Parenthetically, another article says that now 20% of households in the US are
using OTA TV, and that cord cutting is a continuing phenomenon. So presumably,
any changes to OTA standards will matter multiple millions of households. This
is the article that makes the claim:
https://www.tvtechnology.com/news/one-in-five-homes-use-digital-antennas-for-live-tv
"The percentage of 'Never' households (households that have never subscribed to
pay-TV services) has held steady and the percentage of households actually
cutting the cord has increased between 2015 and 2017."
So, let's look at this new article on ATSC 3.0, copied below. This addresses
the continuing confused information we get on the subject of ATSC 3.0.
"The standard will allow for targeted advertising and alerts, video-on-demand,
interactivity-it is an IP-based standard-and more."
Targeted ads, VOD, and interactivity, use the IP pipe, not the broadcast pipe.
In theory, targeted ads could conceivably use the broadcast pipe, but in
practice, it would not take too many different simultaneous ads to saturate
that broadcast pipe. Think about it, trade scribe. Do some simple arithmetic.
If your main program embeds 10 different targeted ads for an ad break, it would
mean that each ad gets, on average, 1/10th of the capacity of that main stream.
Is that sensible, when supposedly, ad quality matters so much? No. Such a
scheme would require the capacity used by any multicast streams, and then some.
Same applies to just 5 different targeted ads, or even 3. So the targeted ads
will use the Internet, and the broadcast stream will have a default ad, for
non-connected sets. (And such scheme can also be accomplished with ATSC 1.0, or
even more easily, by streaming the main program to begin with!)
Goes without saying, the case for interactivity and VOD is far more severe that
targeted ads. The broadcast pipe takes no part. Get real. And yet, the same
hype gets repeated over and over again.
And, is ATSC 3.0 "IP based"? Even that is an overstatement. The system can use,
optionally, either IP or MPEG-2 TS. Read about ALP. In other words, one can
operate ATSC 3.0 the same as ATSC 1.0, in terms of the delivery protocol. No
need to hype up "IP." ATSC 2.0 was also "IP based," layered over MPEG-2 TS, for
what that was worth.
"The new standard, which was championed by broadcasters, emergency alert groups
and the Consumer Technology Association, is expected to drive sales of 4K
TVs-their higher-resolution pictures can be delivered by the new standard-and
give broadcasters a competitive foothold in the interactive, targeted
advertising, IP world."
1) Is this new standard "championed by broadcasters"? Who knows? It's
championed by Sinclair. Unclear still about the rest. Broadcasters interested
only in retrans consent dollars aren't going to appreciate anything that
provides improved OTA reception.
2) 4K sets are being sold anyway, just go to any store, even discount stores,
and see. And of course, the issue here is the compression algorithm. Which
could easily have been added as an option to ATSC 1.0, to allow transmission of
4K material.
3) And once again, a one-way broadcast pipe will not give anyone any "foothold"
in interactivity, VOD, targeted ads, hyper-local alerts, any meaningful use of
IP, or any such things. Just tell it like it is. All those things are already
available to people with "connected TVs."
"ATSC 3.0 will allow TV stations to do geo-targeted ads and emergency alerts,
video on demand and other interactive services using a broadband return path
for viewers with internet access and provide those high-high definition 4K
pictures."
Third repeat of the hype. Does not make the hype any more credible. And now a
new bit of misinformation. "Broadband return path"? Oh please. Do the numbers.
It takes a broadband downlink and uplink, the broadcast path adds no real value
here. Figure it out, please. If you use the OTA broadcast path as a common
downlink, just how many individual two-way sessions will that common downlink
be able to carry, realistically? A handful? In a market of multiple thousands
or even millions? How many years have these nonsensical statements been made,
to the innocent?
So I ask again. Aside from the potential for more robust reception, or SFNs
(which are also used to create regional stations, further diminishing any
politically correct narrative about "localism"), what exactly does the one-way
broadcast pipe add, that ATSC 1.0 can't do? I've yet to see anything credible.
