For nearly a century, over-the-air television has served as a cornerstone of public service, delivering essential news, cultural programming, and emergency information to millions. However, today's evolving media landscape presents challenges to this legacy infrastructure, as it increasingly diverges from modern consumption habits and technological capabilities.

Traditional broadcasting operates on a fixed, high-power model that consumes identical spectrum and energy resources regardless of actual viewership. This established system faces structural limitations in an era that increasingly prioritizes personalization, interactivity, and spectrum flexibility.

Audience preferences have shifted toward streaming platforms offering convenience, customization, and on-demand access—features that traditional broadcasting has difficulty providing. This represents a substantive change in how viewers wish to engage with content.

The geographic coverage that defined broadcasting's initial value now reveals certain constraints: households receive identical linear feeds regardless of individual interests or schedules. In the context of digital personalization, this standardized approach affects traditional television's relevance and impact.

To maintain its essential role, broadcasting requires evolution—not by departing from its foundational principles of universal service and public interest, but by adapting them to a flexible, intelligent, digital-first framework.

The Public Airwaves
The electromagnetic spectrum is a finite public asset, with broadcasters operating under a social contract to use it responsibly. When Congress established the Federal Communications Commission in 1934, it codified the principle that airwaves belong to the public, with licenses granted to serve the "public interest, convenience, and necessity."

In 2025, this obligation encompasses equitable information access, resilient crisis infrastructure, educational opportunities, and digital inclusion. The current broadcast model presents challenges in optimizing these goals. Fulfilling its mandate requires broadcasting to become more adaptive and collaborative—capable of integration with digital networks, supporting national connectivity initiatives, and maintaining operations during emergencies.

A Different New Media
Smartcasting integrates over-the-air transmission with broadband connectivity, reconfiguring traditional broadcasting as a dynamic system responsive to both audience needs and infrastructure requirements.

Three key innovations define Smartcasting:
1. Dual-Mode Content Delivery
Rather than positioning broadcasting and streaming as separate approaches, Smartcasting integrates them into a unified system. Content is distributed via the most appropriate channel—over-the-air or broadband—based on real-time demand, device capabilities, and network conditions.

Major events such as national emergencies, elections, or popular sports represent appropriate applications for traditional broadcasting, which delivers content to many viewers simultaneously without placing excessive demands on internet infrastructure. Specialized programming and targeted services utilize broadband, conserving spectrum while enabling personalized experiences.

This integrated approach makes delivery methods transparent to users. Whether content arrives via antenna or IP stream, viewers interact through a consistent interface. Smartcasting adapts television into a platform that selects efficient delivery paths based on viewing context.

2. Intelligent Spectrum Management
Smartcasting replaces static broadcasting with a data-informed approach. Using analytics, AI algorithms, and audience measurement, it adjusts power levels, channel usage, and delivery modes throughout the day.

Standard broadcast power ensures appropriate reach during peak hours. During off-peak periods, the system can modify transmission parameters, shift programming to broadband, or temporarily repurpose spectrum for community services such as rural internet access.

Live, critical content receives priority, while pre-recorded and time-shifted programming adapts to audience behavior and spectrum availability. This approach enhances efficiency while supporting broader digital infrastructure objectives, including 5G deployment and rural broadband expansion.

3. Datacasting to the Edge
Smartcasting employs datacasting to decouple content delivery from real-time viewing. During overnight hours when demand is reduced, it can transmit 80% content libraries to compatible devices.

This locally cached content becomes available on-demand without requiring real-time transmission or increasing demand on broadband networks. This approach presents significant opportunities: a substantial percentage of non-live programming could be delivered overnight, allowing daytime spectrum allocation for internet backhaul, telehealth, or distance learning applications.

Public Resilience and Equity

Smartcasting's technological innovations address several digital challenges:
Repurposing TV Spectrum for People
In underserved areas, broadband deployment faces economic and technical barriers. Smartcasting offers an alternative approach by repurposing broadcast spectrum for broadband services during non-peak hours. Combined with overnight datacasting for non-live content, broadcasters can contribute to national connectivity objectives.

By utilizing existing infrastructure to deliver both television and internet services, Smartcasting helps address digital divide issues—supporting education, telehealth, job training, and civic participation in communities with limited connectivity options.

