Pilot, formerly NAB Labs, will use the NAB Show to demo the industry's first prototype ATSC 3.0 receiver and “home gateway” that showcases the “breadth” of HTML-5-based “interactive environment” functionality enabled by the ATSC 3.0 standard, NAB said in a Friday announcement. The home gateway Pilot will demonstrate in Las Vegas this week combines an over-the-air TV tuner with Internet access, Wi-Fi connectivity and a “software environment that enables new types of user engagement,” it said. For the demo, among other content, Fox Sports will provide interactive “multi-view” programming clips, and Akamai will contribute “on-demand” content that’s “pre-loaded and stored for instant gateway access,” it said. Pilot itself will fashion a dedicated channel featuring the NHL’s Washington Capitals “that showcases zoned and targeted advertising as well as advanced emergency alerting capabilities,” it said. The NAB Show demonstration represents “early and important work that begins to show the promise” of ATSC 3.0, NAB Chief Technology Officer Sam Matheny said in a statement. “We’d like to get to a place where we can share our prototype and SDK with other developers and content providers to build out additional and even more compelling use cases,” he said of Pilot’s software development kit. “I hope you’ll see something like that happen as we proceed.”

The FCC's position that joint sales agreements involved in transactions aren't considered eligible for grandfathering is “contrary” to the will of Congress and the agency's own precedent, Media General and its proposed buyer Nexstar said in a joint filing in opposition to petitions to deny filed against the deal by Cox Communications, Dish Network and public interest groups. “The petitions filed in this proceeding should be dismissed or denied,” Nexstar and Media General said. Even if the FCC won't allow the JSAs involved in the deal to be grandfathered, the FCC should grant waivers allowing them to continue because they're “demonstrably in the public interest,” Nexstar and Media General said. “The efficiencies and economies that the merger will create will make possible investments in programming initiatives that are generally not economically feasible in the small and medium markets in which the combined company will operate." The broadcasters also rejected conditions on retransmission consent deals suggested by Dish and other opponents of the transaction. The conditions would “violate congressional intent by seeking to dictate the outcome of retransmission consent negotiations,” the combining companies said. The FCC should reject "petitioners' blatant attempts to end-run the rule-making process via this adjudicatory proceeding,” Nexstar and Media General said in the filing posted Friday in docket 16-57.

Gray Television made a $3 million strategic equity investment in Syncbak, a technology company that replicates over-the-air broadcasts for online distribution, it said in a news release Thursday. Gray Chief Digital and Technology Officer Jason Effinger also joined Syncbak's board, it said. CBS, NAB and CEA also have invested in Syncbak in recent years (see 1304230033 and 1010070100). Gray said more than 180 stations in 150 markets use Syncbak's platform for live stream transcoding, cloud-based rights resolution, cloud-based DVR, device filtering, geo-location services, content management, stream monitoring and dynamic advertising insertion.

Sinclair formed a subsidiary, One Media 3.0, to develop “business opportunities, products and services” for the ATSC 3.0 platform, the company said in a Thursday announcement. The subsidiary’s initial priorities will include building out a “national footprint” of local ATSC 3.0 single frequency networks (SFNs) to foster “virtualized coast-to-coast data services,” Sinclair said. “The optimization and development of shared facilities will foster quick, affordable adoption and implementation strategies by broadcasters,” it said. Sinclair launched the first-ever ATSC 3.0-based SFN last month in Baltimore and Washington under special temporary authority from the FCC, saying then that it expects the Baltimore-Washington SFN will be the first of “hundreds” it and other broadcasters will roll out in adopting ATSC 3.0 (see 1603220032).The subsidiary also will design, develop and deploy “a coordinated, intelligent network infrastructure” that will connect markets nationally, using ATSC 3.0's Internet protocol backbone, it said. A third priority will be buildout of “an integrated system” to collect and measure “viewer analytics and user habits on Next Gen enabled devices that will allow broadcasters to develop personalized content,” it said. Sinclair’s launching of One Media 3.0 “signals that we are ready to take the next steps to build the operating infrastructure and network necessary for the television broadcast industry to launch business models, compete on a level playing field, and bring new and exciting products to the consumer,” CEO David Smith said.

A radio station's application for review was denied by a unanimous FCC decision and “ran afoul of the chutzpah doctrine,” Commissioner Ajit Pai said in a statement released with the order. Marfa Public Radio had filed the application for review disputing a Media Bureau decision to grant a construction application from Houston Christian Broadcasters. Marfa owns the tower to which the HCB transmitter is attached, and had filed a competing construction application. The bureau should reject the HCB application because HCB didn't timely disclose that the tower housing its transmitter was bought by Marfa in 2008, Marfa argued. The FCC said Marfa hadn't informed HCB of the ownership change or updated the FCC's antenna registration system until 2015, making it plausible that HCB was unaware of the ownership change. “Now, Marfa complains that Houston failed to notify the Commission within 30 days of Marfa’s purchase of the tower that Houston no longer had assurance that the tower would be available to it. Really?” asked Pai in his statement, which included a footnote citing a Saturday Night Live sketch.

