Broadcast app store could bring flood of creativity to ATSC 3.0

With NextGen TV, broadcasters are moving from a one-to-many relationship with viewers, via a TV hanging on the wall, to a one-on-one relationship with them, said Mark Aitken, president of One Media. During a Fireside Chat at TV2025: Monetizing the Future, Aitken held an ATSC 3.0-enabled smartphone the company has developed and suggested the industry would one day create a broadcast app store, similar to those operated by Apple and Android. “The deployments now underway are shaping an understanding that now is the time to open up the innovators paradise, in the form of an app store, to let developers create,” he said. Interviewing Aitken (left) was John Hane, President, Bitpath, who pointed to the consumer and audience  data available with the new broadcast standard.

“How would you compete today if you had no direct data from consumers,” Hane said. “It’s incomprehensible … how do you know how to make programming decisions?”