Though ATSC said in its Dec. 8 call for proposals (CFP) that it has no plans “to develop the ATSC 3.0 audio system out of independent components from multiple sources" (see 1412090019), that won’t preclude the possibility that ATSC will pick multiple audio codecs for the next-gen broadcast system, ATSC President Mark Richer emailed us Thursday. "ATSC may select a single audio system or multiple audio systems for ATSC 3.0." He was reacting to a statement from DTS, one of three contestants to submit ATSC 3.0 audio proposals in response to the CFP, in which it supported ATSC picking multiple audio codecs rather than deciding on a single mandatory audio standard for ATSC 3.0. At DTS, “we believe ATSC 3.0 audio should be a multi-codec choice and not a single mandatory solution,” spokesman Jordan Miller emailed us Wednesday. Though Miller didn't say so, the statement seemed an attempt to forestall ATSC choosing Dolby or another technology as a single mandatory audio codec for ATSC 3.0 as ATSC did in picking Dolby AC-3 as the mandatory audio codec for the existing DTV broadcast system. Dolby and the "MPEG-H Audio Alliance" of Fraunhofer, Qualcomm and Technicolor were the other contestants to submit proposals in response to the CFP. “Choice, innovation and competition are important to ATSC and broadcasters, and a framework for multiple audio codecs will be key to allowing broadcasters to choose the solution that best matches their needs," Miller of DTS said. "This will ensure that ATSC can remain at the forefront of technology in the face of competing systems, and ensure consumer-electronics manufacturers are not beholden to a single, mandatory technology provider.” Miller confirmed that DTS:X, “our next generation object based audio platform, is the core component of our ATSC 3.0 submission.” For Miller, it was a somewhat more sweeping claim of the role of DTS:X in the DTS ATSC 3.0 submission than he made a day earlier when he told us only that a “portion” of DTS:X would be “leveraged” in the DTS ATSC 3.0 audio proposal (see 1501210023).

The Media Bureau granted a one-week extension on the deadline for reply comments on the rulemaking on the effect of the incentive auction on low-power TV, said an order released Thursday. Replies are now due Feb. 2, the order said. The LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition requested the extension (see 1501210033).

The deadline for reply comments on the FCC’s rulemaking on the effect of the incentive auction on low-power TV should be extended by a week, said the LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition in an ex parte filing in docket 03-185 Wednesday. Replies are currently due Jan. 26 but the coalition wants the deadline moved to Feb. 2, the filing said. LPTV commenters need the extension because of the volume of submitted comments in the proceeding and the limited resources of many LPTV broadcasters, the filing said. “This is the only time which LPTV has been and will be given to develop commentary” on its “future pre and post auction,” the coalition filing said.

The FCC should preserve channels after the post-incentive auction repacking for new entrants to offer noncommercial educational service, officials from PBS, CPB and the Association of Public Television Stations said in a Tuesday meeting with members of the FCC’s Incentive Auction Task Force, according to an ex parte filing Thursday. The commission should also prioritize translators operated by NCE stations in the repacking, the public TV groups said.

The FCC’s data and research on the low-power TV industry is “inadequate,” LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition Director Michael Gravino told Commissioner Mignon Clyburn and her staff at a meeting Tuesday, according to an ex parte filing in docket 12-268. Gravino also said the FCC Video Division has a “vendetta” against the LPTV industry, pointing to a “huge back-log” of application approvals and a lack of data justifying policy decisions as evidence. Gravino also spoke to Clyburn about the “lack of disclosure and data by the Incentive Auction Task Force related to researching the economic cost benefits of LPTV as auction eligible entities,” the filing said.