Crisis Connectivity
During emergencies, electrical grids and cellular networks may become unavailable. Traditional television receivers require power to function. Smartcasting enhances community resilience by broadcasting alerts to battery-powered mobile devices.

Using spectrum-repurposed communication, broadcasters can reach mobile audiences during power and connectivity disruptions. This ensures that important updates, evacuation orders, and emergency instructions remain accessible through commonly available devices.

By extending emergency broadcasts beyond stationary television receivers, Smartcasting provides an additional communication channel—operating independently of the power grid while complementing existing alert systems.

Cultural and Educational Access
As media platforms increasingly implement subscription models, Smartcasting ensures educational and cultural programming remains accessible. Using compression technologies and overnight datacasting, broadcasters can deliver 4K and even 8K content to viewers without requiring broadband access, significant financial resources, or subscription fees.

This approach to universal access fulfills public broadcasting's established mission while adapting it for contemporary digital contexts.

Efficiency and Sustainability
Traditional high-power transmission requires substantial energy resources. Smartcasting reduces consumption through dynamic power scaling, adaptive delivery, and datacasting—decreasing broadcasters' environmental impact while reducing operational costs without compromising service quality.

Technology Integration
Smartcasting implementation requires integration of several technologies. Distribution systems evaluate viewer behavior, device capabilities, and network performance to determine appropriate content delivery pathways, ensuring reliability and responsiveness.

Supporting this model is edge caching and datacasting infrastructure that preloads content during off-peak hours, reducing congestion while ensuring access to important programming such as public health messages and educational materials.

The NextGen TV standard (ATSC 3.0) provides the technical foundation for hybrid broadcast-broadband functionality, with IP-based compatibility that integrates television into the broader digital ecosystem. These technologies have been deployed in pilot markets, demonstrating their feasibility and scalability.

Implementing Smartcasting requires coordination among stakeholders, targeted investment, and appropriate regulatory frameworks to realize its potential benefits.

Industry Collaboration
Developing Smartcasting requires participation from broadcasters, device manufacturers, regulators, and public-interest organizations.

Broadcasters must adapt operations and invest in infrastructure supporting dual delivery across airwaves and broadband. This requires adoption of new technical capabilities and reconsideration of their role as content providers within a converged digital environment.

Device manufacturers can help ensure consumer hardware—televisions, smartphones, tablets, and set-top boxes—supports Smartcasting with appropriate technical capabilities, particularly in areas with limited connectivity.

Regulators have the complex task to review licensing models to accommodate flexible, hybrid spectrum use. Updated frameworks should promote efficiency, enable spectrum-sharing, and address the needs of underserved communities, while maintaining transparency, accountability, and appropriate oversight.

Public-interest organizations serve as important advocates to ensure Smartcasting supports inclusion, accessibility, and equity goals. These groups can provide input, monitor implementation, and collaborate on applications serving diverse public needs.

Smartcasting's effectiveness depends on technology implementation and a coordinated approach to broadcasting as a public resource that connects innovation with established public service principles.

Conclusion: Serving Society at Scale
Smartcasting represents an evolution of television broadcasting that builds upon the digital transition. By connecting over-the-air infrastructure with broadband, digital intelligence, and spectrum management, it adapts television to function as a flexible, inclusive, and resilient public platform.

This approach extends beyond technical modifications—it represents a systematic adaptation recognizing that media must respond to both consumer preferences and broader societal requirements: information access, emergency communication, environmental responsibility, and cultural preservation.

In our changing media landscape, Smartcasting reinforces the principle that public airwaves should serve the public interest. As audience expectations, industry capabilities, and technology continue to develop, Smartcasting offers a framework for the future—one where television maintains relevance, resilience, and accessibility, aligned with the requirements of our digital society.

Media leaders have put IP-based media distribution at the top of their agenda to tap into new audiences and provide rich content experiences. In doing so, embracing cutting-edge technologies like IP enables them to future-proof their business amid various challenges and complexities, such as financial uncertainty, rising costs, and increased competition. 

Moving to an IP-first model makes sense from both a business and a technology standpoint. Decision-makers must take action now to reap the rewards of being able to drive scale and ROI to optimize their balance sheets. 

Why IP is the answer
The ride of internet-based delivery of high-value content has arrived loud and clear. Content owners have experimented with open internet protocols for years to bring to television audiences mid to lower-tier live events. This has now changed. Today, they can unleash the potential of a fully managed, monitored, and proprietary IP network approach. IP is now the primary path for distributing high-value live events and full-time channels.

