Sinclair will provide hosting at no cost to the public television stations that will also have the option to pass through programming in high dynamic range.
America’s Public Television Stations announced the promotions of several veteran staff members. Kenneth Blunt has been promoted to senior director of information technology and media production. Mr. Blunt joined APTS […]
Noncommercial TV stations are telling the FCC that consolidation of MVPD headends is cutting off access to some of their audience and could threaten their carriage rights altogether. PBS and Americas Public Television Stations made that point in a filing with the commission in response to its proposed rulemaking on how to determine a TV station’s designated market area for must-carry purposes.
Public broadcasters are backing their commercial counterparts’ request that the FCC “clarify” or establish flexibility when it comes to multicast channels, both in ATSC 1.0 and using the new ATSC 3.0 broadcast transmission standard (branded NextGen TV).
America’s Public Television Stations is turning to an FCC rulemaking in an attempt to aid its five-year quest to involve public TV stations in a new national emergency communications system. “To leave public television stations … on the sidelines of the FirstNet infrastructure is to ignore a robust, reliable and ubiquitous partner whose public safety capabilities have proven effective in a variety of critical use cases,” APTS told the FCC in comments.
Exclusives
“The commission should allow the market, not regulatory dictates, to determine whether or not Next Gen is successful,” said the NAB, Consumer Technology Association and America’s Public Television Stations in joint comments on the FCC’s next-gen TV standard proceeding. They recommend: a hands-off approach to the transitional ATSC 1.0 simulcast channels, make no changes to must-carry and retransmission consent rules and not require that TV sets to be equipped with 3.0 turners.
According to APTS, a new report says that in 2016, 13 states increased funding for public TV and radio, 10 kept funding steady and seven made cuts, while of the seven states that reduced pubcasting funding, only three trimmed more than 3%. Alabama Public Television was a standout for funding growth with a 34% increase for fiscal 2017.
Without comment, the agency asks for public comment on the broadcasters’ petition to permit the use of ATSC 3.0 as an optional broadcast standard without disrupting the existing ATSC 1.0 service. Comments are due May 26; replies, June 27.
The trade group along with noncommercial broadcasters and the consumer electronics industry ask the FCC to authorize use of the ATSC 3.0 standard that they say will enable stations to broadcast 4K, reach smartphones and other mobile devices and offer new IP-based services. ATSC 3.0 is “the bedrock for continuing innovation by the television industry for decades to come,” they say.
Pearl, APTS Eager To Push ATSC 3.0 At FCC
The Pearl consortium of several large commercial TV station groups and the Association of Public Television Stations are expected to take the lead asking for FCC approval of the next-gen transmission standard. They want to “sync up” the transition to it with the forced migration to new channels that many stations may have to make if the FCC’s incentive auction of TV spectrum is successful next spring.
Patrick Butler, president-CEO of the Association of Public Television Stations: “We are certain that the overwhelming majority of public television stations will not be participating in the incentive auctions, and will instead hope to employ the technological advances at hand to improve and expand their essential public service missions in America’s communities.”
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, PBS and the Association of Public Television Stations are jointly opposing a proposal by the FCC’s Office of Engineering and Technology to use a new software program to analyze television coverage and interference data. The proposal was floated by the commission in February and intended to update the analytical tools the commission will use in preparing for the 2014 broadcast spectrum auctions.
Anticipating a floor vote to eliminate funding for public broadcasting next week, the Association for Public Television Stations on Wednesday called for stations to join the first big push to build political support in the House of Representatives.
The former Washington Post Co. SVP will take over as head of the Association of Public Television Stations on Jan. 1.
