Antennas Direct President and CEO Richard Schneider sat down at CES 2023 with Madeleine Noland, President, Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC), to discuss NEXTGEN TV. The big topic on the table: what progress has been made and what are the key features available with NEXTGEN TV? Join us as we dive deeper into over-the-air TV and what NEXTGEN TV has to offer. See Richard’s review of NEXTGEN TV developments at CES and his interview with Madeleine, here.
What is NEXTGEN TV?
NEXTGEN TV (powered by the ATSC 3.0 transmission system) is the latest version of over-the-air antenna TV and offers better reception, up to 4K Ultra HDTV video, with movie theater-quality sound, more channels, mobile viewing on the go, on-demand internet content, and more. The antenna and internet connections provide access to a full range of capabilities of NEXTGEN TV. You can receive NEXTGEN TV without being connected to the internet, or if you’re connected to the internet, NEXTGEN TV will deliver an even better experience that will be enhanced over time. Learn more at watchnextgentv.com.
Exact services – delivered from both over-the-air and over-the-top broadcasters – vary by market.
When will ATSC 3.0 launch?
At the end of 2022, ATSC 3.0 is now on-the-air in more than 60 markets, reaching over half of the U.S. TV audience. Launch dates depend on the broadcasters in each market and how quickly they can reach channel sharing agreements with one another. The smaller and medium markets are easier to deploy because the spectrum is less crowded. The big markets are very challenging (mostly for legal agreements, not the engineering challenges.) Therefore, it’s hard to predict EXACTLY when a market will launch. If a channel sharing agreement gets hung up in just one of the cooperating broadcasters in the market, everything has to wait.
A great resource that shows progress across the USA is the ATSC.org deployments map, which tracks the launch of NEXTGEN TV service by Nielsen market. Cities listed in light blue are considered “next up” to launch NEXTGEN TV service.