[opendtv] Re: TV Technology: Sinclair and Nexstar Form ATSC 3.0 Spectrum Consortium
- From: Craig Birkmaier <brewmastercraig@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2017 07:49:29 -0400
On Mar 15, 2017, at 8:55 PM, Manfredi, Albert E
<albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I think that this is overstated:
"Unlike the current transmission standard, one-dot-oh, ATSC 3.0, will be able
to reach broadband-connected devices, including smartphones and tablets,
which will provide much deeper and more detailed user data than traditional
broadcast ratings platforms. Nexstar and Sinclair said they "expect to
capture significant and meaningful information relating to consumers' actual
viewing and consumption behaviors."
Any connected device, even if it is tuned to an ATSC 1.0 channel, heck, even
it's an analog TV program, can convey this information automatically to
provide consumer consumption information. I don't see why this should require
ATSC 3.0. An ATSC 1.0 connected device can provide channel and subchannel
viewing statistics with little trouble, I would think.
And how would this data be collected Bert?
Do the "smart TVs" that the CIA can hack send data to TV stati ons about who is
watching what?
Clearly a connected TV device can collect and send data to the company that
created that device; apparently it is possible to hack these devices as well,
allowing "third parties" to collect data as well.
I seriously doubt that Nexstar and Sinclair plan to hack connected devices to
collect the data referenced in this article. They will need the cooperation of
device manufacturers at several levels to make such a capability feasible:
- The device will need to support the ATSC 3.0 standard;
- The device will need to support the type of data collection discussed in the
article;
- In all likelihood such a capability would need legal consent from the owner
of the device to collect the data; and the ability to shut off data collection.
These are non trivial issues.
But it's kind of ironic that this feature is being advertised, in a time when
Samsung, and other connected TVs, have been associated with spying on people.
I would expect consumers to be increasingly leery of such intrusions in their
personal habits.
Exactly!
And then there is the minor issue of getting ATSC 3.0 chips into mobile devices:
Unlike the current transmission standard, one-dot-oh, ATSC 3.0, will be able
to reach broadband-connected devices, including smartphones and tablets,
which will provide much deeper and more detailed user data than traditional
broadcast ratings platforms. Nexstar and Sinclair said they "expect to
capture significant and meaningful information relating to consumers' actual
viewing and consumption behaviors.
Talk about overly optimistic!
Convincing device manufacturers to add ATSC 3.0 capabilities to smartphones and
tablets is far from assured. It's possible that manufacturers, like Samsung,
who are part of the ATSC consortium "might" offer ATSC 3.0 capability in some
products to gauge consumer interest. But there are mitigating circumstances
that may make this impractical - e.g. the antenna requirements we discussed to
enable the FM capabilities in many phones.
The consortium tells us:
"The consortium will promote innovation and develop and explore products and
services associated with ATSC 3.0 and monetization opportunities such as
spectrum utilization, virtual MVPD platforms, multicast channels, automotive
applications, single-frequency networks and wireless data applications, among
others."
So we might expect to see devices that could bypass the problems associated
with getting ATSC 3.0 chips into mobile devices. For example an ATSC receiver
that connects to a consumers' WiFi network, like my Contour STB from COX; it
could make streams compatible with mobile devices (e.g. h.264 encoded and
perhaps h.265 in the future) available to these devices.And it could collect
data on usage, as I am quite sure the Contour box is doing.
All in all, this is a very interesting announcement. It has a very familiar
ring - the conversion of the TV broadcast spectrum into the kind of spectrum
utility that I have promoted through this forum for years.
Regards
Craig
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