By embracing an IP-first approach, media companies are mitigating the ‘risk factor’ that normally comes with new and emerging technologies. The biggest media companies worldwide benefit from an ultra-reliable, broadcast-grade alternative to traditional models that offers greater business intelligence and new levels of productivity, flexibility, and scale.

Staying relevant in today’s fast-paced landscape
We are in the midst of the most dynamic period in media storytelling. To be successful, media brands (no matter how big or small) need to make bold decisions about their technology and lay the foundations for stable growth in a fragmented market. 

The fast-paced environment is a result of rapid-evolving technologies and consumer demands. Consumers now have a greater choice about how they consume content and on which platform. This means media brands must move faster than before to gain and retain viewers while maximizing monetization. 

Migrating to IP solves the challenge of ever-evolving consumer demands. Media businesses can efficiently capture multiple revenue streams and build new service offerings across over-the-top (OTT), digital, and free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) platforms. 

Scaling up your business like never before
Enabling regionalization and customization at scale is pivotal to capturing new audiences while, at the same time, deepening engagement with hyper-localized programming. An IP-powered, multicast-enabled transport model provides the infrastructure for media companies to tailor their content while minimizing costs and complexity.

Rights holders and broadcasters embrace IP distribution and cloud-enabled versioning to scale their content across multiple platforms easily. In doing so, they can successfully squeeze maximum value from content investments while providing language-specific, curated live event experiences to serve global streaming audiences.

Defining the future today
IP-based production and video transport technologies are unleashing innovation and media business leaders are acting fast to ensure they get ahead of the curve. The transition to IP heralds new opportunities for media companies to capture new audiences like never before. IP delivers more innovation, increases ROI, and generates new revenue driving new business models.

We have only just scratched the surface of IP’s  potential, smashing through ceilings that we never thought possible before. The transition to IP is well underway and the media companies that choose to act on it now will have the lever to reap its rewards and transform their future.       

The COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped our world, dramatically changing people’s daily lives across the globe. We have gone from collaborating with business colleagues in an open office space, hanging out with friends and family and enjoying entertainment in public venues to first being isolated at home and then adhering to social distancing rules in an incredibly short span of time.

A few months down the road, many industries, including the broadcasting sector, have felt the effects of lockdown and social distancing measures. While live sports and events have been put on hold, video consumption of news and entertainment skyrocketed. More people are spending time at home watching TV; either to listen to the latest news and updates on COVID-19 or being entertained. This has created a challenge for broadcasters, pay-TV operators and content owners to deliver content in the most reliable and cost-effective way possible, while coping with the sudden surge in demand for content. 

Thanks to satellite and IP distribution technologies, broadcasters have been able to provide timely information to the population during the COVID-19 crisis. Several key trends have emerged within the media market during this time, as well as real-world examples of broadcasters leveraging IP and satellite to communicate critical live news and entertainment to the world.

PAY-TV TRENDS DURING COVID-19

During the pandemic, we’ve seen that content and connectivity continue to be essential, maybe even more so. Perhaps one of the first and most evident positive impacts we have witnessed was the sharp increase in viewership of TV news as a reliable source for up-to-date national and regional insights. 

Omdia research found that the U.K.’s BBC One ”Six O’Clock News” bulletin averaged 6.43 million viewers across April 2020, up more than 54% on the 4.17 million average for April 2019. Viewing uptake included young audiences, which is particularly relevant. 

Similarly, Comcast data shows that there has been a 64% increase in consumption of news programming since the start of COVID-19. Comcast also reported that linear TV consumption has increased by four hours to 64 hours per week, video-on-demand usage has hit record highs, video game downloads are up 50% overall and streaming and web video consumption has increased 38%.

A VAB report found that television viewing during the pandemic increased substantially for younger audiences, with teenagers having the biggest increase in viewing. Teens ages 12-17 spent 175% more time watching TV from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. in March 2020 than they did during the prior month, while adults ages 35-49 increased their habits by 42% during the same time period. Live local news, in particular, has been a huge draw for younger viewers during the pandemic. Nielsen found that in the U.S., local news experienced a 20% viewership increase of persons aged 2-17 and a spike of more than 10% for viewers aged 25-54.

