HPA Tech Retreat: Can Next Gen TV Make Broadcasters vs. OTT a Fair Fight? Panelists examine the potential of the ATSC 3.0 standard for over-the-air television By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor
Wednesday, February 26, 2020 - 11:11 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
The rise of ATSC 3.0, or Next Gen TV, took center stage on the annual Broadcasters Panel at the HPA Tech Retreat last week. With the promise to enable interactive features, higher-quality picture, better sound, and lower latency, the Next Gen TV standard promises to give over-the-air broadcasters a level playing field with the ever-growing number of OTT streaming services. However, without the government mandate that went along with the transition to digital broadcasting (DTV) in 2009 and with ATSC 3.0 TVs and mobile devices yet to proliferate on the market, Next Gen TV has yet to garner widespread momentum.
Matthew Goldman, Mediakind. Photo: Morningstar Productions
Chaired by Matthew Goldman, SVP, technology, Mediakind and featuring Dave Folsom, consultant, Pearl TV; Richard Friedel, EVP, engineering, operations and technology, Fox Television Stations; Del Parks, EVP/CTO, Sinclair Broadcast Group; and Skip Pizzi, VP, technology education and outreach, NAB, the panel provided an update on the ATSC 3.0/Next Gen TV transition and how the Phoenix Model Market beta program is serving as a test bed for the Next Gen TV ecosystem and examined the role the cloud will play and the business opportunities it could create.
What's the latest on the Next Gen TV transition, and how will it be completed without disrupting the current ATSC 1.0 audience?
Folsom: It's going to take a little bit of legerdemain. The ATSC signal that we have now is occupying the frequencies and channels that are given to us by the FCC. There is a little bit of extra bandwidth there, and, if we can essentially clear one channel at a time of those individual services and move them over and share them on other channels, there will not be any difference to the viewer. Everything will appear the way it did [to the viewer], but it will free up a channel, and that freed-up channel can then carry up to five services at a time in ATSC 3.0/Next Gen TV. [That is] because the new codecs that are available are four to five times more efficient than the current ones. We will be able to fit many services on a single channel. And that will provide the mechanism, on a rolling basis, to clear the space to have alternative services on the air without losing your ATSC 1.0 audience because we have to keep paying the bill as we transition.
Del Parks, Sinclair Broadcast Group. Photo: Morningstar Productions
Why should the industry care about Next Gen TV, and what opportunities will it create for the business?
Parks: Syndicated entertainment television isn't going anywhere. Most of the shows produced now are produced for a streaming service. The linear-TV business is migrating to live broadcasts. The future will be very local and very live [with] sports and news and the local programming. It's just not viable for Hollywood to produce syndicated programs like they used to [for broadcast television].
Pizzi: [Next Gen TV] is something that the internet isn't: OTT is anything but live and local. So broadcasters really are maintaining that service for consumers, who, we believe, will use [Next Gen TV] in addition to the mix of other media services [they have access to]. Now this live/local-focused service can coexist on a more even parity with those [OTT services] - in terms of both quality and interactivity. Next Gen TV gives broadcasters a level playing field to compete going forward.
Richard Friedel, Fox Television Stations. Photo: Morningstar Productions
Friedel: I think people in the [media industry] will care because there are going to be a lot more business opportunities, there's more capacity, we'll have better quality of pictures and sound. These are going to be the things that impact your businesses and impact the creative industry. I think it's a really exciting time for everybody in Hollywood.
Pizzi: Fox did the Super Bowl [in 4K HDR] this year, but it was available only on alternative [streaming] platforms or in special [4K HDR] channels on the MVPDs. We think that will be the last year that that is the case; a UHD version of the Super Bowl will be available to a lot of people in the U.S. and more every year we host thereafter over the air and on unfree TV based on Next Gen TV.
Parks: When you look at the traditional TV business and how our business is going to transform, over-the-air is just one distribution method we have. There's also OTT, and there's mobile. We've always believed that mobile is a really big business for us, especially for Next Gen TV, which we think is a mobile-first [platform]. This standard will allow you to receive pictures where you've never received them before. Even ATSC 1.0 was built around putting an antenna that rose 30 ft. above your house. Over-the-air is a big piece of it, but it's also about how we transform our industry to make our content available across all of the outlets where consumers want to look at our content.
Dave Folsom, Pearl TV. Richard Friedel, Fox Television Stations. Photo: Morningstar Productions
What is the Phoenix Model Market, and how is the program progressing thus far?
Folsom: At first, of course, was the issue of how do you make that happen? We decided at Pearl, which is made up of nine large station-owner groups, to create a model station in Phoenix as an example of how it could be physically done without adding spectrum. When we had the transition from analog to digital, the FCC kindly gave us extra spectrum to take advantage of and allow for the transition. Not so [in this case]. We had to figure out a way of mechanically doing that.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
18/05/2026
Despite a bumpy start to the year, the provider of event-production support and ...
18/05/2026
Daktronics has partnered with the University of North Carolina to manufacture and install 11 LED displays totaling more than 10,000 square feet and more than 14...
18/05/2026
CBS LA has announced a multi-year partnership with the Los Angeles Rams, covering exclusive local broadcasts of Rams preseason games, weekly year-round programm...
