WASHINGTON-ATSC 3.0 (aka NextGen TV)-got off to a flying start early this year, with the first TV sets for U.S. consumers being displayed at CES in January and rollouts across the country set to go like a line of dominoes set in motion.
Then came the pandemic.
We're now halfway through 2020. Has the scramble to maintain some sort of normalcy in TV station day-to-day operations pushed the plan for wide-scale deployment of this new breed of television to the wayside, or is it continuing to track?
There was a slight delay, but it was not a serious delay, said Mark Aitken, senior vice president of advanced technology for Sinclair and president of the company's NextGen TV arm, ONE Media. Things are back in gear now.
The starting gun fired on May 26 with the launch of NextGen TV in Las Vegas with network affiliates owned by Sinclair, Nexstar and Scripps. The stations, Sinclair's KSNV NBC and KVCW CW affiliates, Nexstar's KLAS CBS affiliate and Scripps' KTNV ABC affiliate, are sharing a single 6 MHz channel and transmitting from Sinclair's tower on Black Mountain outside the city.
The launch marked the first full-power, multistation commercial deployment of NextGen TV in the country. BitPath, formerly Spectrum Co., led the planning and coordination efforts to put the stations on air.
On June 16, Sinclair's WPGH (Fox) and WPNT (MyNet) and Hearst's WTAE (ABC) began broadcasting 3.0 in Pittsburgh. Stations in Nashville have also launched NextGen TV, and Aitken said Sinclair stations in Salt Lake City were fully on schedule for rollouts, with more waiting in the wings.
We have a succession of stations lined up to go this year, Aitken said. I think a total of 17 or 18 stations are scheduled to launch. We're tooling along as fast as we can, and we've worked around some of the encumbrances of Covid-19.
GROWING LISTATSC President Madeleine Noland, while acknowledging some slowdown in 3.0 rollout, praised industry efforts in moving the transition as far along as it's gotten already.
I know that some markets-for example, Las Vegas-were going to launch before NAB in order to be up on the air in time for the NAB Show, which, of course, was disrupted by the coronavirus, said Noland. But we're pleased that Las Vegas is now on the air. I've been very impressed with broadcasters' ability to move the ball forward even during this pandemic. I know it's slowed them down and I know it's been hard with the ad revenues [declining], but they're doing it.
Right now, we have seven markets with ATSC 3.0 on the air and we have an additional three markets that have filed for their FCC licenses, and a fourth market which has been announced, but they haven't actually filed for licenses yet. Not counting that last market, one in every seven households in the U.S. is going to have ATSC 3.0 very soon.
Noland reported that work on finetuning of the 3.0 standard and enhancements to it continues within the ATSC organization, with planning teams exploring such areas as automotive applications, intertower communications, new codecs, core network technologies and even companion devices to enhance the television viewing experience via touchscreens.
Sam Matheny, executive vice president and chief technology officer at NAB, also acknowledged the pandemic's impact, but remained upbeat.
Broadcasters remain committed to deployment, but there will be some unavoidable delays due to the coronavirus, said Matheny. Broadcasters are taking steps to minimize these delays, and I think the launch of NextGen TV in Las Vegas is a great example of the commitment to deployment, and we'll see other major deployments this year. I applaud Nexstar, Scripps and Sinclair-who all compete in that market-for their collaboration to launch NextGen TV.
NOT JUST FOR SHOWWith the difficulties in moving installation crews around, getting necessary equipment in place, and other impediments, will deployments this year be just bare bones, akin to lighting up the stereo light on an FM tuner while still transmitting monaural content-or will there be something new and different for those who bring home a NextGen TV set?
Aitken says it's the latter as far as Sinclair is concerned.
We're following our MO' so to speak, he said. In every market that we deploy, we've got a robust channel that's supported by the SL-HDR1 standard. For us, this is very important. If folks want HDR, this is the way we're going to give it to them.
Also, we've been developing and successfully deploying broadcast app extensions. In Las Vegas we have the ability to do notifications in the subpart of the AEA&I [advanced emergency and alerting and informing] part of the signal. This allows us to send additional companion content that uses the A/344 interactive layer, the browsing environment' of the NextGen TV standard. We'll be doing this in every market as deployments advance. People are used to this companion content in the environment of the internet in our OTT services and we're bringing some of this OTT flavor to OTA.
GETTING IT DONE REMOTELYAitken also observed that the Las Vegas rollout was not hampered by travel limitations or other restrictions.
Las Vegas got launched without a single person from the team being directly deployed, he said. We did everything remotely, meaning either literally remotely through IP tunneling into the facility and doing setups, [or] and in some cases instructing the skilled hands of engineers on site.
Joe Turbolski, vice president of sales at Hitachi Kokusai Electric Comark LLC, noted also that putting 3.0 in operation is easily accomplished once the decision is made within a market about carriage of ATSC 1.0 and 3.0 signals.
The actual technology implementation and service turn-on is likely the sim
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
01/12/2025
L3Harris and PentenAmio formalise their teaming agreement at MilCIS 2025, streng...
01/12/2025
Artemis II is NASA's first crewed flight test of the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft. The crew, from left: Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Vic...
01/12/2025
IRVINE, Calif. Wooden Camera has introduced its new Accessory Collection for the Canon EOS C50. The new lineup includes a low-profile, gimbal-ready cage, expand...
01/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has released a tentative agenda for its Dec. 18 Open Commission Meeting that will include a vote on a report an...
01/12/2025
In most years, a graph of annual local TV ad spending is about as predictable as an electrocardiogram of a reasonably healthy patient in a doctor's office. ...