Global research firm Analysys Mason anticipates that consumers will generally retain traditional pay-TV services throughout the pandemic due to the growing importance of in-home entertainment.  

While there has been concern that the loss of live sports content may contribute to an increase in churn, so far this does not seem to be the case. Perhaps that’s in part because pay-TV providers have been filling their channels with key matches and “best of” sports shows in place of live sports content. As we start to return to live sports around the world, fan interest is at a peak. 

We’ve also witnessed the continued growth of online video platforms that have a global reach. For example, Telefónica reported an 8% increase in the number of accesses to its OTT service and a 14% increase in viewing time in early March 2020. 

SATELLITE AND IP BECOME EVEN MORE CRITICAL

During the pandemic there has also been a surge in video streaming from pure OTT players such as Netflix and YouTube. This, combined with people working from home, has placed a significant strain on network infrastructure across the world. OTT providers have had to stream in SD instead of HD during certain times of the day (i.e., peak viewing) and in certain regions to reduce network congestion. For instance, Netflix reduced the bitrates across all streams for 30 days in Europe in order to lessen the impact of Netflix traffic on European networks. 

Throughout the pandemic, broadcasters have understood that there are multiple audiences in each home and have been very effective in using a combination of satellite and IP to deliver critical information and content to the masses in real-time with high quality and reliability, regardless of spikes in viewership. Leveraging the wide technical reach of satellites and IP connectivity solutions like SES’s OU Flex, pay-TV operators and broadcasters can produce and deliver TV offerings in areas of the world where broadband infrastructure is limited. These technologies have proven to be imperative in helping media organizations relay important news information during the COVID-19 outbreak, ensuring that the news flow goes on uninterrupted.

TECHNOLOGY PERSEVERES DURING THE LOCKDOWN

During this unprecedented time, satellite has been a rock of stability, ensuring business continuity for broadcasters, pay-TV operators and content owners so that they can remain a reliable source of news and entertainment for audiences worldwide.

A great example is seen with BBC World News’ use of the SES Astra satellite at 19.2 degrees East for broadcasting news across Europe. Since the beginning of the year, the footprint of BBC World News has grown steadily from being available in 465 million homes worldwide to over half a billion homes. The demand for linear TV, especially news programs, is on the rise, and relying on satellite, BBC was able to efficiently and cost-effectively respond to the demand for accurate news and information.

IP connectivity also helped facilitate the delivery of news and TV. German public broadcaster SWR was able to deliver a two-hour live broadcast from the Bavarian mountains, amid the COVID-19 global health crisis. SWR used SES’ OU Flex solution to ensure IP connectivity for Skype and VoIP calls made during the live broadcast, which was produced by Steiwer TV. 

These next-generation distribution technologies are helping to deliver more than just news and entertainment, they have also helped to bring people across the world together. For example, March 26 was officially marked “Asteroid Day,” the United Nations’ day of global awareness and education about asteroids. This year, major players in the space, communications and broadcasting industry held a virtual town hall meeting with astronauts, scientists and celebrities to discuss ways of coping with living in self-isolation and quarantine. The intent was to send a message of hope, trust in science and mutual encouragement for everyone currently faced with the challenges of the COVID-19 crisis. Broadcasters and direct-to-home satellite users were able to pick up the live broadcast from SES’s Astra 1M satellite to share this important message worldwide. 

CONCLUSION

COVID-19 has had a considerable impact on society and markets across the globe. As we optimistically look to the future and anticipate the new normal, one constant in our industry has been how broadcasters, pay-TV operators and content owners continue to deliver TV leveraging satellite and IP. In our unique position at SES as the leading content connectivity provider, we are humbled to be able to support the uninterrupted broadcasting of news, bring entertainment programming to the masses, and be part of initiatives that connect people during this extraordinary time. 

Deepak Mathur is executive vice president, Global Sales at SES Video.  

SEATTLE—Teleprompting has come a long way since the half silvered mirror allowed scripts to be scrolled in front of the camera lens, unseen by the viewers at home. Today, the influx of mobile devices connected via IP has greatly expanded options and capabilities for any newscaster (or politician).

NO MORE CONVERTING

The new standard for IP video transport prompted Cuescript to roll out the CSMV2, a prompting system based on the SMPTE-2110 protocol, according to Michael Accardi, president of the company.

