As part of its mandate, the Advanced Television Systems Committee—the U.S. organization tasked with developing advanced broadcast TV standards—promotes ATSC 3.0 as a global standard. Promoted in the U.S. as “NextGen TV,” 3.0 has been adopted by S. Korea, Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago and is also being tested in India and Canada. In the U.S., approximately 76% of U.S. households are within reach of a 3.0 signal.

One year ago this month, Brazil announced that it was adopting the “physical layer” portion of the standard for its “TV 3.0” advanced TV standard (the physical layer defines how data is transmitted over a 3.0 signal).

The decision to adopt a key part of the 3.0 standard is expected to have a significant impact on global adoption of the standard, as Brazil is not only one of the world’s most populous countries with the largest economy in Latin America, it also has a comparably larger portion of consumers who view TV over the air than in other countries that have adopted 3.0.

The ATSC’s close ties with Brazil was brought into sharper focus recently with the announcement that Luiz Fausto, a former tech executive with Globo TV, Brazil’s largest TV network, will be the new vice president of standards development for the ATSC. Fausto, who was most recently Globo’s technology regulatory specialist, was also technical module chairman of the Sistema Brasileiro de Televisão Digital (SBTVD) Forum, which made the final recommendation to the Brazilian Ministry of Communications that resulted in the adoption of 3.0. Fausto is succeeding Jerry Whitaker, who served in the position for 25 years and is stepping down in August.

Fausto will oversee standards development processes, guide industry adoption and foster relationships with global stakeholders, the ATSC said in its announcement earlier this month.

TV Tech recently spoke with Fausto and ATSC President Madeleine Noland about his new duties. Here is an edited transcript:

TV Tech: Congratulations on your new position, why did you apply?
Luiz Fausto: That's a good question. Well, maybe the best point to consider is that ATSC has a great potential for reaching many countries. I was previously working with the SBTVD Forum, which standardized digital TV for Brazil and for Brazil only. But that doesn't prevent other countries from adopting the same standards, and the SBTVD Forum promotes that.

But the Forum does not have its own representative of other regions or other countries—it's basically focused on Brazil. As we got to know the ATSC 3.0 candidate standard as the most flexible and powerful set of technologies, I personally believe it has the potential to reach many other countries and territories—as it did with Brazil—because the way the system was conceived and designed is an extensible way; it's designed to evolve over time and to accommodate future evolutions. It’s such a flexible toolbox that we can make it fit with the different requirements that different countries may have for the future of digital terrestrial television. So that's what's most exciting about joining ATSC, the opportunity of bringing this evolution to countries other than Brazil.

TVT: You have some big shoes to fill. How will you be able to continue the excellent work done by your predecessor?
LF: I think ATSC has done a very good job in designing a very powerful and very flexible system, and also very efficient in terms of spectrum usage and energy usage, and these things are really important these days.

But the current issue I see with ATSC 3.0 is that many countries consider this to be a standard for the United States and not, for example, a ‘global standard.’ It’s a pity that digital television didn't evolve in such a way that it converged worldwide to a single framework of systems.

So we have different families of systems around the world, but I do believe ATSC has a lot of potential because of the way it was designed. Of course, the system will continue to evolve over time, but I’d like to make this system and its characteristics and features known to different countries, and also to listen to them and understand what are their requirements, so that we can use the flexibility of 3.0 to provide, for example, a tailored solution for them.

TVT: Madeleine, how impressed were you with Luiz? And what does bringing him onboard say about the ATSC’s efforts to promote 3.0 as a global standard?
Madeleine Noland: Luiz was the most qualified candidate, and he has a terrific enthusiasm for what ATSC is. He has a great understanding of how standards development is done and how the international standards development community operates. He's already well known on the international stage, so we found in Luiz the strongest candidate among, quite frankly, a lot of really, really, really good candidates, it was not an easy choice.

The fact that Luiz is coming out of Brazil certainly does make a strategic statement. And it's a testament to the entire hiring team that we would look at candidates who are not from the United States. It wasn’t a strategic move to specifically look for someone outside of the United States, but I think that it's an indication of the way ATSC sees itself, that we would entertain candidates from outside of the United States. I think there might have been a time in the organization when they would not have, but Luiz is our guy.

TVT: Luiz, what would you say is your top priority over the next 12-18 months?
LF: I still have a lot to learn but I'll be lucky enough to work in parallel with Jerry for a month while he's still full time at the ATSC. I have to learn about the inner processes and I hope that I can add to that with some international experience and how to approach the international standardization community and potential adopting countries over time.

TVT: You were heavily involved in evaluating ATSC, 3.0 for Brazil’s TV 3.0. What was it about the evaluation process that made you interested in seeking out this new position?
LF: Yes, it was a long process that is still ongoing in a sense; not the technology selection, but now the process of publishing the standards and the regulations. But it was a process that we started formally in 2020 and Brazil decided to open an international call for proposals. And this call for proposals was designed in such a way that we would receive proposals for our candidate technologies for each of the system components.

So we designed an architecture of the system and the set of requirements for each component; then we would evaluate candidate technology, more or less separately for each component. We were aware that this strategy would potentially result in a system that would be a mix and match of different systems

But we also needed to make sure that these components worked together as a system and at that stage we didn’t expect that one particular system would be dominant over the majority of components but somehow it ended up happening with ATSC.

Of course, we had the opportunity to because the original 3.0 standard is about eight years old but has kept evolving over time. For example, when it was designed for the United States and South Korea, the best video codec available at the time was HEVC and nowadays the best codec available is VVC.

But as I said, we could have ended up having a system so blended with a mixture of different systems that it could not be easily identifiable as a variety of one system, it could be a different thing with a different set with an independent set of technologies. But it was a good surprise that most components were selected from the original ATSC proposal, and it made our lives easier in the sense of making sure the components work together as a system, because we had only to replace a few things.

It was not only the technical standards that we were evaluating; we were doing real laboratory and field tests with the candidate technologies and ATSC proved to have excellent performance and it ended being selected for the majority of the components in such a way that the SBTVD Forum is looking to establish a stronger partnership with ATSC to keep the evolution of this system harmonized from now on with ATSC.

We see TV 3.0 as a variant of ATSC 3.0 that we want to harmonize with the global ATSC 3.0 standard. And that's how I see ATSC 3.0 going forward: not as a closed box where you would need to choose everything or nothing, but flexible enough to accommodate small variations within the same framework and still be seen as a single family of standards.

