WASHINGTON—A new national study of over-the-air television viewers finds strong interest in an affordable NextGen TV converter box, with 81% of respondents saying they would purchase a converter box to maintain access to their free local broadcast TV stations.

The findings are from a new survey commissioned by Pearl TV that was conducted in January 2026 by Magid among 600 adults ages 25–64 who use an antenna on at least one television in their home and at least two hours per week.

The survey was conducted as the TV station groups backing Pearl TV are ramping up efforts to bring more affordable TV converter boxes to the market. Pearl TV is currently working with several manufacturers to develop a range of low-cost NextGen TV converter boxes, including ADTH, Bitrouter, Skyworth, and Zinwell. Also involved with the converter box project is TV viewing data expert Titan TV, which is consulting on best practices for presentation of program guide data.

The new research indicates that the antenna audience is not only loyal — it is evolving and growing with a new generation of multi-platform viewers.

“This research confirms that over-the-air viewers are diverse, modern and highly engaged,” said Anne Schelle, managing director of Pearl TV. “Local broadcasting is not being replaced — it’s being integrated into broader viewing habits. A converter option ensures these growing audiences can continue receiving trustedlocal news, sports and emergency information as broadcast technology evolves.”

The study did not provide estimates of the total percentage of TV homes that use antennas but in early 2024 Nielsen estimated that about 18% of TV homes have at least one TV that is capable of receiving over-the-air broadcasts.

While all respondents to the survey watch local channels via antenna, nearly two-thirds also subscribe to streaming services, and many use cable or virtual platforms as well. Rather than replacing local broadcast channels, these services are complementing it, the researchers said.

The result is a rising segment of what Pearl TV calls “Omni-Viewers” — consumers who intentionally combine free local broadcasting with digital and subscription platforms.

“This report highlights the evolution of the American consumer and the local television landscape, “ explained Bill Hague, executive vice president at Magid. “We have been researching the benefits of NextGen TV with U.S. consumers with Pearl TV for more than 10 years and one key finding of this study is that the younger end of the adult 25–64-year-old sample was most interested in the converter box.”

The survey also highlighted strong interest in local programming with these findings:

• 92% say they would miss their antenna access if it were no longer available.
• 70% rely on local TV stations for news.
• Nearly two-thirds depend on local TV weathercasts.
• Half watch local sports and national newscasts via an antenna to tune to local TV broadcasters.
• Antenna households span all ages and income levels. The converter box concept shows particularly strong appeal among adults 25–44, those with families, and with higher-income households — demonstrating that over-the-air television is not a legacy-only platform but rather one embraced by digitally fluent consumers who value both flexibility and reliability.
• Viewers cite financial accessibility, access to local news and emergency information, and live sports as primary reasons they value broadcast television.

In terms of interest in NextGen TV converter boxes, the survey found:

• 81% would purchase a converter box.
• 64% would select a low-cost box to maintain access to local channels, which reflects a practical willingness to invest in maintain free local TV service.
• 14% said they were purchase a NextGen TV-capable TV to maintain access.
• 86% (net) would purchase either a TV or a box.
• 18% would go without access to local TV.

Top motivations for purchase of a converter box included the fact that it was a one-time purchase with no monthly fees; it works with current TV and antenna setup; and it provides reliable reception, even when internet service is unavailable.

A summary of the study is available here.

LAS VEGAS—The challenge of attending CES is its size. The convention utilizes all of the enormous Las Vegas Convention Center as well as several other facilities, so often getting from one vendor appointment to another is an exercise in logistics and physical endurance. This was not as much of a problem for me this year as I was focused on what was happening in ATSC 3.0 (aka NextGen TV).

Not that CES wasn’t enormous—it certainly was—but the ATSC booth was located in the new Grand Lobby of the LVCC and that seemed to be where all of the NextGen TV information was. While I didn’t see every vendor at the show, I cannot recall seeing an ATSC 3.0 or NextGen TV reference anywhere on the various floors.