Three proponents had registered by Tuesday afternoon their intent to vie for selection as the audio system for the next-gen ATSC 3.0 broadcast specification, ATSC spokesman Dave Arland emailed us. The deadline for responses to ATSC’s Dec. 8 call for proposals (CFP) was 11:59 p.m. EST Tuesday. The three proponents are Dolby Labs, DTS and, as a group, Fraunhofer, Qualcomm and Technicolor, Arland said. ATSC, through its S34-2 ad hoc group, plans a thorough but fast-track process for choosing a proponent audio system for ATSC 3.0, in keeping with ATSC’s self-imposed deadline of finishing the ATSC 3.0 standard by the end of this year, its CFP said (see 1412090019). Audio systems proposed "will be judged discretely and in their entirety, as comprehensive, end-to-end systems for emission of the ATSC signal," the CFP said. "ATSC does not intend to develop the ATSC 3.0 audio system out of independent components from multiple sources."

The incentive auction downgrades low-power TV from a secondary service to a tertiary service able to be displaced by both full-power and Class A stations, Lotus Communications said in comments filed in response to the incentive auction LPTV NPRM. “The Commission should not unilaterally downgrade an entire class of licensee without redress or remedy,” Lotus said. The FCC should act to preserve LPTV stations that have public interest benefits by allowing them to convert to Class A status, Lotus said. The FCC “can extend the Class A protection set forth in the Spectrum Act to a discrete group of LPTV stations and the populations that they serve without imposing any undue procedural burdens on the Broadband Plan or negatively impacting its goals,” Lotus said.

The FCC can’t “justify from a legal or policy standpoint” offering stations with the same impact on spectrum clearing vastly different opening prices in the incentive auction, Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition Executive Director Preston Padden told Incentive Auction Task Force Chairman Gary Epstein, Vice Chair Howard Symons and Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake in a meeting Tuesday, an ex parte filing said. The proposed use of dynamic reserve pricing in the auction “is overly complicated and will introduce unnecessary impairment and potential inter-service interference to the auction,” Padden said. The commission should also loosen rules against disclosures among auction-eligible broadcasters, Padden said. “The Commission should adopt rules consistent with its recognition of the need to provide broadcasters with the information they need to make sensible business judgments and an opportunity for price discovery,” he said.

The FCC Media Bureau denied a motion to toll and delay the comment deadlines for the LPTV rulemaking from Free Access & Broadcast Telemedia, an order released Thursday said. Free Access had argued that it needed an analysis of how the commission's projected auction prices for broadcast stations -- called the Greenhill Report -- would affect LPTV stations in each designated marketing area, and asked the FCC to produce that information. The Media Bureau declined to produce that analysis, but did place the Greenhill book into the LPTV proceeding record. “We do not see the relevance of the Greenhill Report to potential measures the Commission can take 'to mitigate the impact of the incentive auction on LPTV and TV translator stations and to help preserve the important services they provide,'” the order said. Comments on the LPTV NPRM are due Jan. 12, replies Jan. 26.

Though TV sets still give “the best quality picture and viewing experience,” millennials ages 13 to 34 are “drastically” changing how content “is being discovered and consumed,” a joint CEA-NATPE study said. CEA and NATPE commissioned E-Poll Market Research to canvass millennials on their content consumption habits and found only 55 percent use TVs as their “primary viewing platform,” while mobile streaming devices such as laptops, tablets and smartphones “are poised to dominate their viewing preferences," the groups said Thursday. Though many viewers of streaming programs say they're watching more TV programs overall, the study showed a decline “in the amount of time spent watching live television programs during their scheduled air time,” they said. “This is particularly true of the younger, millennial demographic which has some distinctive, common characteristics, including the regular use of multiple sources of program content.” Millennials are “comfortable using many different sources of TV program content and consequently are significantly more likely to consume full-length TV programs from a streaming source,” they said. Of those canvassed, 84 percent streamed a TV show in the past six months, compared with the 54 percent who viewed TV programming at its original air time, and 33 percent who watched content they had recorded on a DVR, they said. Other findings: (1) Millennials “value their Netflix subscriptions” more than broadcast or cable. In the study, 51 percent said they regard their Netflix subscription as “very valuable,” compared with 42 percent who said the same of broadcast channels, and 36 percent who said it of cable subscriptions. (2) Portability is king, as about half of millennials polled said they watch TV programming on a laptop, and for 19 percent it’s their preferred TV viewing screen. Another 28 percent said they routinely watch TV on a tablet, and 22 percent, on a smartphone.