If you look for example, at DVB T and DVB T2, there are many variants of DVB-T and DVB T2 used in different countries, in Europe and so on.

TVT: Madeleine, how has the role of VP of Standards Development for ATSC evolved over time?
MN: The role has always required a certain range of talents. And by that, I mean it's not so easy to find people like Jerry and Luiz who, on the one hand, can prepare documents and check the formatting and dot the i's and cross the t's, and on the other hand, can think strategically and get in front of audiences and promote the standard and think “big picture.”

It's really hard to find a person who's interested and capable of fulfilling that range of tasks. And we've been very lucky with Jerry, and we're very lucky again with Luiz, to find someone who can do those things. So that aspect of the role has not changed, but the technology that lives underneath it has. The processes by which standards are being developed is changing. What is the role of AI in standards development going forward? That's something that's on ATSC's strategic roadmap right now.

Are we going to think about this as a very flexible standard where you've got a toolbox of things; the DVB project has been doing that for many, many years, but ATSC, not so much. I think that the job has definitely changed, but I think the underlying need for a person who can know the intricate details of a Microsoft Word document all the way to understanding the big picture remains the same. And we were lucky to have Jerry for some 25 plus years, and I can just see Luiz picking up where Jerry left off.

TVT: Madeleine, what will be in the stack of papers you hand to Luiz on his first day on the job? What big projects do you expect him to be working on first?
MN: We have quite a number of active groups, and I would say that there are a few projects that stand out over the others. There's a couple of aspects to this—what is actually being worked on in the groups and then the other question is, how do the groups get work done?

So in terms of what the groups are actually doing, I think that there are some really interesting projects, including the “Broadcast to Everything Project" (B2X) which is just now taking on the core network effort, is a really interesting project. It's working to align the ATSC 3.0 physical layer more closely with the 5G physical layer, as well as taking in what we've done with the broadcast core network so far, and looking at alignment with the 5G core and a potential future 6G core. It's right on the cutting edge of technology, of what's being developed for broadcast.

We also have development going on where people want to put all kinds of stuff over ATSC 3.0, so now, yeah, you can carry linear video services, and you can carry radio services, and you can carry emergency services for public or private audiences, and datacasting services. Now we have a project where they want to carry Digital Radio Mondiale (a set of digital audio broadcasting technologies designed to work over the bands currently used for analog radio broadcasting) services over 3.0 and they're working on that.

So what the groups are working on is very exciting and interesting, but I also think that where Luiz is going to be focusing his time is how the groups get work done. Can we use AI to find inconsistencies in a standard or areas where clarification is needed? Can we use AI to make sure that all the acronyms are defined the same across all the standards? We use AI to help implementers understand the standards more quickly and more accurately. Can we use AI to help our group chairs manage the work of the group? These are other areas where I think we need to develop.

In addition, a lot of the implementation of these kinds of digital terrestrial standards is software based, whereas in previous times, it was very much hardware based, and that also impacts how we might develop standards.

LF: Yeah, I think Madeleine made some excellent points and just to bring one practical example that is already to some extent being used in ATSC and also now in our Brazilian TV tutorial, is that instead of defining everything you want in the standard in—let's say natural language—we say that the one piece of the system should be in compliance with the format which is in the front, which is defined in a file, and the file itself. So it's kind of a normative part of the standard.

So with natural language, sometimes you can have ambiguities and differences in interpretation and so on, but when you go to the file, the file is clear in the sense that there is no possibility of understanding it differently, the syntax, the semantics and so on. And as Madeleine said, as we're moving more towards software instead of hardware, our standards will be more and more filled with files as references instead of text, and that would make the implementer's life easier, because they have to check if their implementation is in compliance with the standard, which means at the end of the day, less problems with interoperability.

That is an issue that happens when you introduce new technologies and you have different implementations and they are not perfectly interoperable, and then some things don't work as they should. But as we can make the standards more precise and clear, these ambiguities will be reduced. That's a good thing, because, of course, the complexity of the standards is getting higher and so the chances for human errors are getting higher. And if we can get the standards more precisely defined, we can get these human errors low again.

In some parts of the world, there is this sense that maybe digital terrestrial television will not continue to evolve, and maybe it will be replaced by the internet or something else. But so far we haven’t seen anything capable of having an efficient delivery for hundreds of millions of people or billions of people to watch the same content live at the same time.

So there are lots of opportunities where the broadcast system is, let's say, a tool to transport bits in a broadcast or fill gaps in the current infrastructure for the internet, which is limited by its unicast nature. So broadcast can fill those gaps with this capability of delivering simultaneously the same bits to lots of devices. And there are lots of use cases for that now, and there will be lots more in the future. So for me, there's nothing better for this particular use case—to deliver the same data to a huge audience at the same time—and for many other use cases, it's proven to be very attractive as well.

As broadcasting technology evolves to potentially include sending broadcast TV signals to mobile devices, it’s important to understand the landscape from the terms being used, the systems being considered and the progress of technical development and adoption.

What is 5G Broadcast?
“5G Broadcast,” officially named “LTE-Based 5G Broadcast,” was developed by the Third Generation Partnership Program (3GPP). This global system is designed for cellular devices (e.g., phones) and is not being promoted as a solution for delivering content directly to television sets in the home. (Televisions could be reached through an intermediary device such as a set-top box or gateway device.)

5G Broadcast and its precursors were specified for operation in both cellular networks (typically with many small towers creating a dense network) and in traditional TV broadcast configurations (typically with fewer tall towers, each reaching a wider geographic area).

While not currently commercially deployed, 5G Broadcast is being eyed by TV broadcasters in several countries, including Europe. Cellphone operators, on the other hand, are not currently considering commercial adoption of 5G Broadcast that we are aware of.

Note that 5G Broadcast is different from 5G Multicast/Broadcast Service (5G NR MBS), also developed by 3GPP. 5G Broadcast is based on 4G LTE radio technology, whereas 5G MBS is based on 5G New Radio technology. 5G MBS is not being used for direct-to-consumer services but instead is finding its place in private networks for business use cases. Of course, this could change over time. 5G Broadcast, on the other hand, is being promoted as a potential direct-to-consumer service.

What is ATSC 3.0, and can it be used for mobile broadcasting?
ATSC 3.0, developed by ATSC, the Broadcast Standards Association, is an international next-generation broadcasting standard designed for robust transmission of IP bits over-the-air to televisions, cellular phones, moving vehicles and other devices.

