FCC consults on ATSC 3.0 physical layer deployment

Media bureau seeks comment on joint petition for rulemaking of America’s Public Television Stations, The AWARN Alliance, The Consumer Technology Association, and The National Association of Broadcasters seeking to authorize permissive use of the “Next Generation TV” broadcast television standard

Comment Date: May 26, 2016
Reply Comment Date: June 27, 2016

On April 13, 2016, America’s Public Television Stations (APTS), The AWARN Alliance, The Consumer Technology Association (CTA), and The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) filed a Joint Petition for Rulemaking (“Petition”) asking the Commission to “amend its rules to allow broadcasters to use the signaling portion of the physical layer of the new ATSC 3.0 (‘Next Generation TV’) broadcast standard, while they continue to deliver current-generation DTV broadcast service to their communities.” More specifically, the Petition asks the Commission to (1) “approve the Next Generation TV transmission standard as a new, optional standard for television broadcasting;” (2) “approve certain rule changes to permit local simulcasting to enable Next Generation TV to be deployed while ensuring that broadcasts in the current DTV standard remain available to viewers;” and (3) “specify that Next Generation TV transmission is ‘television broadcasting’ in parity with the current DTV standard, and otherwise to conform Sections 73, 74 and 76 of [the] rules to permit the deployment of this innovative new standard.”

We issue this Public Notice to seek comment on the Petition. The Petition is available electronically through the Commission’s Electronic Comment Filing System (ECFS) under the above-referenced docket number, which may be accessed on the Commission’s Internet website.