CES 2020

For many broadcasters, NextGen TV took up much of last week’s CES show’s oxygen in a series of announcements and presentations. But industry leaders shouldn’t miss what may have been the most tectonic, tangible announcement in Las Vegas: NBCU’s groundbreaking new One Platform, which simplifies the ad buying and selling process across any screen.

A year ago at CES, TiVo demonstrated how popular OTT devices, such as Roku and Apple TV, could let users enjoy access the content on the TiVo DVR in their living room from other rooms in the house, or out of the home. But this week at CES 2020, Ted Malone, VP of products and services for TiVo, conceded that apps for OTT players are nowhere close to being deployed.

Comcast-owned NBCUniversal plans to detail its Peacock streaming video service on Jan. 16. But at CES 2020, an executive described the general strategy behind the content on the video-on-demand service as being like comfort food for viewers. Linda Yaccarino, chairman of ad sales and client partnerships at NBCU, said Peacock will leverage familiar brands, such as The Office, Parks and Recreation and Saturday Night Live, and focus on quality over quantity.

The annual consumer electronics bazaar offered an important stage for fledgling NextGen TV this week, while also allowing varied glimpses at 5G, anticipatory technology and acres of beautiful new screens including the Samsung Sero that shifts from a horizontal to vertical perspective.

In a keynote address Wednesday afternoon, Linda Yaccarino, chairman of advertising and partnerships at NBCUniversal came to CES to talk about how technology is shaping the future of entertainment, but concluded that artificial intelligence won’t be able to replace talent, creativity and storytelling.

At CES, Amazon announced a new Fire TV Edition, able to power soundbars and be integrated into cars by late 2020. Amazon said it is partnering with Fiat Chrysler and BMW to bring Fire TV-enabled rear-seat TV sets to those vehicles.

Meg Whitman and Jeffrey Katzenberg took the stage at CES for a keynote about the mobile-first video product they’ve been building.

The 10-year slog taking a new generation of digital television broadcasting from a mere concept to a complete system capable of delivering IP-based video and other services to receivers in the U.S. homes is ending as 20 NextGen TV receivers are debuting this week at CES — effectively closing the loop in the ATSC 3.0 ecosystem that long concerned broadcasters and fueled naysayers.

Apple made its first formal appearance at the Consumer Electronics Show since 1992 Tuesday. Apple’s senior director of privacy Jane Horvath joined a “Chief Privacy Officer Roundtable” discussion to talk the state of user privacy, Apple’s privacy standards, and more.

The introductions by LG Electronics, Samsung and Sony mirror the initial nationwide rollout of NextGen TV service, powered by the ATSC 3.0 broadcasting standard, planned for more than 60 markets across the U.S.

LG Electronics announced Monday that it will offer six premium OLED TV models supporting ATSC 3.0 in 2020, ranging in size from 55 to 88 inches. The announcement, made the day before the official opening of CES 2020, answers the question in the minds of many industry observers about whether 3.0 consumer receivers would actually make it to market in the United States, and offers one more indication for broadcasters that a voluntary transition to NextGen TV will actually be able to seen by viewers.

Set makers including Samsung and LG will support the mode, developed to disable motion smoothing and display movies in the way the filmmakers intended.

Amazon made a series of moves at CES in Las Vegas, most notably announcing deals to get its Fire TV software built into more televisions, soundbars and even the back seats of cars.

The annual consumer tech showcase will be awash in shiny gadgets, but it’s what those products tell us about the future that matters most.

With NextGen TV set to take the mainstage at CES, Synamedia joins the largest industry test bed for ATSC 3.0 services.

Project OAR, the consortium working to standardize addressable advertising, will demonstrate its linear dynamic ad insertion technology on smart TVs at the Consumer Electronics Show this week. This is the first update from the group, which was founded in March with the goal of developing and deploying a new open standard for delivering ads to individual households on smart TVs, which is known as addressable advertising.

The CES tech show in Las Vegas aims to offer some answers, many of which boil down to more streaming and more efforts to glue you to your phone. The show’s keynote addresses, once dominated by computer and chip makers, will this year feature executives from TV networks NBC and CBS and upstart video services like mobile-focused Quibi and free streamer Tubi. Topic one will be the streaming wars.

Next week’s CES in Las Vegas will once again take over the Strip with a sprawling, frenetic glimpse into tomorrow’s consumer technology. This time, NextGen TV will make its show floor debut, and hopes are high consumers will notice.