Hey, if the vendors would start selling sets with ATSC 3.0 built in, they would
sell, by default. The standard might just make it. But don't expect people to
go to huge efforts, as you did with ATSC 1.0 (until the FCC wrote that March 1,
2007 receiver mandate, which is out of the question today). Okay, so I would
most likely enjoy playing with a new ATSC 3.0 receiver plugged into an HDMI
port, but most people, those 20% of households, for sure, will just become
irate.
As before wrt ATSC 1.0, most OTA users are utterly unaware of ATSC 3.0 and its
effect to them. When (and if) push comes to shove, they will soon discover that
it adds little or no functionality, over what the Internet link to their new TV
provides ANYWAY. It seems still, every single trade scribe has been fooled to
believe a one-way broadcast pipe will provide Internet connectivity. The same
nonsense they believed back in the 1990s.
Bert
----------------------------------------
https://www.tvtechnology.com/news/atsc-3-0-marches-on
ATSC 3.0 Marches On
Monday marks effective date of new standard's rollout
John Eggerton* Mar 5, 2018
WASHINGTON-March 5 marks the official launch of the new ATSC 3.0 next-gen
broadcast transmission standard, at least in terms of the FCC's authorization
of the new voluntary rollout.
WRAL-TV Raleigh, N.C., a pioneering station in the delivery of next-generation
TV, has already kicked the tires on ATSC 3.0 with the a test last month
providing the first Winter Olympics broadcast in 4K HD.
The FCC still has some decisions to make about how the service will be rolled
out, though it has already determined that it will be voluntary, that stations
will initially have to simulcast both ATSC 1.0 and ATSC 3.0 with in-market TV
station partners (ATSC 3.0 is not backward compatible).
The Advanced Television Systems Committee, which came up with the technical
standard, will be led by Madeleine Noland of LG Electronics, who is succeeding
Triveni Digital's Rich Chernock atop the ATSC Technology Group.
There is still more standards work to be done, said ATSC president Mark Richer,
but the race to next-gen TV has officially begun.
The standard will allow for targeted advertising and alerts, video-on-demand,
interactivity-it is an IP-based standard-and more.
The new standard, which was championed by broadcasters, emergency alert groups
and the Consumer Technology Association, is expected to drive sales of 4K
TVs-their higher-resolution pictures can be delivered by the new standard-and
give broadcasters a competitive foothold in the interactive, targeted
advertising, IP world.
A politically divided FCC voted 3-2 on Nov. 16, 2017, to allow for the
voluntary rollout of the standard. That came over the objections of Democrats
on the commission and in Congress, who argued that it was a gift to Sinclair or
a rush to a standard that could leave viewers paying for the change through new
TV's or equipment of higher cable prices.
ATSC 3.0 will allow TV stations to do geo-targeted ads and emergency alerts,
video on demand and other interactive services using a broadband return path
for viewers with internet access and provide those high-high definition 4K
pictures.
While most of the rule took effect Monday, three portions did not because they
require information collection, which must first get the OK of the Office of
Management and Budget per the Paperwork Reduction Act, which requires new regs
that entail new information collection to be vetted to make sure those are not
overly burdensome.
So, the portions of the rule that will not become effective until OMB signs off
on their info collection (and that sign-off is also published in the Register)
are those dealing with simulcasting agreements between stations (sections
73.3801, 73.6029, 74.782)
As part of the rule, stations in a market that want to roll out the
transmission standard can join forces (a kind of Jack Spratt arrangement), with
one transmitting both station's signals in ATSC 3.0, and the other both signals
in the current ATSC 1.0 format-ATSC 3.0 is not backward compatible (it requires
a new set or adapter), so the FCC wants to make sure that-for at least the
first few years of the rollout-signals are available in both formats.
Broadcasters will have a chance to make a case for flash-cutting to ATSC 3.0
rather than simulcasting and Low Power TVs will be allowed to flash cut without
simulcasting. MVPDs must continue to carry ATSC signals but don't have to carry
the new 3.0 signals. Broadcasters can combine retrans negotiations for new ATSC
3.0 and existing 1.0 signals, which cable operators had opposed.
This story first appeared on TVT's sister publication B&C.
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