Currently, ATSC 3.0 is commercially deployed in South Korea, the United States and Jamaica. Trinidad and Tobago and Brazil are moving forward with plans for commercial launches beginning in 2025. While these countries may aspire to launch a direct-to-mobile service with ATSC 3.0, none has yet established a commercial direct-to-mobile service offering. Using ATSC 3.0, TV broadcasters are distributing content for television sets and other receiving devices for the home. India, in contrast, is considering ATSC 3.0 for direct-to-mobile services​ as the leading use case for the technology.

Which system is more efficient?
Tests comparing the spectral efficiency of ATSC 3.0 and 5G Broadcast have shown that ATSC 3.0 is the more-efficient system, and thus would require fewer transmitters to deliver comparable service. A project is underway within 3GPP to add time and frequency interleaving features to 5G Broadcast, which is intended to enhance 5G Broadcast’s efficiency and transmission robustness.

Can I use my current mobile phone for a future broadcast?
In a word, no. Today’s mobile phones—even 5G models—cannot be updated to receive broadcast signals from television spectrum allocations delivered via either 5G Broadcast or ATSC 3.0.

The frequencies and bandwidths used in television broadcasting (e.g., 6, 7, 8 MHz) differ from those used in cellular networks, and existing phones cannot be updated to accommodate these differences in spectrum bandwidth and frequency. Prototype cellular phones for both ATSC 3.0 and 5G Broadcast exist, but commercial availability has yet to develop​.

Proponents of 5G Broadcast anticipate it will be easier to develop a broadcast-capable mobile phone ecosystem with 5G Broadcast because it is a global standard. Theoretically, phones everywhere could be the same, because 5G Broadcast is supported by at least one major silicon chip manufacturer.

However, a very large market like India could unilaterally support a broadcast-capable mobile phone ecosystem, regardless of which technology is adopted there. More than 1 billion mobile phones are in use in India alone.

Can U.S. broadcasters use 5G Broadcast?
Current FCC rules state that U.S. full-power television broadcasters must use ATSC 1.0 and may additionally use ATSC 3.0. Ancillary services are permitted under certain circumstances, and so there is some exploration of “interleaving” ATSC 3.0 and 5G Broadcast together in one channel such that ATSC 3.0 is the primary service and 5G Broadcast is an ancillary service.

This configuration is at the early stages of research and development, and it remains to be seen whether it can be viable from a variety of angles, including technical, regulatory, and commercial.

Aren’t Mobile Network Operators going to be involved, too?
Mobile network operators have not yet embraced 5G Broadcast, 5G MBS or ATSC 3.0 for consumer use. These operators focus more on “unicast” services (one signal to one phone), and their involvement in broadcast services (one signal to many phones) remains limited.

Cellphone feature design is heavily influenced by mobile network operators, particularly in the U.S. This dynamic significantly impacts the adoption and integration of mobile broadcasting technologies like 5G Broadcast and ATSC 3.0​. A viable business model for mobile network operators to support broadcast technologies may be important for mobile broadcast services to fully develop​.

So the future is still cloudy?
For the moment, yes. Mobile broadcasting technologies, including ATSC 3.0 and 5G Broadcast, are evolving rapidly. While myths and claims about their capabilities and adoption persist, ongoing collaboration, innovation, and trials are paving the way for the future. By understanding the facts, stakeholders can make informed decisions about investing in and advancing mobile broadcasting systems.

Last month, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr suggested a new incentive auction of TV spectrum is coming at the annual gathering of ATSC members in Washington, D.C..

I’m not surprised. In 2019 at a breakfast presentation during the NAB Show, then-FCC Commissioner Michael O’Reilly predicted another voluntary incentive auction would be on the way at some indefinite point in the future. 

While no plans yet are in place for Incentive Auction 2.0, it’s not too hard to see how one will be sold to the industry. First, an auction is a second chance at quick cash for broadcasters not chosen last time.  Second, the 3.0 lighthouse strategy has demonstrated NextGen TV’s bandwidth efficiency. So, no harm, no foul taking more spectrum, right? Third, many repacked stations will benefit from a new RF infrastructure thanks to auction proceeds.

However, taking this without a fight seems to be snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Fewer TV channels mean less bandwidth for datacasting, a business diversification strategy sure to take on greater importance as cord-cutting continues, threatening the foundation upon which retrans revenue rests.

Fewer post-buildout 3.0 sticks also mean fewer to provide the backbone of a future GPS alternative (see Section 4, Subsection h). While a NextGen TV-based Broadcast Positioning System (BPS) offers the government a fast-to-deploy, inexpensive backup, the Feds haven’t even yet decided to evaluate it. Shouldn’t they, before another auction takes place?

For broadcasters looking to cash out and claim auction proceeds, consider this: Incentive Auction 1.0 garnered $10.05 billion for exiting TV broadcasters, but BIA Advisory Services has estimated 3.0 datacasting could generate an additional $10.7 billion in yearly revenue by 2030. Even if that’s high, how can a one-time auction proceeds payment possibly exceed recurring 3.0 datacasting revenue?

New Bidder Requirements
Before the industry accepts another incentive auction, it should lobby Congress to legislate requirements for any bidder. 

First, mandate they all offload mass distribution video traffic to the most bandwidth-efficient wireless service available. If that’s 3.0, so be it. If it’s a 5G Broadcast network, fine. A mix? That’s good, too. But one thing it won’t be is a unicast network. 

Video accounts for a huge portion of wireless traffic. One-to-many is only a part of the total, so there’s plenty of other video traffic for wireless networks. Besides, the FCC wants to ensure the most efficient use of limited spectrum resources, right? 

Second, require bidders to make their cell networks at least as resilient to disasters as TV RF infrastructure. Mandate generators and fuel supplies at each cell tower as an auction condition. After all, how is it in the national interest to promote a less resilient wireless network at the expense of one that’s more resilient? 

Third, bidders should pony up big bucks (tens to hundreds of millions) for a Broadcast RF Vendor Compensation Fund. Payments should fund any TV broadcast chain hardware or software vendor suffering declining business resulting from the FCC closing its Construction Permit window. Remember, the industry lost some—and nearly lost other RF vendors—the last time around. Many other auction requirements surely exist, but at least this is a start.

Fade to Black
The propagation characteristics of high-band 5G may have run headlong into the economic reality of deploying antennas on every other light pole across America—making UHF spectrum all the more desirable.

