Northwest Broadcasting Joins 3.0 Group

Northwest Broadcasting on Wednesday agreed to join the consortium comprising Nexstar Media Group, Sinclair Broadcast Group and Univision Local Media that will promote spectrum aggregation, innovation and monetization while aiming to enhance their abilities to compete in wireless data transmission. 

Northwest is the first affiliate member of the consortium, which has agreed to collaborate on a non-exclusive basis and continues to welcome the inclusion of other television broadcasting entities.

Northwest owns and operates 12 television stations in six states: California, Idaho, Mississippi, New York, Oregon and Washington. 

Together, the four broadcasters that are party to the consortium reach approximately 90% of the U.S. 

The consortium says it “will promote innovation and develop and explore products and services associated with ATSC 3.0 and monetization opportunities such as spectrum utilization, virtual MVPD platforms, multicast channels, automotive applications, single frequency networks and wireless data applications, among others.”

Chris Ripley, Sinclair president-CEO, said: “On behalf of Sinclair, Nexstar and Univision, we are excited as we gain momentum in growing the list of broadcasters partnering in the consortium through the addition of Northwest. We invite other broadcasters to join us as we continue to advance the Next Generation Broadcast Standard for our industry.”

Brian Brady, CEO of Northwest, added: “The consortium will provide broadcasters the ability to control their future rather than having it dictated by others.  We are excited to be at the table with the industry’s leading broadcasters as we collaboratively reimagine that future.”