“With this solution, I don’t need a single adapter cable, I don’t need a single up converter, down converter, all that expense, all those failure points,” he said. “We’ve easily been working on that five years, because SMPTE hadn’t actually decided on a standard until recently.”

Not everybody needs to dive in head first to a total IP prompting solution, however.

“There are now some applications where you say: ‘this IP stuff sounds interesting,’” Accardi added. “But if you’re in an installation that has distribution for composite or HD-SDI, going to an IP solution doesn’t buy you much.”

Accardi says stations can use IP to stay connected between hubs and remote facilities.

“They can connect between the big facility and the little remote facilities via IP, as long as they can see the network,” he said. “They can prompt to that remote facility and it doesn’t cost them anything. It’s such a simple, simple way to do it.

“So we’re actually thinking IP is a hybrid,” he added. “It kind of works with the guys who have coax already, but when they’re doing a remote, that’s all SMPTE 2110 IP.”

READY FOR IP

Robin Brown, product manager for prompters at Autoscript and Autocue with The Vitec Group, agrees that not everybody needs to go full-tilt into IP prompting. “Customers or users who are a little bit apprehensive about going all IP can still use exactly the same workflow that they did before,” he said.

But they want to be ready when a customer wants to deploy IP. Brown said the company began redeveloping its Autoscript products “from soup to nuts” approximately two and a half years ago.

“We’ve completely redeveloped the application, the connection and the mode of data transport,” he said. “So basically, all of the devices now have IP connectivity.”

Brown emphasizes that the new IP-based prompters send data, not video over IP.

“When the script comes in from the newsroom, when we send it to our device which is either in Seattle, or in L.A. or it’s in San Francisco or in London, it gets sent as small data packets,” he said. “The rendering is done in the device itself. So the monitor which the talent is sitting, reading from, we’re not streaming video.

“So you can send very small data packets very quickly, very easily, very simple to configure, and it means you can do prompting anywhere,” Brown added. “And we also do it on an iPad. So rather than just a big studio teleprompter, we can send exactly the same data to an iPad. If you have breaking news and you need a prompter, you can take your iPad with you, stick it on your Wi-Fi network, and the scripts are then scrolled from the main newsroom studio.”

TEAM EFFORT

Chris O’Brien is not only managing partner of Norwood, N.J.-based prompter manufacturer Telescript International, he also owns VIP, a teleprompting service company.

“Because of the relationship between Telescript and VIP,” he said, “we use feedback from VIP operators to help us change and adapt our prompting equipment. We make adjustments for the industry and professional operator based on the feedback we get from them.”

One feature they’ve added for the most complicated prompting jobs is a proprietary messaging system, where operators can send private messages to each other. He cited the example of an Oscars or Emmys program, “where you need multiple operators working the show because it’s so difficult to do,” he said. “There are so many changes. Maybe they’re running out of time. Maybe somebody didn’t show up, which happens.

“So with our messaging system, one operator can send a message that says ‘hey listen, I’ve made an update, or there’s something going on,’ where they can talk to each other. And it allows multiple writers to make changes to scripts and send them to the prompter while it’s still in the Prompt mode. It’s a big deal to allow those instantaneous last minute changes that those shows demand.”

STAYING UP TO DATE

Prompting software needs to stay current with the latest OS it resides on, according to JT Meidl, president of Mirror Image Teleprompters in Oshkosh, Wis. “There’s nothing worse than software that doesn’t work,” he said.

“We deal with a lot of schools and small TV stations as well, and when they make an investment in software, they don’t want it obsolete after a year or so. So it’s important to me that software is updated to the latest operating systems.” (All prompter makers we talked to made a point of staying current to operating systems.)

Meidl pointed to a split of customer opinions when it comes to replacing monitors for teleprompting systems. “On the industrial side, people want HDMI inputs,” he said. “On the professional side, which is basically the TV stations, they’re looking for SDI inputs. And that’s kind of an interesting thing.

“We’re replacing a lot of older LCD panels, which are VGA monitors, with SDI monitors,” Meidl added. “And of course they’re Pro Series, and they have video reverse. People are really enjoying that because they don’t have to worry about the flip boxes to reverse the mirror effect; they’re having the software doing the flip for you.

“It’s a nice monitor upgrade: we’re able to save the mirror, save the hood, save the bracket, save the housing. Just get a better monitor in there.”