As that realization has become apparent, broadcasters have been deploying their own new wireless system. It carries nearly as much data as can be carried on a noisy channel and is designed to use new, ever-more efficient data compression schemes as they come along.

The unintended consequence of this efficiency is that competitors will always be able to ask for more UHF spectrum because broadcasters will continue to do more with less for the foreseeable future.

Now is the time to address this head on. Lobby Congress, protect the UHF band from further encroachment, create new competition for wireless networks and earn new revenue to help pay the cost of serving the public with free over-the-air TV. If not now, when? Incentive Auction 3.0?

At its annual meeting last week the Advanced Television Systems Committee announced a number of new developments, including a new branding campaign, mission statement and updates on its efforts to expand adoption of the ATSC 3.0 (aka NextGen TV) internationally as well as the campaign to sunset 1.0. But it was perhaps a comment from FCC Commissioner Brendon Carr in a discussion with ATSC President Madeleine Noland that garnered the most attention. 

In a Q&A with Noland, Carr compared the transition from the current ATSC 1.0 standard to 3.0 to the evolution of the mobile wireless industry and, with many broadcasters eager to shut down 1.0 to provide more bandwidth for 3.0, what could happen after the 1.0 sunset. Like wireless, the transition to 3.0 is taking a lightly-regulated, market-based approach, which Carr agreed with. 

“The transition that we see in technologies from a wireless approach is one that we should take here,” Carr said, referring to 3.0. “We largely trust the mobile wireless industry to handle those upgrades in technology… you're getting the playbook here.”

“We have to get to a point of a level regulatory playing field and increased investment,” Carr added. “In broadcasting, we have to allow this flash cut to 3.0 by a date certain and forthrightly and we also need to really consider competition in D.C. around potentially an ‘incentive auction 2.0’ as well.”

Carr elaborated by noting that, when it comes to another auction, “it is important to start to have a conversation about whether there is interest both on the broadcast side and on the commercial wireless side,” adding that “there's no secret in D.C. that we are a little shy on spectrum right now when you look at the cupboards. We've moved a lot of spectrum in the last administration, not so much during this administration. 

“So I do think as we look across the board, there's obviously a lot of folks on the mid-band spectrum,” he continued. “We had a lot of focus on high band spectrum, low band spectrum, and that was considered coverage spectrum. But I do think it's part of the conversation to start to discuss whether again on a voluntary basis, that it makes sense to start thinking about an incentive auction.”

New Branding and Task Force Update
Opening the meeting, President Noland announced a new branding campaign and mission statement for the ATSC, which manages the development of advanced television standards primarily in the U.S., with the goal of expanding adoption worldwide. 

“ATSC is proudly unveiling a new tagline, brand mission and vision along with a modernized logo. Our mission is to empower the broadcasting ecosystem through innovation and collaboration. And our vision is to enable a more connected world that unlocks the full potential of broadcasting.”

As of now, the ATSC will now be referred to as “ATSC - The Broadcast Standards Association,” Noland said. “The changes in the way ATSC envisions itself reflect the new developments taking place in the industry all around us and the U.S. broadcasters are taking advantage of new technologies offering compelling upgrades to free to air services. And at the same time, they're establishing new business units that are unlocking the potential of datacasting as a service.”

Noland also provided members with a progress report on 3.0. “Over 100 models of NextGen TVs are available for consumers to choose from, with another major manufacturer anticipated to launch products for NextGen audiences this year. I'm not allowed to say who that manufacturer is but you can do the math,” she hinted. “And with 75 markets launched reaching approximately 75% of U.S. households, we're seeing national companies exercise the capabilities of ATSC 3.0,” Noland said, noting NBC’s recent announcement that it is offering 3.0 ancillary services such as hyper-localization and start over features from its O&O’s to 3.0 viewers. 

Noland announced that Puerto Rico has adopted ATSC 3.0 and that emergency alert testing is set to take place in Calgary as well as potentially Winnipeg. She also announced the formation of the ATSC Expert Group on 3GPP. 

"There are several ideas across various stakeholders within ATSC membership about powerful synergies between ATSC and 3GPP technologies for mobile broadcasting to broadcast traffic offload, and more," Noland said. "To make meaningful progress on these ideas there needs to be close coordination among ATSC members. By organizing interested ATSC stakeholders we can effectively liaise with 3GPP, the new group will be open to all ATSC members and will be led by Mr. Thomas Janner of Rohde & Schwarz."

Noland also announced the formation of the ATSC Business Advisory Council led by Mary Crebassa of LTN Global. 

"This new council will provide the board with strategic advice from the point of view of business applications and requirements and guidance on technical projects of highest interest as ATSC stakeholders and business goals, potentially including guidance about how best to structure and promote release cycles or ATSC standards," Noland said.

"Members of this council will be appointed by the board with a goal of the group be comprised of people who are primarily business focused within their respective organizations, and together represent various regions around the world and span the myriad industries within the broadcast ecosystem," she added. 

NAB President Curtis LeGeyt updated members on the association’s leadership role in the “Future of TV” task force initiated by the FCC, which includes representatives from the broadcast, manufacturing and related media industries currently meeting in D.C. to negotiate the variety of interests in pushing forward the transition to 3.0.

Although he did not issue a timetable for when the task force would release its long-awaited report, LeGeyt said that “we are working to ensure the nationwide adoption of NextGen TV is as smooth as possible and we aim to release a complete summary of the work done thus far by the Future of Television initiative,” LeGeyt said. “And we're also educating members of Congress on the benefits of NextGen TV and the urgency of deploying the ATSC 3.0 standard nationwide. And as we look ahead to the future, I believe that setting a date to end mandatory simulcasting is a necessary step toward completing the transition to NextGen TV and unlocking all of its benefits.”

Emergency Alerting in 3.0
The two-day meeting also included a discussion on the role of emergency alerting in the world of mobile technology and NextGen TV. 

Commenting on the inadequacy of the current EAS system to meet consumers; evolving needs, Manny Centeno, IPAWS program manager, said “we need to provide better, more rich information to the public so that they can take action. I'm not saying necessarily that this is going to replace the EAS but I say as we go forward and we investigate and we score and visualize and experience the benefits of this type of technology for public safety, we're going to see how antiquated the Emergency Alert System is. I have no issue saying that's, it’s just the reality. We've got to evolve and make it better for everyone. 

