ATSC 3.0

WSBT, WNDU, WSJV, WNIT and WHME are now broadcasting with ATSC 3.0 technology in South Bend, Ind.

The FCC released late on Friday a Third Report and Order and Fourth Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking resolving many regulatory issues related to the ATSC 3.0 NextGen TV conversion.  Among the issues addressed, was an extension through July 17, 2027, of the rule that required that the lighthouse signal be “substantially similar” to the primary video stream of the ATSC 3.0 signal. That rule had been set to expire this year, but the FCC believed that viewers needed more time to be guaranteed that they can watch the same programming they watch today whether or not they have a TV that can receive the new ATSC 3.0 signal.

As ATSC marked its 40^th anniversary at last week’s conference, conversations resoundingly turned to alternative uses for the NextGen TV spectrum including datacasting and PNT applications.

Sinclair Broadcast Group CEO Chris Ripley and COO Rob Weisbordon on Wednesday said a task force currently being developed by federal regulators and key industry stakeholders will chart a course for the eventual shutdown of broadcast signals using the ATSC 1.0 standard.

Noticeably heavier crowds filled a conference swinging back from the pandemic, while strategic partnerships between vendors signaled a new tack for the industry.

Broadcast executives at the NAB Show in Las Vegas on Tuesday said they are ready to begin delivering datacasting services using the new transmission standard and should see revenues in early 2024.

The commission is also preparing a rulemaking on ATSC 3.0 rules, FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said Monday at NAB Show in Las Vegas.

The company says the platform will support multiple new revenue-producing use cases.

A strategic alliance announced Monday at the NAB Show is designed to address the unique needs of public broadcasters in transitioning to NextGen TV.

Anne Schelle is managing director of the Pearl TV consortium and recipient of TVNewsCheck’s Women in Technology Leadership Award, the publication’s highest honor. She earned it through her tenacity and faith in the ATSC 3.0 standard as broadcasting’s crucial way forward.

Suzana Brady, SVP for worldwide sales and marketing at Cobalt Digital, and one of this year’s TVNewsCheck Women in Technology Futurist Award winners, is herding the broadcast tech industry together through her pivotal role as chair of the Reliable Internet Stream Transport (RIST) Forum.

In conjunction with the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, the program will provide free, over-the-air redundancy to emergency messaging currently sent by local governments via text, email. social media, and other system platforms. The broadcast platform will bring with it the efficiency of instantaneous and simultaneous delivery to all users.

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.

The new tech sends large files simultaneously to 1 million moving targets.

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.

Armed with automation facility, AI and a move to the cloud, compliance monitoring has moved far beyond baseline capabilities and into content repurposing and ad monitoring, among other features. Next up is more audience data via ATSC 3.0 and readying to meet forthcoming OTT compliance needs. Pictured: Nexstar uses the Clip Factory feature of its Actus QA/Compliance system to clip original content back to broadcast.

A little over a year ago, one of the country’s biggest broadcasters made an unexpected transaction: E.W. Scripps, which operates dozens of ABC, NBC and Fox stations as well as a handful of nationwide broadcast networks, quietly bought Nuvyyo, a Canadian startup best known for its Tablo DVR devices for cord-cutters. The acquisition, which hasn’t been previously reported, is part of Scripps’ multibillion-dollar bet on acquiring stations, networks and spectrum for an ATSC 3.0-powered antenna TV future.

As they look to bolster support from the FCC, broadcasters would do well to get behind its Advanced Emergency Information component.

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.

The commission should heed broadcasters’ request to prioritize the ATSC 3.0 standard and launch a task force to concentrate the agency’s resources in getting it unstuck. Broadcasting’s future wellbeing may depend on it.

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.

Non-real-time (NRT) content, which is greatly enhanced by ATSC 3.0, opens up a hybrid business option that lets a broadcaster act like an OTA Netflix and offers yet another path to the industry’s longevity.

Fear not broadcasters: Even if streaming ultimately pushes linear TV over the precipice, your spectrum still has value for datacasting or auction.