ATSC 3.0 & encryption

[w9wi]

Regarding the item in the April Newsletter regarding ATSC 3.0 and encryption...

This does NOT necessarily mean you will be required to pay to receive 3.0 signals. Encryption means your receiver must possess valid decryption keys to receive the material. Nothing says you have to be charged for those keys. Nearly all ATSC 3.0 receivers already contain the necessary decryption keys. (the exceptions seem to be some very early "dongles" and the HDHomeRun 3.0 receivers -- for which a solution is under test)

So why encrypt?

Two reasons.

1. To guarantee what's presented on your TV as WABD-TV's signal is in fact WABD-TV's signal. ATSC 3.0 integrates OTA delivery with Internet delivery. On the Internet side, a "man in the middle attack" is possible, where someone between the WABD-TV facility and your TV injects alternate material. Maybe a cable operator doesn't like WABD airing ads for antennas & injects into WABD's Internet stream an ad for cable subscriptions?
2. To prevent unauthorized use of the broadcast signals. Same reason as HDCP on cable boxes. Some content providers may not be willing to license their programming for broadcast if it's possible for viewers to record & redistribute that material. Encryption keys can be configured to only decrypt if the destination is the screen- not if it's going to a HDMI port.

Encryption does make pay TV possible. Evoca TV has tried it in several markets. As with previous attempts to do pay TV over ATSC 1.0, the 3.0 effort has failed in the marketplace.

I would not be worried about being expected to pay for ABC/CBS/Fox/NBC.

[Mike-CT]

I'll put your reply in the VUD next month. When you read "encryption" you immediately think Pay TV or Pay per view.

[antennanut]

I read somewhere that a few large TV station owners have already started encrypting 3.0 content on their stations. I believe, but could be mistaken, that the encryption includes affiliates of the major networks if those affiliates are owned by the mega-owner. I'll try to see if I can find where I read that. But Doug is of course correct in that updates will be provided to the tuners (Zapperbox and Silicon Dust, in particular) that have already been sold so that the encryption is a non-event.

[w1bsm]

You can find out which ATSC 3.0 TV stations are encrypted on www.rabbitears.info. The site has a dedicated "ATSC 3.0 List" of stations (by market) that show which ones have encryption. According to the site, out of 114 ATSC 3.0 TV stations now operating, only 16 have some of their subchannels encrypted. Hopefully by the time I purchase a Zapperbox, the DRM situation will be taken care of.

[antennanut]

Great, thanks for that resource!