18/05/2026
Skyline Communications has announced an integration between its DataMiner xOps p...
18/05/2026
eCLUTCH, the hybrid esports platform powered by iKOMG, has announced an expansion of its distribution across Europe, MENA, Africa, and Asia, along with new cont...
18/05/2026
Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, includ...
18/05/2026
With 22 games this season, the production team looks forward to tweaking and enhancing the coverage
After 8,660 days off the air, the WNBA returned to NBC yest...
18/05/2026
(L-R) Midori Francis and Natalie Erika James attend the Saccharine premiere during the 2026 Sundance Film Festival at The Ray Theatre on January 22, 2026, in ...
18/05/2026
Last night, the Spotify Podcast Awards in Mexico returned to the country's capital. Now in its second year, the evening honors creators whose voices are hel...
18/05/2026
ZEN-Core synth goes mobile
Roland's powerful ZEN-Core software synthesizer has just been introduced to the iPad, offering a convenient entry point into ...
18/05/2026
Versatile new limiter plug-in announced
Based in Sheffield, UK, fedDSP offer a range of plug-ins that span the music production, live sound and high-end med...
18/05/2026
A new use for convolution?
Viiri Audio's debut plug-in aims to do something a little different with convolution processing, allowing users to adjust all...
18/05/2026
Delta Goodrem shines for SBS as more than 3.27 million Australians tune in for E...
18/05/2026
The Australian Defence Force uses L3Harris T4 and T7 robots for explosive ordnan...
18/05/2026
Continued investment across Europe and Germany is expanding local teams and improving access to stock, regional expertise, and specialist broadcast support.
CV...
18/05/2026
18 May 2026
Dubai and New York, May 18, 2026 - VEON Ltd. (NASDAQ: VEON), a glob...
18/05/2026
Monday 18 May 2026
Sky News offers ad-free podcasts and bonus episodes for just...
18/05/2026
Comscore March 2026 Consumer AI Chatbot Usage Rankings Show Claude Gaining Share OpenAI's ChatGPT maintains lead while Anthropic's Claude continues to c...
17/05/2026
Delta Goodrem's Eurovision Eclipse marks end of a stellar run
17 May, 2026
Media releases
Bulgaria wins Eurovision 2026
Relive every spellbinding mome...
17/05/2026
Back to All News
Oasis Premieres on Netflix June 19
Entertainment
17 May 2026
GlobalSpain
Link copied to clipboard
Summer, sunshine, the beach, parties. T...
16/05/2026
Helps to deliver a clean, balanced midrange
Developed alongside Newfangled Audio, the latest plug-in in Eventide's software collection has been designed...
16/05/2026
Brings onboard stem rendering to RANE System One
Engine DJ have just released Engine DJ 5.0, a free update for their Engine DJ OS embedded hardware and Engi...
16/05/2026
Boris FX Continuum Pairs AI Precision and Advanced Creative Controls
Jessie Electa Petrov May 16, 2026
0 Comments
The 2026.5 release adds automatic de...
16/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/05/2026
Seattle Sounders FC and Seattle Reign FC, in partnership with RAVE Foundation an...
15/05/2026
Dan Brumm has served as sound designer on Bluey, the Australian children's t...
15/05/2026
The Professional Audio Manufacturers Alliance (PAMA) and Shure Incorporated are accepting applications for the 6th annual Mark Brunner Professional Audio Schola...
15/05/2026
Netflix has announced an expanded NFL schedule for 2026 and beyond under a four-year partnership extension with the NFL through the 2029-30 season. Each season,...
15/05/2026
Ateme is supporting TVRI (Televisi Republik Indonesia) with a contribution and d...
15/05/2026
Concacaf has announced the launch of a new website and mobile app built on Deltatre's FORGE platform. Concacaf.com and the mobile app, available on iOS and ...
15/05/2026
Eutelsat has announced the launch of QBC Business Economic Channel by Qatar Media Corporation, broadcasting in 4K/UHD via Eutelsat's 7/8 West video neighbo...
15/05/2026
Major League Soccer has announced four original content series timed to the 2026...
15/05/2026
The Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS) has announced it will exhibit and present at InfoComm 2026, taking place June 13-19 at the Las Vegas Convention Cente...
15/05/2026
InfoComm 2026 will take place June 13-19 (exhibits June 17-19) at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The show will include sessions and exhibits covering broadcas...
15/05/2026
Tracy McGrady's Ones Basketball League (OBL) and FuboTV Inc. have announced ...
15/05/2026
Disguise has partnered with Creative Technology (CT) to deliver visual playback ...
15/05/2026
Sony Electronics has announced two new products for professional imaging: the Alpha 7R VI full-frame mirrorless camera and the FE 100-400mm F4.5 GM OSS super-te...
15/05/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
15/05/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...
15/05/2026
For sports organizations, the most valuable assets are often the most sensitive:...
15/05/2026
The NFL's broadcast partners released their 2026 regular season schedules ye...
15/05/2026
Besides drawing on experience with boxing, the production integrates specialty c...
HPA Tech Retreat: Can Next Gen TV Make Broadcasters vs. OTT a Fair Fight? Panelists examine the potential of the ATSC 3.0 standard for over-the-air television By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor 
