August 18 FCC Ex Parte letter on ATSC 3.0 DRM

[dweber]

https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/search/search-filings/filing/10818038010634

Tyler the Antenna Man and Lon Seidman presented the issues with ATSC 3.0 DRM to the FCC. Above is a summary of their meeting.


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[Scott Greczkowski]

These guys are doing great work.

 

[primestar31]

DRM MUST go away, or ATSC 3.0 is DOA, and IMO, will stay that way until it just fades away...

 

[cpalmer2k]

Ultimately the FCC doesn't care. Their current focus seems to be to eliminate virtually all of the safeguards and rules to allow TV ownership to do whatever they want. It seems highly unlikely they're going to suddenly grow a backbone when it comes to DRM on ATSC 3.0.

If they really wanted to move on this issue they've just been handed a golden opportunity. They could tell Nexstar that if they want to merge with Tegna (which requires the FCC to change their own limits on station ownership) then they have to commit to broadcasting their ATSC 3.0 feeds with no DRM.

 

[TNGuy84]

It's all about money. The broadcasters have all of the money on their side.

 

[Joe The Dragon]

Ultimately the FCC doesn't care. Their current focus seems to be to eliminate virtually all of the safeguards and rules to allow TV ownership to do whatever they want. It seems highly unlikely they're going to suddenly grow a backbone when it comes to DRM on ATSC 3.0.

If they really wanted to move on this issue they've just been handed a golden opportunity. They could tell Nexstar that if they want to merge with Tegna (which requires the FCC to change their own limits on station ownership) then they have to commit to broadcasting their ATSC 3.0 feeds with no DRM.

Will they allow PAY ATSC 3.0 channels to have adult movies?

 

[navychop]

I believe that has been done before. But I'm not sure there's much of a market for that anymore. Too many competing venues.

 

[TNGuy84]

Anyone with a cell phone these days can locate an adult movie in 5 seconds flat. I think the amount of adult movie channels have decreased from a large variety in the 2000s to just a few at this point. Premium channels seemed to have largely fallen out of favor as well with HBO reducing its library of channels down. If there are any pay channels offered on 3.0, it would probably be something like ESPN being offered as a subchannel of the ABC affiliate for a monthly fee. I really don't think ABC, CBS, and NBC are going to charge for viewership like many have feared. I think it's largely about controlling what content can be recorded and shared with others. For example, there may be a family movie featured on one of the channels, but the format is encrypted and only playable on one recorder for a limited time to convince someone in the household to subscribe to the streaming service to watch that movie over and over along with its sequels. Like for example, ABC shows the Santa Clause and Home Alone around the holidays. Let's say they let you record it to watch for 30 days. After that 30 days, the copy you have gets either deleted or encrypted with a different code to the point it can't be unencrypted. After that period, it gives a message saying, "To watch this move again, please subscribe to Disney Plus." In other words, they give you the freedom to record the movie, but they just give you permission to watch your own copy for a brief period until they're ready to extract money from you.