FCC chief sees new viewing technology opening up ‘myriad of issues’

New technology opens up a “myriad of issues” from shrinking elbow space in the wireless spectrum to “Aunt Minnie’s outdated TV set,” Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler said Tuesday at the 2016 National Association of Broadcasters Show in Las Vegas.

Wheeler sat with former NAB TV Board Chair Marci Burdick and answered, at least partially, questions about several of those issues, including the future of broadcasting with the expansion of the Internet, possible reforms in retransmission consent and the future of video delivery after the rollout of ATSC 3.0, the next-generation TV standard to be put up for public comment by the end of the month.

ASTC 3.0, which would allow viewers to watch TV in Ultra HD resolution and from mobile devices, has “been pulled off, technically,” Wheeler said. But there is still a lot the FCC has to consider in its implementation. Among the issues that need to be worked out are how the transition will affect low-power TV stations, whether there will be enough channels after the incentive auction and how to “deal with Aunt Minnie’s old TV set that only gets 1.o.

“Hurray for the creative thinking of the broadcast community that brought 3.0 from an idea into a reality,” Wheeler told an audience of about 350 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. “Now let’s figure out where we go from here, how we make it work.”

Through a first-of-its kind, two-way “incentive auction,” which began March 29 and will end in June, the FCC asks licensed broadcasters who currently use the wireless spectrum to give up their usage rights in exchange for some of the money from an auction of new licenses to mobile broadband providers.

“The wireless industry has had a constant mantra, which is ‘We need spectrum,’” he said. “Very shortly they are going to see that there is a significant chunk of spectrum that is now available to them.”

When Burdick asked whether the number of stations that “showed up” to auction off their rights met his expectations, he didn’t answer directly and said auction numbers will be released in the next couple of weeks.

“This is a market,” Wheeler said. “This is designed to pair supply and demand. And we don’t know what that’s going to be.”

When asked if Wheeler thinks the 39-month deadline the FCC set for itself to “repack” stations after the auction is too ambitious, he said he’s “not going to judge on that.”

The chairman also spoke about retransmission consent — the permission a TV station gives to a cable or other broadcast system to carry its signal, claiming there has been an increase in disputes in negotiating. Wheeler said the FCC is “managing towards” reforming ownership rules before the end of the year, but didn’t provide specifics.

“We’re living through lots of changes,” he said. “Too often, corporate bickering has resulted in consumer harm. I think that’s why Congress asked us to take a look at it.”

After the session, a man who asked not to be named gestured to microphones lining an aisle dividing the audience and said he would have liked the FCC chairman to take questions from attendees.

“He touched on some issues but he was evasive,” said the man, who does administrative work for a small TV broadcast station in the state of Washington. “He was being very politically careful.”

Another audience member who is vice president of business development at a multimedia distribution company, Missing Channel Media Group, said she was disappointed with what she called Wheeler’s “dance.”

Contact Kimber Laux at klaux@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0283. Find her on Twitter: @lauxkimber