01/12/2025
Many industries have seen big-ticket hardware turn into software. Switchers, though, demand a combination of real-time performance and sheer bandwidth that has ...
01/12/2025
GENEVA Shanghai will host the next quadrennial Radiocommunication Assembly (RA-27) and World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-27), Oct. 11-Nov. 12, 2027. This...
01/12/2025
NEW YORK Just in time for Giving Tuesday tomorrow (Dec. 2), the Broadcasters Foundation of America is seeking out donations to help television and radio industr...
01/12/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Net Insight CEO Crister Fritzson has informed the company's board that he will retire from the video transport and media cloud technology ...
01/12/2025
01 Dec 2025
Kyivstar and Ukrainian Ministry of Digital Transformation Select Go...
01/12/2025
The prequel to the global hit Sky Original mob crime saga, Gomorrah' is a s...
01/12/2025
Featuring Florence Welch, Red Hot Chilli Peppers' Flea, designer Bella Freud...
01/12/2025
Back to All News
A Down to Earth, All Too Relatable Hero: Cashero' Teaser ...
01/12/2025
In the rush to deliver content to every screen, many broadcasters overlook one of the most crucial steps in the workflow: format and frame rate conversion. Get ...
01/12/2025
Fox Corporation Chief Financial Officer Steve Tomsic to Participate in Upcoming ...
01/12/2025
Arvato Systems' Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) Receives BSI C5 Certification (T...
01/12/2025
Summary This short video gives you an summary of the changes in under two minutes.
--...
01/12/2025
As the festive season approaches, RT Supporting the Arts is proud to showcase a...
01/12/2025
Researchers worldwide rely on open-source technologies as the foundation of their work. To equip the community with the latest advancements in digital and physi...
01/12/2025
Festive specials of Christmas in Kilmainham presented by Marty Whelan, High Road Low Road, Callan Kicks the Year and Keys to My Life
Ring in the New Year with ...
01/12/2025
Architect and television presenter Hugh Wallace, best known to RT audiences as a long-serving judge on Home of the Year, has died at the age of 68.
In a state...
28/11/2025
Nadia Fall attends the 2025 Sundance Film Festival premiere of Brides at the Egyptian Theatre on January 24, 2025, in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Donyale West/...
28/11/2025
It's easy to ignore those little red update available badges. But when it ...
28/11/2025
WASHINGTON Federal Communications Commission has released a tentative agenda for the December Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Thursday, December 18, 2025 ...
28/11/2025
The Professional Fighters League is looking to super-serve fans of mixed martial...
28/11/2025
Fubo has released in beta on select Roku devices a new feature that lets users display up to four simultaneous streams at once....
28/11/2025
The WNBA playoffs and Week 4 of the NFL regular season highlight the list of live sports events airing on television this weekend....
28/11/2025
The 32nd class of honorees to the B+C Hall of Fame took to the stage at New York's Ziegfeld Ballroom on September 26 for a gala induction event. Click below...
28/11/2025
We hold in our hands the very last Next Text for Next TV, the weekly back-and-fo...
28/11/2025
DirecTV said it made a deal with EchoStar to buy EchoStar's video businesses, including satellite-TV provider Dish TV and virtual MVPD Sling TV, for $1 plus...
28/11/2025
The Broadcasting+Cable Hall of Fame, the premier industry event paying tribute to the influencers, innovators and shining lights of broadcast, cable and streami...
28/11/2025
Friday 28 November 2025
Sky Sports x Slawn drop limited-edition football jersey...
28/11/2025
Rohde & Schwarz shows resilience in a challenging environment, revenue exceeds t...
28/11/2025
Unwrapped: The Toy Show Appeal - airing this Sunday on RT One and RT Player- s...
27/11/2025
LONDON Vizrt has added several AI-driven advanced features offering improved speed, intelligence and accuracy in the newest version of its media asset managemen...
27/11/2025
Prime Video has launched AI-powered video season recaps in a beta version for select English-language Prime Original series in the U.S., a move Amazon is callin...
27/11/2025
Back to All News
Netflix's Raat Akeli Hai: The Bansal Murders Marks a Grand...
27/11/2025
27 Nov 2025
GSMA brings M360 Eurasia 2026 to Samarkand in partnership with VEON...
27/11/2025
Tahar Rahim and Izuka Hoyle star in the gripping six-part Sky Original from Acad...
27/11/2025
Thursday 27 November 2025
Sky Arts Reveals the Nation's Greatest Basslines - and Queen Reign Supreme
The UK's most iconic basslines have been revealed...
27/11/2025
Back to All News
Stranger Things 5': Prepare for One Last Adventure With O...
27/11/2025
The media industry has a paradox at its core. It's an industry built on light, color and imagination, yet behind the scenes, it's powered by one of the ...
27/11/2025
Rating reflects rating progress across areas including policies, diversity & inclusion, health & safety and Net Zero leadership
Winchester, UK, 27 November 202...
27/11/2025
What are the industry standards for Retail Media? Kathryn explains that certification is based on the IAB Europe Retail Media Measurement Standards and the IAB ...
27/11/2025
World champion boxer and Irish sporting icon Katie Taylor will be in studio this...
27/11/2025
Roblox, one of the world's most popular online gaming platforms for primary ...
27/11/2025
Black Friday is leveling up. Get ready to score one of the biggest deals of the season - 50% off the first three months of a new GeForce NOW Ultimate membership...
26/11/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Prime Video EP Mike Muriano Previews Massive Black Friday Slate Fe...
WASHINGTON-ATSC 3.0 (aka NextGen TV)-got off to a flying start early this year, with the first TV sets for U.S. consumers being displayed at CES in January and rollouts across the country set to go like a line of dominoes set in motion.