I spent time listening to presentations about the latest and greatest television displays. My consistent question after the presentation was the same: “Does this set include a NextGen TV receiver?” To their credit, I didn’t have anyone say “no,” but I also didn’t hear anyone say “yes”—mostly because I think they didn’t know what I was asking for. The one exception was Sony, which doesn’t even exhibit televisions as a product at CES anymore; they knew the vast majority of their sets are NextGen TV-ready. So after a long day on the floor I went back to the ATSC booth and found out the latest.

The Quest for Cheap Converter Boxes
The biggest news is the work that Pearl TV is doing with its partners iWedia and Skyworth on the creation of a low-cost, plain “vanilla” converter box—think of the coupon-eligible converter boxes of the original DTV conversion two decades ago. Anne Schelle, Managing Director of Pearl TV, says that by creating a model with tailored specifications, it qualifies the units for discount pricing from the IP owners and the chip set manufacturers.

I say “plain vanilla,” but in truth, the final specifications are still being worked out and it is a bit of a balancing act. The idea is to bring the box to market at $60 or less, which presents some interesting challenges. According to Miguel Rivera, Skyworth’s Director of Business Development for North America, the explosion of AI infrastructure has created a supply chain issue on components such as DDR memory chips.

So there are still details to be worked out and according to both Schelle and Rivera they are analyzing what consumers really need and want to get the best trade off of features for price.

Understanding what consumers want is critical for the success of the project. Pearl is working with Magid Associates to analyze consumer data to help ensure that this device ticks the right boxes. Ultimately what will be delivered is a converter box with an antenna input and an HDMI output that will allow any display to present NextGen TV to the viewer.

Target: 50K Boxes for Retails By the End of 2026
One area where this converter box will outperform the original DTV converter boxes is that there are already many successful implementations of ATSC 3.0 tuners in the market so much of the refinement has already been accomplished.

Additionally, Skyworth and their software partner iWedia already have considerable experience since Skyworth is providing the tuners for TV 3.0 in Brazil and Mexico as well as being licensed to provide the receivers for televisions marketed under the Panasonic and Phillips brands. This level of experience should ensure that these new converters function properly.

According to Rivera and Zivko Radonjic, business development manager for iWedia, this CES was technically the first demonstration of a prototype for the project. The target is to have a working demo by the end of the summer when the complete list of specifications is better defined and an initial run of approximately 50,000 units by year end. Schelle expects that promotion of NextGen TV and the units will begin around that same time frame. Of course all of this is dependent on supply chain stability.

I asked Schelle what metric Pearl would use to measure the success of the venture. She offered that success would be “incremental.” Pearl’s belief is that by delivering a working model of an affordable converter, other manufacturers would step up to the plate and deliver similar units under their own branding.

Several times during the conversation, the need to sunset ATSC 1.0 was mentioned so I asked what Pearl would see as the best 1.0 sunset rulemaking. Robert Folliard, Gray Television’s senior vice president of government relations and distribution, offered that broadcasters need a hard date from the FCC as soon as they are comfortable. Neither Schelle nor Folliard believe that maintaining the current status was tenable for much longer.

Given that Pearl was using the DTV CECB (coupon-eligible converter box) model to develop this new device, I asked if they were considering presenting this program to Congress to generate support similar to the coupon program. While the answer wasn’t immediate, it was “yes,” but only as an idea and it wouldn’t be the deciding factor on whether or not to proceed.

A ‘Soft’ Market for NextGen TV
When asked about how satisfied she is with how the consumer electronics manufacturers are approaching NextGen TV, Schelle admitted that the market is certainly soft and that the business model has changed. Folliard also spoke about how set manufacturers have created their own walled gardens and are hoping to get broadcasters to pay to be discoverable within their Home Screen environment.