“We have been talking about this for a while and now we need to demonstrate and we need to demonstrate it in a way that makes sense that is repeatable by the television stations out there as they program and configure their equipment for ATSC 3.0 alert delivery. This is going to require the partnership of those local, state, territorial and tribal, talking about the FCC, security organizations—both government and private—and we're going to have a lot of tests to make sure that this technology is delivering what we expect it to.”

Consumer Products Outlook
During a discussion on NextGen TV consumer products, CTA’s Richard Kowalski provided a progress report and his viewpoint on the state of the consumer market for 3.0, particularly as more Smart and connected TV’s penetrated U.S. households.

Noting that the majority of 3.0 TVs are premium sets, Kowalski said “we assume there will be an inflection point in the next few years where manufacturers put 3.0 on their TVs and prepare for the broadcasting standard of the future. Right now. We're looking at about 13% of TVs having NextGen TVs and 2024 sets shipping into the market.” 

CTA doesn’t expect a big bump in sales for set top boxes for 3.0 in the near future, due to cost and limited availability, Kowalski said, adding that it’s difficult to estimate when compared to the transition to 1.0 when government incentives enable consumers to purchase low-cost converters.  

Robert Folliard, senior vice president, Government Relations & Distribution at Gray Television, defended broadcasters against naysayers who criticize what many describe as a slow transition to a market-based approach to the transition to 3.0—which began when consumer sets became available in 2020—comparing the current transition to the transition from analog to digital.  

“We're light years ahead of the government mandated transition that was going on 20 years ago. And I think we sometimes lose sight of how much we've accomplished, how much is available and how fast things are moving,” Folliard said. “It's only been recently that we've really started telling consumers why they should buy a set. We've sold 10 million sets and we really haven't told people why they should buy it. We're four years into this and I think sometimes we get upset because we aren't at the finish line yet.”    

Awards were announced at the conclusion of the meeting with Dr. Sung-Ik Park of Korea’s Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) receiving the organization’s Mark Richer Industry Leadership Medal and Ali Dernaika of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) receiving the Bernard J. Lechner Outstanding Contributor Award.

Fifteen years ago this month, U.S. broadcasters “cut the cord” on NTSC, shutting down analog TV and putting the finishing touches on a transition to digital that lasted more than a decade. 

Viewer response was fairly muted, but that’s because broadcasters, regulators and consumer electronics companies rightly anticipated an outcry if too many viewers lost access to a free over-the-air signal. Navigating the deadline to shut down analog was a frustrating process as all parties involved attempted to assemble the variety of moving parts that made up the transition.

In the summer of 2024, the industry is looking at the next shutdown—the end of ATSC 1.0. Despite the arduous task that faced broadcasters in the 2000s during the first transition, this next transition could be even harder to achieve.

Comparing the two transitions is apples to oranges. The first transition was mainly based on regulatory guidelines that in essence, forced industries to cooperate toward a common goal. The cable, broadcast and consumer electronics industries were also facing a far less complex media ecosystem where there was less competition for eyeballs. And perhaps the biggest factor was the decrease in prices for large screen 16:9 flat screens that aligned with broadcasters’ move to HDTV, a very noticeable and welcome advance for home viewers.

What Do You Get With NextGen TV?
The transition to ATSC 3.0 (aka NextGen TV) is touted as “market-driven” with a lighter regulatory touch than the move to 1.0. There are no specific deadlines for stations to deploy the standard nor are there any mandates to provide tuners in any receiving devices. There aren’t any mandates for broadcasters to provide anything more than simulcasting ATSC 1.0. 

And, in contrast to the first transition, broadcasters face a much more complex media landscape and Silicon Valley competitors with far deeper pockets and much less to lose if a particular experimental service failed (remember Quibi?). It’s also harder to get viewers who are now used to getting their programs in 4K and HDR to get excited about 4K HDR broadcasts. 

Mark Aitken, senior vice president of advanced technology for Sinclair Broadcast Group would beg to differ on that front. 

“HDR is very significant, and one of the promises of the ATSC 3.0 standard is better television for America’s living rooms,” Aitken said at this year’s NAB Show. “It was the focus of the ATSC at this year’s CES. CBS’s delivery of the February Super Bowl LVIII in HDR should spur others to add this enhancement to their ATSC 3.0 transmissions and I expect to see announcements from other networks,” said Aitken, who added that some 40 Sinclair stations are on the air with Advanced HDR by Technicolor. 

Aitken’s sentiments are echoed by Anne Schelle, managing director of Pearl TV, the consortium of broadcasters and manufacturers promoting NextGen TV, who discussed how local Louisville, Ky. TV stations promoted HDR, 4K and Atmos immersive audio in their local 3.0 broadcasts during the week leading up to the 2024 Kentucky Derby. Local stations partnered with a local retailer to give away NextGen TV sets and promotions on their websites attracted “a significant increase in traffic.”

“I think that is a good indicator of the interest in HDR,” she said. Schelle also noted Pearl’s recent announcement that several large station groups, including Gray Television, Sinclair Broadcast Group, Hearst Television, Tegna and The E.W. Scripps Co. will accelerate funding of the ATSC 3.0 Framework Authority (A3FA), the driving force behind the RUN3TV platform. Pearl TV says it expects additional broadcast groups to become involved in the future.

“RUN3TV is  built by broadcasters for broadcasters and it allows companies who built on the platform to easily build applications and try out unique features and have them be able to work across the multitudes of operating systems that are currently out there and more to come,” she said.

A new partnership with ROXi to launch interactive music channels, as well as NBC’s announcement that affiliates in top markets are launching ancillary services via NextGen TV were among the other 3.0 highlights announced at the NAB Show in April. 

Beyond consumer applications, broadcasters are also using a portion of their spectrum to deploy new datacasting services. Also at the NAB Show, Sinclair launched its “Broadspan” datacast service in partnership with Edgio. The new service will enable data distribution in all the current markets where Sinclair stations are offering ATSC 3.0 broadcasts. Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley invited other station groups to join the service. 

Bandwidth Constraints
While all of these new capabilities are brought to us via the ingenious capability of ATSC 3.0’s combination of broadcast with IP, there’s only so much bandwidth available and that bandwidth is further constrained by the 1.0 simulcasting requirement.

At presstime, ATSC 3.0 has been launched by more than 91 stations in 40 markets, bringing the advanced broadcast standard to within reach of more than 75% of U.S. households. Pearl TV says it expects that number to grow to more than 200 stations in 53 markets by the end of 2024.

