyists got all huffy with each other this week about two lingering issues in the transition to digital TV that affect cable households:

• HDTV downconversion (cable operators compressing local stations’ awe-inspiring high-definition signals until they look like old Mannix reruns); and

• multicast must-carry (broadcasters’ scheme to grab multiple cable channel slots per station).

But nobody is saying anything new.

• Link: Broadcasting & Cable

I’ve doubted the business prospects of USDTV, a digital pay-TV service delivered over the air in four cities, and news of their Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing isn’t much of a shock. The over-the-air reception challenges of American digital TV placed a huge question mark over their business model. Last month, in arguing against the likelihood that the U.S. will see a huge expansion of broadcast channels on the order of Britain, I mentioned USDTV:

If their product succeeds, it may bode well for free multicast channels.

The people who wrote the book on product success stories usually leave out that seventh chapter.

My other beef about USDTV was that broadcasters were leasing out the public airwaves to a pay TV service.

From what I’ve read, though, some talented people at USDTV were really focused on the technologies used to deliver their product. Their customer service folks even answered support questions from people who bought USDTV receivers simply to receive broadcast channels, without ever intending to subscribe to their service.

As an organization, they probably have some valuable knowledge about ATSC broadcast reception—perhaps the FCC or broadcast companies should hire them as consultants.

Earlier:
USDTV to release new set-top boxes

• Link: Broadcasting & Cable

A planned digital broadcast channel for kids has been shelved due to public TV’s budget woes. The multicast channel, known as PBS Kids Go!, was to be programmed for tweens and delivered both over the air and on cable TV systems.

Earlier:
Public TV signs cable carriage agreement for multicast channels

• Link: Broadcasting & Cable
• See also: Don’t Starve Barney & Friends (Hartford Courant editorial)

The telco-backed telecom bill passed by the Senate Commerce Committee Wednesday may hold a hidden bone for broadcasters. According to Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), the legislation may provide an opening for the FCC to mandate cable slots for local multicast channels:

Broadcasters…had hoped to get lawmakers to include language that would force cable operators to carry all of a broadcaster’s signal, whether it was several programming streams or one high-definition signal.

While that explicit language was left out, there was one change that could give them some relief. Language in the bill could be read as a direction to the FCC to set a multicast, must-carry requirement….

“I don’t think it does directly, but indirectly it does,” Stevens said.

Station owners will need more help than this, however. FCC commissioners, who have resisted chairman Kevin Martin’s attempt to require multicast carriage, may continue to resist absent a clear directive from Congress or other concessions. Besides, senior House Republicans oppose the cable-channel giveaway to broadcasters, and the telecom bill’s passage by the full Senate remains in doubt.

Earlier:
• Multicast must-carry stalls at FCC
• FCC can rule on multicasts, Stevens now says
• FCC chair’s multicast plan draws more fire from Congress

• Link: Hollywood Reporter

Digital TV could give us five or six times as many local channels as before. But without a federal mandate for cable carriage of the new multicast channels, station owners may be in no hurry to add them.

Even as broadcast technology marches ahead, the notion that broadcasters should actually broadcast is seeming rather quaint. Some station owners, more jazzed about delivering programming via the internet, have put multicasting on the back burner:

…the Big Four networks and stations for the most part are holding their best content for Web distribution, with some executives saying they believe they can reach more viewers nationwide on the Internet than they can through the TV, since most cable operators only carry a station’s primary signal.

“If people are going to put time and energy into creating a channel, at the moment, why not create it for the Internet instead of waiting for multicast?” said a senior executive at a Big Four network who asked not to be identified.

Still, several networks and stations are testing the multicast waters, Multichannel News reports, and some have negotiated agreements for cable carriage.

• Link: Multichannel News

If FCC chairman Kevin Martin dares to resuscitate his plan to make cable companies carry additional local digital TV channels, he may need votes from the two Democratic commissioners, Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps. But the Democrats have insisted—quite reasonably—that the FCC first examine broadcasters’ public-interest obligations.

We should remember that existing must-carry rules are more centrally concerned with the interests of broadcasters, not the public.

Here’s a point often missed: Must-carry gives a station owner the right to demand cable carriage of their analog signal today (in 2009, their primary digital signal instead), but it doesn’t give you as a cable subscriber any right to actually receive that station. In fact, stations can opt out of must-carry, and many popular ones do just that. This allows the broadcaster to negotiate carriage agreements with cable companies under a process known as “retransmission consent”—and they can even refuse carriage if the cable operator won’t meet their price. Must-carry protects stations, not viewers.

Earlier:
• Multicast must-carry stalls at FCC
• Will TV’s new rules serve big players or public?
• More local channels on cable? Put public interest first
• To make multicast TV local, stations need viewer content

The FCC is putting the brakes on a plan to require cable companies to devote additional channel slots to local broadcasters. Commission Chairman Kevin Martin has withdrawn this week’s scheduled vote on mandated carriage for digital TV multicasts. Fellow Republican Robert McDowell, whose Senate confirmation last month returned the five-member panel to GOP control, apparently would not support Martin’s plan.

The proposed regulation, rejected twice before by the FCC, aroused pointed opposition from House Commerce Chairman Joe Barton (R-Texas) and Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), chairman of the subcommittee on telecommunications and the internet.

Earlier:
• FCC chair’s multicast plan draws more fire from Congress
• FCC to move on cable slots for multicasting

• Link: Reuters

Public TV stations’ multicast channels will be carried on Verizon’s FiOS television service, under a deal announced today.

Under the multiyear agreement, every Verizon FiOS TV system will carry the full digital signal of up to three public television stations within the system’s service area, as well as any additional noncommercial station that does not duplicate programming of another station in the market. The agreement also includes PBS and local public television stations’ HDTV programming and local stations’ digital multicasts.

The 400-channel FiOS TV system is currently available in parts of seven states.

Public TV multicasts are available on many cable systems, too, as part of an earlier carriage agreement with cable operators. An FCC vote on June 21 could require cable systems to carry local multicast channels from commercial and noncommercial stations.

Public television is using its additional broadcast channels, made possible by the switch to digital TV, to good advantage. Its multicast services include PBS Kids Go!, Viva TV, World and Create.

While public broadcasters continue to serve the public in innovative ways, the Bush administration has proposed a 37 percent cut in federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. This week, the House Appropriations Committee voted to slash $95 million in funding.

• Links: press release, LA Times