NextGen TV To Launch In Greenville, N.C.

In its continued effort to bring digital and educational equity to North Carolinians at large, PBS North Carolina has set the next phase of its NextGen TV rollout, which will bring the new ATSC 3.0 TV standard to the communities in and around Greenville, N.C. This announcement marks the second area of the state to receive NextGen TV broadcasting from PBS North Carolina; last March, the network first launched NextGen TV in the Raleigh-Durham region in a collaborative effort with Capitol Broadcasting Co.

Viewers currently receiving PBS North Carolina on WUNK ch. 25 using an antenna, must rescan their TV on Tuesday, June 29, in order to continue receiving PBS NC’s signal. Due to overlapping broadcast towers, viewers may find PBS NC on ch. 2, WUND Edenton; ch. 4, WUNC Chapel Hill; ch. 19, WUNM Jacksonville; ch. 25, WUNK Greenville; ch. 31, WUNU Lumberton; and/or ch. 39, WUNJ Wilmington.

“The core of public media is that every citizen deserves access to quality information,” says Fred Engel, chief technology officer of PBS North Carolina. “We believe that this revolution will create significant new opportunities to engage North Carolinians at home, and with information relevant to their safety, education and health.”

This new TV standard has the potential to provide expanded services beyond the delivery of program content. Powering public broadcasting with NextGen TV has a multitude of potential expanded services for communities that include:

• Reduction in the amount of time it takes to get 911 dispatch information to firefighters and EMS teams over a wider area.
• Connecting students to remote learning resources and connecting teachers to their students in rural areas.
• Future telehealth capabilities that will provide data delivery to medical facilities and patients with minimal broadband connectivity.

PBS North Carolina is exploring an education and public safety pilot program using NextGen TV technology. It says the program “will bring the educational and security benefits of NextGen TV to 1,000 Greenville families, providing access to the educational and informational benefits of the internet. With positive results in Greenville, PBS North Carolina is prepared to engage public and private partners to provide NextGen TV services to all 100 of North Carolina’s counties with agile public safety and educational programming.”