Most of those stations are simulcasting 3.0 with 1.0 over “lighthouse” transmission partnerships in which one local station offers up its transmission facilities to “host” the other 3.0 stations in particular markets. This requirement is in place during the transition to ATSC 3.0. Originally, the FCC imposed a 2025 deadline to end 1.0 simulcasting but in 2023, moved the date to July 17, 2027. The decision was in part predicated by the industry’s exhortations to the commission earlier in the year about a “stalled” transition.  

In response, FCC Chairman Jessica Rosenworcel announced the formation of the “Future of TV” task force at the 2023 NAB Show, inviting all industry players to work together towards a successful conclusion of the transition to 3.0. 

“This Future of Television initiative will gather industry, government, and public interest stakeholders to establish a roadmap for a transition to ATSC 3.0 that serves the public interest” Rosenworcel said at the time. “A successful transition will provide for an orderly shift from ATSC 1.0 to ATSC 3.0 and will allow broadcasters to innovate while protecting consumers, especially those most vulnerable.”    

‘Frank’ and ‘Candid’
The FCC asked the NAB to take the lead by hosting the meetings, and while the industry has been tight-lipped about characterizing the tone, the best the press has been able to get out of sources is that they are “frank” and “candid,” which, in Inside the Beltway-speak, can have a wide variety of meanings. 

But given the cable industry’s long-held viewpoint that certain guardrails must be in place before it replaces 1.0 with 3.0 and the consumer electronics industry’s vehement opposition to any Congressional tuner mandates, it’s understandable that the task force may not arrive at a definitive deadline that will please everyone.

The NAB, for its part, is staying on message. “The Future of TV initiative has made great progress, and we are looking forward to releasing the report later this year,” they told TV Tech. “We appreciate the participation of everyone involved in this effort to help ensure a smooth transition.”

ATSC President Madeleine Noland agrees that ending the transition is top of mind for broadcasters, noting that until a deadline is established, broadcasters are finding ways to add more capabilities despite the bandwidth constraints. 

“As exciting as datacasting is, until the transition is farther along—and I don’t mean getting from 75% to 100%—but I mean within a given market, it’s important to have more transmitters available with 3.0. I think about the Boston market and we have one transmitter up, which is carrying five or six high-definition signals and at least two standard-definition search services. There’s not a lot of room to do anything else.”

Noland mentioned the recent addition of five more 3.0 stations in the San Antonio market as one of the ways around such constraints. “I gotta tip my hat to San Antonio for being able to get that second stick up.“ Noland said, adding that the current focus will not be in trying to finish the other 25%, but in expanding coverage in existing markets. “Let’s try to get depth in the markets that we already have because we’ve got all the big markets; let’s build it out and be able to do more with 3.0 in those markets.”

Consumer Devices
According to the CTA,  the cumulative U.S. installed base of NextGen TV receivers topped 10.3 million in 2023 and consumer sales of NextGen TV products are expected to increase by 45% in 2024. ATSC says more than 100 consumer products that support NextGen TV are expected to be available by the end of 2024, with the vast majority being TV sets from Sony, Hisense, TCL and Samsung. LG, which announced a suspension of the manufacturing of NextGen TV sets in 2023 due to a patent dispute, currently sits on the sidelines.   

Unlike the transition from analog to digital when the federal government subsidized the purchase of low-cost digital tuners for consumers who have yet to go digital, NextGen TV’s market-based approach provides no such incentives. 

One person, however, believes that a pure market driven approach is unrealistic and notes that public-private partnerships between industry and the government have an historic precedent that should also play a part in the transition to NextGen TV. 

John Lawson, executive director of AWARN, a consortium of business and government entities promoting advanced emergency alerting technologies on 3.0, thinks  low-cost converter boxes subsidized by the federal government would help accelerate the move to sunset 1.0. 

In an op-ed on TV Newscheck in March, Lawson wrote: 

“Congress would establish a new voucher program for 3.0 set-top boxes and dongles. This time, however, the subsidy program would be established in the name of public safety, for both resilient alerting in the face of climate change and national security to provide a back-up for GPS. Broadcasters would agree to carry Advanced Emergency Information, perhaps with sunset provisions for EAS, and receivers would be enabled to display AEI messages.”

Lawson said he arrived at his position after a meeting with the FCC as well as with broadcasters in Michigan.

“Senior staff at the FCC told me that the broadcast industry had made it clear from the beginning in their opinion that the 3.0 transition was unlike the transition from analog to digital, and that it would be a purely market driven approach,” he said. “And then I went out on the road so to speak to the Michigan Broadcast Engineering Conference I really got a dose of reality,” adding that nobody raised their hand when he asked attendees if the 3.0 transition was “on the right track.”

Lawson adds that his proposal follows a traditional path and promotes, “in effect, a partnership between government and industry.”

“American capitalism is dependent upon R&D and other investments by the federal government and it allows companies like Apple and Meta and many others to make a lot of money. [But] there's a general healthy weariness among the broadcast industry about getting government involved but there are many, many examples of where the two actually support each other.”

Will it Survive as a Purely Market-Driven Transition?
The transition to ATSC 3.0 contains an insane number of moving parts as well as a variety of approaches and while no one is suggesting Congressional mandates of any kind, in its current state, there remains some question as to whether it will survive its status as a completely market-based transition.  

But don’t tell that to Rob Folliard, senior vice president of government relations and distribution with Gray TV and chairman of Pearl TV who says the transition to 3.0 is moving at a faster pace than the move to 1.0. 

“[The transition] has worked better than the government-mandated transition 20 years ago, we are moving ahead faster,” Folliard said. “And I think the reason the market-based approaches work is because the broadcasters see a huge opportunity, a huge ROI, and we’re making it work. We’re finding creative ways to cooperate, channel share, in order to make the transition happen.”

With ATSC 3.0 (aka “NextGen TV) now reaching approximately 75% of U.S. households, emphasis at the 2024 NAB Show will be on refinements and new applications for the advanced broadcast format—the most visible being HDR (high dynamic range).

“We’re expecting broadcasters to begin ‘taking the new car for a drive,’ with the expansion of high dynamic range programming to show viewers one of the key advantages of the new service—exceptional video that is matched with the Dolby audio system,” said ATSC President Madeleine Noland.

“We’re calling this ‘the year of HDR’ because a lot of stations have received, or will receive, permission to scale services into High Dynamic Range,” added Dave Folsom, Pearl TV group’s engineering lead. “At least two encoder manufacturers can now do this scaling, and that will make the service better. In most locations it will be provided as a 1080p service.”