I postulated that I wouldn’t be surprised if the large manufacturers didn’t adopt the cellular model and give away televisions if the consumer signs up for a multi-year subscription plan. Schelle said he was happy to hear that, since they had been having similar discussions.

While the affordable converter box was the most interesting ATSC 3.0 development I looked at, I have to give an honorable mention to Zapper Mini. One of the challenges that I see to any renaissance of OTA television is the idea that every set in the house has to have an antenna cable drop.

The Mini uses a regular Zapperbox as a gateway and then uses WiFi or Ethernet to connect Mini’s to the gateway. You can put these on every television in the house with the gateway connected to a single antenna. It is an interesting technology that I am looking forward to trying in my home.

WEITERSTADT, Germany—LYNX Technik, provider of modular signal processing interfaces, has announced the addition of a new HDMI to SDI converter (model: CHD 1402) to its popular yellobrik line.

The CHD 1402 is designed for any AV, broadcast, production, or post application that requires signal conversion from up to 4K HDMI to up to 12G SDI. It is the successor of the popular CHD 1802, which supports up to 3G SDI, the company said. 

A typical use case would be when a facility needs to convert an HDMI output from an external source, such as a video camera, into an SDI format. All audio present in the HDMI stream is passed transparently. With the SDI fiber output and SFP transmitter options, the SDI signal can then be transmitted over fiber to a remote location. In addition, a complementary yellobrik, the CDH 1411 SDI to HDMI converter could be used to provide the SDI output and an HDMI monitoring output in the remote location, including displaying audio, metadata, and timecode overlays, the company explained. 

As with all yellobriks, the new CHD 1402 is compatible with the yelloGUI and LynxCentraal central software applications. When connected to the software, additional internal settings and functions can be accessed and controlled. The CDH 1402 is rack-mountable, it can be used as a standalone module, or in larger yellobrik system applications.

This new yellobrik converter is now available.

More information is available at www.lynx-technik.com,

NANJING, China—Magewell today began shipping two new Pro Convert IP standalone encoders: the Pro Convert HDMI 4K Plus and a 1080p HD counterpart.

The encoders, which use NewTek’s NDI technology allow users to add traditional HDMI video signals into live, IP-based productions. The Pro Convert HDMI 4K Plus transforms sources up to 4K Ultra HD at 60 frames per second via an HDMI 2.0 input interface. The new Pro Convert HDMI Plus encodes HDMI source signals into full-bandwidth NDI streams up to 1080p60 HD. It can also accept a 4Kp60 HDMI input signal and downconvert it automatically to HD for encoding.

A third model is scheduled to ship in early 2019. Called the Pro Convert SDI 4K Plus, the new model converts 6G-SDI signals to 4K 30fps NDI streams.

All Pro Convert models are low latency and plug-and-play. They automatically detect the format of input signals and rely on DHCP-based network configuration, eliminating the need for manual setup. Greater control of the conversion process and device features is available through an intuitive browser-based interface. It provides access to status monitoring, advanced settings and FPGA-based video processing including up/down/cross-conversion, de-interlacing and image adjustments.

Magewell will exhibit at ISE 2019, Feb. 5-8, in Amsterdam.

More information is available on the Magewell website.

NEW YORK—Based off of its AmberFin technology, Dalet Digital Media Systems teamed with Microsoft with the development of the Dalet xN Standards Converter. This newly launched platform brings motion-compensated frame-rate conversion to the cloud, allowing it to serve as a file-based standards conversion tool.

Offering on-demand format and frame rate conversion, the xN Standards Converter identifies the configuration and outputs the final video product in the highest quality possible, according to Dalet’s press release. Features include a user interface for preparing, triggering and monitoring the conversion process; ability to handle multiple transcode projects simultaneously; flexible cloud-based services to upload and download content anywhere; and working as an on-demand, pay-per-use model.

The Dalet xN Standards Converter is available through the Microsoft Azure Marketplace.