NEXTGEN TV

NextGen TV is a tech TV version of Waiting for Godot, where an unspecified something is imminently arriving to make everything better … yet never quite materializes.

Attendance and exhibitors will still fall well below the pre-pandemic high-water mark, but station groups and vendors plan to hit the Sunday-Wednesday event with packed schedules and shopping lists.

A bipartisan group of 27 U.S. senators, led by Sens. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and Todd Young (R-Ind.), sent a letter Wednesday to FCC ChairJessica Rosenworcel urging the commission to take an active role in expediting the continued rollout of the ATSC 3.0 standard, aka NextGen TV.

KGO, KPIX, KNTV, KTVU, KDTV and KRON are now broadcasting with ATSC 3.0 technology.

KCCI, WHO, KDSM and KDIN are now broadcasting with ATSC 3.0 technology.

WHAM, WROC, WUHF and WXXI are now broadcasting with ATSC 3.0 technology.

John Hane, president and CEO of BitPath, shares an update on how far along the ATSC 3.0 consortium is toward building a national network that will support leasing data services and get cash registers finally ringing for broadcasters. A full transcript of the conversation is included.

ATSC 3.0 has hit a sludgy stretch of path toward its end goal of broad U.S. adoption and providing new content services. It will take many hands — a potential FCC task force, station group cooperation and an elongated pipeline for receivers included — to get the standard’s implementation flying again.

Anne Schelle, managing director of the Pearl TV consortium, will receive the highest honor in TVNewsCheck’s Women in Technology Awards for her tireless efforts to rally the broadcast industry around the ATSC 3.0 standard while convincing manufacturers to produce compatible sets. She’ll receive her award at the NAB Show in Las Vegas on April 18 at 6 p.m.

WUNI, WCVB, WFXT, WGBH, WBZ and WBTS are now broadcasting with ATSC 3.0 technology.

The National Association of Broadcasters said that without some action by the FCC, including sunsetting the requirement to broadcast in both the current and next-generation transmission formats, that next-generation format — the ATSC 3.0 transmission standard — is “in peril,” and with it broadcasters’ future.

WTVJ, WSCV, WFOR and WLTV are now broadcasting with ATSC 3.0 technology.

Broadcasters kept their focus largely on a NextGen TV narrative headed into this week’s CES in Las Vegas, where around 100,000 attendees are expected. Sinclair is discussing its own flurry of ATSC 3.0 developments, while the demise of pay TV service Evoca was one setback in the NextGen saga.

The live demo highlighted the enhanced geo-targeting capabilities, infotainment and real-time emergency information capabilities of ATSC 3.0.

Evoca TV, a Meridian, Idaho-based start-up that provided virtual pay TV service using ATSC 3.0 broadcast instead of the internet, shuttered on Dec. 31, after a last-ditch effort to secure additional funding failed. Evoca told customers they can keep their leased Android TV-powered receivers, which are still useful for receiving local NextGen TV broadcast signals.

More markets, more sets, more nations and more possibilities sum up ATSC 3.0 developments in the past year.

WUPL, WWL, WVUE, WDSU, WGNO and WNOL are now broadcasting with ATSC 3.0 technology.

KOAT, KRQE, KWBQ and KASY are now broadcasting with ATSC 3.0 technology.

WICS, WICD, WCIA, WRSP, WCCU, WAND, WBUI and WCIX are now broadcasting with ATSC 3.0 technology.

WABM, WDBB, WIAT, WBRC, WVTM, WTTO and WSES are now broadcasting with ATSC 3.0 technology.

Cutting the cable cord is easier than ever, thanks to the growing options of NextGen TV. Sports, local news, network TV shows and more, all for free. An inexpensive antenna is all you’ll need to get get ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and PBS stations in most major cities across the country. Over-the-air TV, aka the way most Americans got their TV for most of the latter half of the 20th century, has gotten a huge upgrade.

Most of ATSC 3.0’s audio delay in the U.S. is attributable to the same factors that have held back the rollout of UHD content: there is still a small base of NextGen TV-capable sets; the distribution chain from networks to stations is not fully ready for new formats; and broadcasters are somewhat hamstrung in experimenting with their 3.0 content because of FCC rules that require them to effectively simulcast their 1.0 programming. But despite that, progress is being made.

Consumers will gain expanded access to affordable accessory devices that will bring NextGen TV service to sets not equipped with ATSC 3.0 tuners.

KITV, KGMB, KHON, KHNL, KHII and KIKU are now broadcasting with ATSC 3.0 technology.

KAKE, KWCH, KSAS, KSNW, KPTS, KSCW and KMTW are now broadcasting with ATSC 3.0 technology.

ATSC 3.0-enabled technology will make broadcasting more like the internet, but privacy protections need to be taken seriously, Geoffrey Starks said last week in a speech at the University Of Pennsylvania Carey Law School Center For Technology, Innovation & Competition.

The early consumer experience of NextGen TV has been hampered by government regulations that make it hard for viewers to differentiate the new services from the legacy ATSC 1.0 programming already delivered over-the-air, according to broadcasters. Capacity is tight for both the 3.0 and 1.0 broadcasts, and broadcasters are aggressively using video compression to make it all work. L-r: E.W. Scripps’ Kerry Oslund, Pearl TV’s Anne Schelle, Fincons Group’s Francesco Moretti and ATSC’s Madeleine Noland (Alyssa Wesley photo).

The Pearl TV coalition today announced two steps it is taking to help TV broadcasters realize more of the monetization potential of ATSC 3.0 — one related to advertising and the other aimed at increasing the number of TV viewers who can watch NextGen TV.

WSET, WDBJ, WWCW, WSLS and WZBJ are now broadcasting with ATSC 3.0 technology.

WBKI, WDRB, WAVE, WHAS and WBNA are available now in ATSC 3.0. They will be joined by WKMJ next week.

Pearl TV and iWedia have launched a fast-track program that adds new ATSC 3.0 A/344 interactive features and streamlines the adoption of NextTV by Android TV device makers.

Leaders from E.W. Scripps, ATSC, the Pearl Group and Fincons Group will look at how station groups will balance content, marketing, tech and revenue needs for both their NextGen TV and OTT platforms in a panel at TVNewsCheck’s TV2025: Monetizing the Future conference at the NAB New York Show on Oct. 19. Register here.