Sinclair and its ONE Media innovations group announced key deals with Harmon and Korea’s SK Telecom at CES this week to jointly develop and commercialize broadcasting-based automotive technology using the ATSC 3.0 standard. “The whole vehicular space is one that is increasingly connected,” says Sinclair’s Mark Aitken.

Security executives from Tegna Media, Graham Media, KQED San Francisco and Sinclair Broadcast Group will share their list of the 10 best security practices for broadcasters at TVNewsCheck’s annual Cybersecurity for Broadcasters Retreat next month.

Executives from Viacom, Sling TV, Discovery and Group Nine said Wednesday at CES that holding on to audiences in a fragmented video ecosystem comes down to leveraging quality brands and embracing the platform agnosticism that their audiences already follow.

A few years ago, VR products from Samsung, Oculus, HTC and Sony seemed omnipresent and unstoppable at CES. These days, VR is mostly a niche product for gaming and business training, held back by expensive, clunky headsets, a paucity of interesting software and other technological shortcomings.

5G-enabled cloud-based production workflows, live volumetric video and delivery of movies to theaters are some of the developments that Disney’s StudioLab — an R&D unit launched on the Disney lot last year — will aim to make a reality with its new StudioLab Innovation Partner, Verizon.

The group’s planned package of ad-supported channels, including local news and programming, will be available via the Roku and Amazon Fire OTT TV platforms, via apps for Apple and Android smartphones and on the Web.

Signiant’s Megan Cater: Cybersecurity experts have long been warning of FTP’s potential threat to network security, intellectual property and privacy. Most major media enterprises have banned FTP, requiring that all partners use secure accelerated file transfer solutions. Smaller operations should follow their lead.

An NAB-sponsored panel on connected cars made the case that broadcasters must work closely with auto OEMs to shape their future there, while broadcasters’ content is their greatest leverage in the relationship.

Sinclair’s ONE Media and Saankhya Labs introduce the “world’s most advanced” multi-standard demodulator system-on-a-chip in Las Vegas.

The two will fund and manage a joint venture company within the first quarter of this year that would provide ATSC 3.0 standards-based solutions to all U.S. broadcasting companies and seek other opportunities globally.

For the second year in a row, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has pulled out of his appearance at the Consumer Technology Association’s CES in Las Vegas next week. Pai was to have been interviewed in a “Fireside Chat” with CES President Gary Shapiro, which has become something of a tradition. But Pai’s office said the government shutdown — and uncertainty about how long it would last — precipitated the decision.

The Japanese public broadcaster launched the channel with a restored version of seminal sci-fi epic 2001: A Space Odyssey. The ultra-HD format features four times the resolution of 4K, weighing in with a hefty 33 million pixels, as well as 22.2 multichannel sound.

High-tech tools for immigration crackdowns. Fears of smartphone addiction. YouTube algorithms that steer youths into extremism. An experiment in gene-edited babies. Doorbells and concert venues that can pinpoint individual faces and alert police. Repurposing genealogy websites to hunt for crime suspects based on a relative’s DNA. Automated systems that keep tabs of workers’ movements and habits. Electric cars in Shanghai transmitting their every movement to the government. It’s been enough to exhaust even the most imaginative sci-fi visionaries.

TVNewsCheck’s prescient editor, Harry Jessell, asks his infallible Magic 8-Ball to reveal how 2019 will unfold for various aspects of the television business, including core advertising, political advertising, retrans, mergers, FCC ownership caps, Big-4 duopolies and ATSC 3.0. He then expounds on the answers since, while all-knowing, the 8-Ball is notoriously terse.

In 2018, TVNewsCheck reported the deaths of outstanding men and women who shaped television as actors, lawmakers, producers, business people, journalists and on-air personalities. Here’s a look back at some of those influencers.

Twenty-five years ago this month Fox won the rights to broadcast NFL games for $1.6 billion over four years. Besides its personalities, the network has given us the scorebox, audio that brings viewers closer to the game, the one-hour pregame show, and a big production feel for sporting events.