Mark Aitken, senior vice president of advanced technology at Sinclair Broadcast Group, also weighed on the addition of high dynamic range.

“HDR is very significant, and one of the promises of the ATSC 3.0 standard is better television for America’s living rooms,” said Aitken. “It was the focus of the ATSC at this year’s CES. CBS’s delivery of the February Super Bowl LVIII in HDR should spur others to add this enhancement to their ATSC 3.0 transmissions and I expect to see announcements from other networks,” said Aitken, noting that HDR is nothing new at Sinclair. “We’ve been broadcasting HDR 24/7 at all of our stations with ATSC 3.0. Some 40 Sinclair stations are on the air with Advanced HDR by Technicolor.”

Seeing is Believing
West Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center will host most of the 3.0 exhibitors and perhaps the best first stop for attendees interested in 3.0 is the ATSC booth (W3056).

“We plan to showcase both the NextGen TV sets and also upgrade accessory receivers at the NAB Show to make sure broadcasters are aware of the variety of set-top devices coming for consumers,” said Noland. “Already, consumers have their choice of NextGen TV-certified and security-verified receiving devices from ADTH and Zinwell.”

“There are a lot of standalone devices now available to enable NextGen TV reception with legacy receivers,” added Pearl’s Folsom. “All modern TV sets have HDMI input capability, so when a conversion device is added the user can painlessly switch between ATSC 1.0 and 3.0. This should go a long way to greasing the skids to full adoption.”

Aitken says Sinclair will also have an exhibits-area presence at the show with ATSC, and both an “on-floor suite” not far from  the ATSC booth, and a Wynn suite, both demonstrating ATSC 3.0 datacasting. He also promised some surprise announcements at the show on recent major datacasting developments.

Additional Space for 3.0
Aitken says he hopes there is news from the NAB Show on a date for sunsetting 1.0, giving broadcasters more bandwidth to roll out the full inventory of audio, video and data enhancements that are part of 3.0.

“I believe there’s good progress being made in the Future of Television Initiative [dealing with ATSC 1.0 switch-off and other 3.0 transition issues] within the industry, with the NAB playing a key role and the FCC and other regulatory bodies coming to an understanding of the nature of what has to happen in order to jettison the first stage of this rocket, ignite the second stage, and be securely in orbit,” Aitken added.

Anne Schelle, Pearl TV’s managing director, spotlighted another big NextGen TV development — “Run3 TV—that will be featured at the NAB Show.

“Run 3 is a powerful middleware solution that acts as an abstraction layer, simplifying the complex process of developing and deploying NextGen TV applications across varying operating systems and devices,” said Schelle, adding that it will allow broadcasters to reach wider audiences with more efficiency and less technical overhead.

“At the 2024 NAB show, developers such as Velope, Playanywhere, Gameloop, and Roxi will showcase the innovative applications and capabilities enabled by Run3TV, highlighting the platform’s role in driving the future of interactive TV,” Schelle added.

New NextGen TV Hardware
Along with the new and updated 3.0 applications, manufacturers have been busy developing new products to show on the exhibit floor.

Heading the lineup of new transmitters for ATSC 3.0 is the new E-Compact EC600HP-BB3 series from Hitachi-Comark, optimized for LPTV/MPTV replacements and ATSC 3.0 SFN deployments, according to Joe Turbolski, Hitachi-Comark’s vice president of sales and marketing. 

GatesAir will launch its Maxiva VLXTE-OP, “which essentially rounds out the top end of the Maxiva family for ATSC 3.0 transmission,” said Steve Rossiter, GatesAir TV systems applications engineer.

Although details weren’t fully available at press time, Rohde & Schwarz is also promising a new transmitter launch. “Rhode & Schwarz has developed a new and next-generation ATSC 3.0-native transmitter that embraces the liquid-cooled design and legacy while enabling operators to maximize their efficiency at minimized operational cost,” said Manfred Reitmeier, R&S’s vice president of broadcast and amplifier systems.“

Dielectric President Keith Pelletier says the company will show their latest antenna offerings, including the Powerlite TFU-WB-LP series. “Dielectric has spent the last several years building out its portfolio of ATSC 3.0 solutions,” he said. “We are 95% there in terms of filling out the entire product line, which will essentially allow us to serve any ATSC 3.0 requirements. Dielectric expects to fill in some final gaps with new models at NAB 2024.”

Attendees will also want to check out Harmonic’s XOS media processor and cloud-based VOS 360 Media SaaS offerings. “These feature a unique cloud-native common software foundation and next-gen media processing technology,” said Jing Zhou, Harmonic’s director of broadcast solutions. “They enable broadcasters to deliver ATSC 1.0 and 3.0 services simultaneously and efficiently, with feature enhancements including AI-powered video compression and quality optimization, simplified SDR/HDR conversions, and more.”

Also, look for Sencore’s new AG 2700 for monitoring of both ATSC 1.0 and 3.0 OTA signals. It provides ASI and IP outputs signals, and includes SNMP functionality.

These new product offerings only represent a small sampling of NextGen TV technologies that will be on display at the 2024 NAB Show. 

NextGen TV Educational Opportunities
In addition to tire-kicking and networking opportunities at exhibitor’s booths, you’ll also want to take advantage of the large number of presentations being offered on ATSC 3.0 television. These are part of the BEIT (Broadcast Engineering and IT) sessions featured Saturday through Tuesday at the 2024 NAB Show.

Presentations will cover advanced emergency alerting, ATSC 3.0 television translators, use of ATSC 3.0 transmissions for positioning systems, converging ATSC 3.0 and 5G technologies, offloading of video streaming content via NextGen TV and more.

Of particular interest to broadcasters is the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society’s Saturday afternoon presentation, “ATSC 3.0 Business Case and Monetization,” focusing on creating additional revenue streams for stations. According to the session organizers, such topics as the delivery of audio (radio) services via ATSC 3.0, targeted advertising, use of geo-localized datacasting, and delivery of ATSC 3.0 enhancements through the use of virtual (Internet-delivered) channels will all be included.

Paul Shulins, IEEE BTS president and president of the Shulins Solutions consulting firm, terms this session a “must-attend” event. 

“Broadcasters today have many different options to generate revenue besides the traditional advertising dollars,” said Shulins. “Thanks to ATSC 3.0 this session will showcase several new creative concepts for monetizing your data capacity.”

