From Public Trustee To Private Courier: The Curious Pivot Of ATSC 3.0

LocalProximity
Written By Tim Hanlon

The broadcast industry's fervor for ATSC 3.0's datacasting opportunities has reached a fever pitch, with major station groups forming ventures like EdgeBeam and touting potential revenues from enterprise data services. While these "beyond TV" applications represent legitimate business opportunities, the industry's seemingly singular focus on monetizing spectrum through datacasting threatens to abandon the fundamental public interest obligations that justify broadcasters' privileged access to the public airwaves.

The Original Promise: Better Television For All Americans

When the Advanced Television Systems Committee began developing ATSC 3.0 in 2013, the standard was conceived as a revolutionary upgrade to television broadcasting. The promise was clear and compelling: 4K Ultra HD video with High Dynamic Range (HDR), immersive Dolby AC-4 and MPEG-H 3D audio supporting up to 64 loudspeaker channels, interactive television capabilities, and robust emergency alerting systems. These weren't ancillary features — they were the core justification for transitioning to a new broadcast standard.

The FCC approved ATSC 3.0 for voluntary deployment in 2017 with explicit expectations that broadcasters would deliver enhanced television services to consumers. The standard's technical capabilities promised to transform over-the-air broadcasting from a one-way linear service to an interactive, IP-enhanced experience that could compete with streaming platforms while maintaining broadcasting's unique strengths of simultaneous mass delivery and local emergency services.

The Datacasting Distraction

Today's industry discourse, however, reveals a curious, and potentially troubling shift in priorities. Suddenly-former FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington recently declared that datacasting could enable broadcasters to effectively switch their primary source of revenue away from traditional TV ad sales and retrans to enterprise-centric connectivity — fundamentally reimagining broadcasting as a data delivery service rather than a television medium. EdgeBeam's formation by four major broadcast groups — Sinclair, Nexstar, Gray Media, and E.W. Scripps — signals an industry pivot toward enterprise customers seeking data distribution services.

Likewise, the NAB-backed Broadcast Positioning System (BPS), while technically impressive in its ability to provide enterprise-friendly GPS-like services, represents another example of spectrum being repurposed away from consumer-centric television enhancement — with EdgeBeam already being considered as a facilitating platform.

Public Interest Obligations Cannot Be Monetized Away

Broadcasters operate under a fundamental compact with the American people: in exchange for free access to valuable and scarce public spectrum, they must serve the public interest. This obligation doesn't diminish because new technologies enable additional revenue streams. The FCC's recent Notice of Inquiry on ATSC 3.0 public interest obligations makes clear that enhanced capabilities must translate into enhanced public service, not merely enhanced profits.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation and other public interest groups have rightfully warned that ATSC 3.0's transition risks becoming a vehicle for broadcasters to "reserve their most desirable content for encrypted ATSC 3.0 signals, effectively turning public spectrum into a premium-access service". When industry leaders speak of datacasting as their "primary source of revenue," they reveal a fundamental misunderstanding of their public trustee responsibilities.

The Spectrum Accountability Imperative

Broadcasting spectrum was never intended to be a general-purpose data highway for enterprise customers. It was allocated specifically for television broadcasting to serve local communities with news, emergency information, and diverse programming. The fact that ATSC 3.0 enables additional capabilities doesn't grant broadcasters license to abandon their core television mission.

Public interest advocates have correctly identified that any ATSC 3.0 transition must include mandatory requirements for enhanced emergency alerting, improved accessibility features, and dedicated capacity for noncommercial educational programming. These aren't optional add-ons to be considered after datacasting revenues are secured — they are the primary justifications for broadcasters' continued access to spectrum in the first place.

A Path Forward: Balance, Not Abandonment

The broadcast industry can and should pursue datacasting opportunities, but not at the expense of television service enhancement first and foremost. Now that the FCC has a functioning quorum, it must speedily establish clear guardrails ensuring that ATSC 3.0 deployment prioritizes consumer television benefits over enterprise data services. This means mandatory implementation of 4K/HDR capabilities, advanced emergency alerting, and interactive features that were originally promised to justify the transition.

Broadcasters seeking to sunset ATSC 1.0 by 2028-30 must first demonstrate that they've delivered meaningful television improvements to consumers, not merely launched profitable business-serving datacasting services. The public interest requires nothing less than the full realization of ATSC 3.0's commercial television potential before spectrum is diverted to enterprise applications.

The American people deserve the better television they were promised, not a bait-and-switch that transforms their public airwaves into private data networks. The FCC and federal regulators must hold broadcasters accountable to their original commitments before allowing them to chase proverbial datacasting gold.

Tim Hanlon

Tim Hanlon is the Founder & CEO of the Chicago-based Vertere Group, LLC – a boutique strategic consulting and advisory firm focused on helping today’s most forward-leaning media companies, brands, entrepreneurs, and investors benefit from rapidly changing technological advances in marketing, media and consumer communications.

Previous

At Cannes, “Fragmentation” Is The New Normal
Next

Programmatic Strategy Paying Off For DirecTV After Focus Shifts To Streaming