DirecTV Wants Broadcasters to Pay MVPD Costs in ATSC 3.0 Transition

Broadcasters should pay the costs that a mandatory conversion to ATSC 3.0 will impose on MVPDs, said DirecTV in a letter to the FCC Media Bureau, posted Wednesday in docket 16-142. Purchasing enough ATSC 3.0 receivers to convert DirecTV’s 1,800 nationwide feeds would cost close to $15 million, which “would be onerous” and “a dead-weight loss,” the company said. “Spreading the cost among the nation’s nearly 1,500 broadcast stations would not only yield a much more manageable financial responsibility for each entity but also place the costs on the parties who stand to reap the benefits of the ATSC 3.0 transition.” DirecTV said it currently can’t transmit ATSC 3.0 signals because its customers’ millions of set-top boxes can’t receive the signal, and it doesn’t have the capacity to carry both ATSC 3.0 and 1.0 signals simultaneously. It also noted that an Advanced Television Systems Committee working group on creating a standard for converting 3.0 signals for MVPD transmission doesn’t include any MVPD representatives. “Because of what MVPDs view as the domineering and uncollaborative behavior of the broadcast representatives in the Working Group, there is no longer any MVPD representation” in the group.