Company: GHC
Filing Date: 2025-02-26
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000104889-25-000022
Chunk: 157

Company: Graham Holdings Co
Filing Date: 2025-02-26
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 157
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 assurances that the FCC will do so. 

Digital Television (DTV) and Spectrum Issues.  Each GMG station (and each full-power television station nationwide) broadcasts only in a digital format, which allows transmission of HDTV programming and multiple channels of standard-definition television programming (multicasting). 

Television stations may receive interference from a variety of sources, including interference from other broadcast stations, that is below a threshold established by the FCC. That interference could limit viewers’ ability to receive television stations’ signals. The amount of interference received by television stations could increase in the future based on the FCC’s decision to allow electronic devices, known as “white space,” devices, to operate in the television frequency band on an unlicensed basis on channels not used by nearby television stations. 

In November 2017, the FCC voted to adopt rules authorizing broadcast television stations to voluntarily transition to a new technical standard, called Next Generation TV (NextGenTV) or ATSC 3.0. The new standard is designed to allow broadcasters to provide consumers with better sound and picture quality; hyper-localized programming, including news and weather; enhanced emergency alerts; and improved mobile reception. The ATSC 3.0 standard allows for the use of targeted advertising and more efficient use of spectrum by, for example, allowing for more multicast streams to be aired on the same six-megahertz channel. ATSC 3.0 is not backward compatible with existing television equipment (although certain adapters/converter boxes are now commercially available), and the FCC’s rules require full-power television stations that transition to the new standard to continue broadcasting a signal in the existing DTV standard (ATSC 1.0) until the FCC phases out the requirement in a future order. A transitioning station’s DTV-formatted content must be substantially similar to the programming aired on its ATSC 3.0 channel until July 17, 2027, to ensure that viewers continue to have access to the same DTV-formatted programming during the transition to the NextGenTV standard. As of December 31, 2024, GMG is broadcasting in the ATSC 3.0 standard on all of its stations. It is too soon to predict precisely how the use of broadcast spectrum for ATSC 3.0 services could impact the broadcast industry.

In recent years, the FCC has authorized the use by wireless broadband providers and other unlicensed devices of certain bands of spectrum that have historically been used by broadcast stations and satellite operators. Broadcasters continue to