NBC is under no obligation to negotiate a renewal to WHDH Boston's expiring TV network affiliation agreement, and it has no facts to back up antitrust or injury to competition claims, Comcast said in a motion (in Pacer) to dismiss filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Boston. The station sued Comcast last month, alleging Comcast was violating the terms of an agreement with NBC affiliates that came as part of Comcast's purchase of NBCUniversal (see 1603110031). But WHDH is a third-party beneficiary to that contract and its claims are based on sections "of which WHDH is explicitly not an intended beneficiary," and thus has no standing, Comcast said. The agreement also doesn't prevent NBC from switching from an independently owned affiliate to an owned-and-operated one, just as NBC plans to do in Boston after the WHDH affiliate agreement expires Jan. 1, Comcast said. The company also rejected WHDH allegations of breach of good faith and fair dealing, saying neither the affiliation agreement nor the Comcast/affiliates agreement includes obligations to continue past the expiration date. Comcast also said that even if it had been by early 2014 working on facility upgrades at regional news cable channel NECN in anticipation of the affiliation change, any indications by its executives to WHDH that it wanted to hold off on renewal talks until closer to the expiration date of the current agreement "does not establish the falsity of any of Comcast's alleged representations about WHDH's prospects for extending its affiliation." Counsel for WHDH didn't comment Wednesday.

Akamai is the first to bring live 4K to consumers, said Chris Nicholson, senior public relations manager, in a Tuesday blog post. While there have been many 4K-related announcements of over-the-top demonstrations at the NAB Show, “Akamai has already evolved the live/linear 4K workflow from controlled demonstrations to real-world, public, consumer distribution,” Nicholson said. “Live 4K has the potential to reach the market more quickly online as opposed to traditional methods like satellite, IPTV or cable. That's a pretty big deal.” At its NAB Show booth, Akamai will demonstrate “a complete live 4K workflow in production, from camera to consumption, streaming over the public Internet -- no small feat in a giant convention center,” he said. “You'll be able to see firsthand the steps that we're taking to make this a reality.” Much like the role live sports played in HD’s “uptake,” live sports “are again proving to be a key driver for 4K adoption,” he said. “Akamai recently helped deliver the first publicly available live 4K streaming of a major sporting event. It's yet one more step in the right direction to making this game-changing technology available on a mass consumption basis.”

NAB will increase security at next week's NAB Show, it said in a news release Friday. NAB is “increasing security and law enforcement personnel around the exterior perimeter of the Las Vegas Convention Center and will establish designated building entry and exit points” for the April 16-21 event, though the release said ”there are no known threats to the convention.” An NAB spokesman said the extra security is appropriate “in light of recent incidences, both domestic and global.” The association had said it was considering extra security after the March 22 attacks on Brussels (see 1603220043). The convention security will work “in close consultation” with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police, Department of Homeland Security, FBI and the Las Vegas Convention Center, the release said. The extra security measures announced for the NAB seem less sweeping than those at January CES, which imposed bag restrictions, stadium-style bag searches and the use of metal detectors and pat-downs at the show's various entrances after the Nov. 13 Paris attacks (see 1512180053).

Media General has amended its complaint against Gray TV to request that it be paid all profits received by Gray for the sale of the spectrum of Gray's station WAGT Augusta, Georgia, in the incentive auction, said a filing in Richmond County (Georgia) Superior Court. Media General had sought an injunction barring Gray from selling WAGT's spectrum in the auction but withdrew that injunction after it was stayed by the Georgia Supreme Court (see 1604060065). The FCC has said Media General attempting to use the courts to control the spectrum of a station it doesn't own is illegal. Media General didn't comment.

The Multicultural Media, Telecommunications and Internet Council panned the FCC order on multilingual emergency alert system warnings, in a statement Tuesday (see 1603300064). The order “does not move us even a step closer to ensuring that our nation’s 25 million multilingual Americans, including children, the elderly, and the disabled, actually receive life-saving information before, during, and immediately after an emergency,” MMTC President Kim Keenan said: “If a broadcast license means anything at all, it should mean that broadcasters must deliver to their most vulnerable listeners the life-saving information they need when they need it the most. The penalty for an individual’s lack of English proficiency must never be death.” ​The FCC order requires state EAS officials to report their multilingual EAS offerings, but doesn't require that they provide an offering. MMTC and other public interest groups had pushed for an order that would offer incentives to broadcasters that provide EAS alerts in multiple languages.