The principle is that the airwaves belong to the public and the broadcaster obtains a license to use them to serve the public. Unlike the UK, where the public broadcaster charges the public to license their TVs, the USA has always operated on a free to view over the air basis. If the product provided over the air is not freely viewable, how does this serve the public, as opposed to the specific subscribers, who are using the public airwaves?
DMAs are trickier. They do not exist in law, but are a creation of the ratings companies that forms the contractual basis for delivering advertising. If that’s all they were used for, it probably wouldn’t be a big deal, but when certain markets are blocked for certain programs, such as the local sports team, it raises questions about whether this is still a public service, and not collusion between sports teams and broadcasters to avoid tanking attendance and local ticket prices.
Didn’t the FCC require that for ATSC 3.0 only the primary channel had to be free. And since it can be easily decrypted by TV’s with ATSC 3.0, what is the problem.
The FCC does establich DMA’s. That’s why a broadcaster application also includes a transmitter contour map.
DRM only hurts the legal consumer, it does nothing to harm the pirate who ALWAYS has ways around it.
DRM also interferes with our legal right to the “Fair Use” clause of US Copyright Law, as to exercise that right with DRM content, we have to break the DRM which is illegal due to the DMCA.
It greatly greatly increases piracy, and content producers, in all fairness, seem to have turned a blind eye. I guess it means we all have to go that route, since that’s what they desire. Sigh…
Just want to remind folks that this is not the “TV watching” forum…
This new drm all about reversing the old “VHS” allowance from the distant past, and of course the even more liberal capture capability of current ATSC 1.0.
I think if you review the SCOTUS betmax ruling it basically allowed personal copies for in home use. Is there anything in how ATSC 3.0 is currently broadcast that disallows that.
And since the final set of A3SA API’s have just recently been approved those ATSC 3.0 STB/gateway manufacturers will soon follow with DVR functionality. maybe even a ATSC 3.0 tablo.
The ADTH box is a tuner only. No mention of DVR functionality.
I have a new Sony tv that has an ATSC 3.0 tuner that picks up the main 3.0 channels in the Portland, OR area. Some of these stations look worse than their 1.0 counterparts. They are full of compression artifacts. Hopefully this isn’t the future of OTA tv.
I could record on my own sony betamax and playback on another sony betamax I owned. But I couldn’t jam a betamax tape into a VCR. So I don’t think the SCOTUS ruling says you could use any additional equipment you wanted. And I don’t think it says you could make more then the original copy.
The HDHR Flex ATSC 3 was certified NextGenTV already and is already approved and adding the DRM support now starting with Roku and Android, Apple is last to get it.
In my area I can get ABC and FOX ATSC 3 now fine and record them, NBC and CBS are encrypted but Fox is the main one I needed as football is coming.
NBC/CBS ATSC 3 here are not viewable at all, you have to use the ATSC 1 channel right now. The DRM is already being worked on, so should be soon I think.