Another session explores a relatively new ATSC 3.0 technology, “core networks,” which will provide delivery of television services and data across multiple TV transmission facilities in multiple markets.

“The ATSC 3.0 Broadcast Core Networks: Serving diverse use-cases across a heterogeneous broadcast and supplier ecosystem,” Tuesday afternoon panel discussion will be moderated by Spectra Rep COO y the chief operating officer at Spectra Rep, John McCoskey.

“Broadcast core networks connect broadcasters, end-user service providers, and virtualized network infrastructure providers and enable data-centric businesses using ATSC 3.0,” McCoskey. “Don’t miss this session if you are interested in learning about the role, value, and importance of broadcast core networks as a critical part of the ATSC 3.0 broadcast ecosystem.”

For a complete listing of BEIT ATSC 3.0-related sessions and times, visit https://nabshow.com/2024/learn/conferences/broadcast-engineering

As word spread of LG Electronics’ decision to suspend ATSC 3.0 as a feature in its 2024 models in the U.S. following the loss of a patent infringement lawsuit filed by Constellation Designs, ATSC responded with a bulletin to members and interested parties on the “progress and growing pains” 3.0 has experienced as of late.

In it, ATSC president Madeleine Noland sought to reassure readers that the impact of the situation “is likely very limited,” citing “one prominent electronics industry market analyst.”

At the core of the issue is how digital symbols are transmitted in ATSC 3.0. The NextGen TV standard uses non-uniform constellation (NUC) to optimize inherent channel capacity. Constellation Designs' complaint arguedsthat Maged Barsoum and Christopher Jones—two of the company’s founders—developed this technique in 2007 while at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The complaint further quotes a Samsung press release underscoring NUC as a “key component” in the A/322 Physical Layer, saying it is critical to “generating the modulated symbols and optimizing the transmission capacity for all reception conditions.”

In July, a jury in the Marshall Division of U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas found LG willfully infringed on four Constellation Designs NUC-related patents and awarded the company $1.68 million—some $6.75 per 3.0 unit sold.

The decision raises questions about what this might mean more broadly for the industry as it rolls out 3.0 as well as how something like this happened when ATSC has a patent policy in place. 

In this interview with Noland, the ATSC president talks with TV Tech Contributing Editor Phil Kurz about this and other questions raised by these growing pains and the progress the standard is making both at home and around the world.

(An edited transcript.)

TVTech: Let's start off with the basics. What was ATSC’s reaction to LG’s filing with the FCC informing the agency it will suspend sale of NextGen TV for the 2024 model year following its loss of the patent infringement case brought by Constellation Designs?
Madeleine Noland: Well, that did not come as good news. We recognize at the launch of a major new technology, there's definitely going to be bumps on the road, and there have been with this.

But I think the thing we need to remember about this is there's not a lot of information out there right now, and the information that is out there is rather scoped to a very niched spot for what's happening. I think the other thing ATSC keeps in mind is that history suggests that the marketplace works these types of things out.

You never know what's going to happen with any given situation. But we're hopeful that the marketplace will find its way forward and pursue paths that are going to be beneficial for the whole ecosystem.

TVT: I think one major concern involves the larger implications. When I asked the representative of the legal team representing Constellation Designs whether or not Constellation Designs had filed similar suits with regard to Sony, Samsung or other companies offering ATSC 3.0 enabled receivers, the answer wasn’t yes or no. It was basically "none of these players have secured licenses for use of the company’s non-uniform constellation technology." So, I think the bigger concern for the industry is, are we going to get muddled in some sort of legal morass that ultimately will impede the broadcast industry’s ability to advance its rollout of NextGen TV?
MN: It's so hard to predict what's going to happen, and from my perspective until there's something that demonstrates that the scope of this is changing my feeling is let's keep on our path. We are expecting to have New York City launched soon. We're excited about the new set-top boxes that are coming out.

I think it's a little bit counterproductive to speculate about what might or might not happen—the good, the bad or the ugly. We just don't know yet, and we have a lot of progress being made. We're going to keep making that progress. It's too early to say what may or may not happen, and we need to go on the facts that we have today in front of us.

TVT: How does something like this happen? According to the Constellation Designs legal filing, the company’s non-uniform constellation technology is fundamental to the physical layer of ATSC 3.0. How did the industry get to this point?
MN: ATSC’s patent policy requires all the participants to disclose their patents and to either agree to RAND [reasonable and non-discriminatory licensing] or that they don't agree to RAND and disclose that. That gives the ATSC membership and board of directors an opportunity to decide whether or not a given technology should or should not be in the system.

Patent policy relies upon the compliance of the participants. So, from ATSC’s point of view, we rely on our members and all the participants to disclose the patents that they have and to include them on the website. It's always possible that one of our members or participants has not. For whatever reason, something came out of the woodwork that they didn't anticipate. It can happen. So, I think that when things like that do happen again it's just a question of working through it with the parties involved and seeking a solution that's going to work for the ecosystem.

TVT: Is Constellation Designs a member of ATSC?
MN: They are not.

TVT: Is there a provision to deal with patents that are relevant to the standard that are held by non-members?
MN: The ATSC patent policy recognizes that ATSC itself is not in a position to do deep patent searches on all the patents that are coming out for a given standard, so, the patent policy relies on its members to do this due diligence. As I say, you know, it happens that a due diligence search may or may not have turned up absolutely everything, in which case, we do look to those members who are impacted to work with the marketplace and figure out the best next steps.

TVT: Is there any movement by the ATSC working group, committee or sub-group responsible for patent policy to revisit the organization’s patent procedures to protect against a similar situation in the future?
MN: Certainly, the ATSC board of directors is watching the situation very closely. We've had conversations about the patent policy, and we would adjust the patent policy if at the end of the day, the board of directors feels it's necessary. The patent policy and other policy documents are the purview of the board. And the board is, as I say, keeping a close eye on what's happening here.

TVT: What's your message to broadcasters as they're watching all this play out when it comes to planning their future deployments and business models?
MN: Interestingly, we have found that the broadcasters are moving forward as before. I have not heard broadcasters talking about changes of plans or changing directions as a result of this.

Again, my feeling is both for broadcasters as well as others need to take it for what it is at face value right now. We simply don't know what may or may not happen in the future. And the plans that the broadcasters had to launch in New York and a few other markets, including Chicago, hopefully soon, seem to be rolling forward as before, to my knowledge.

So, in a way, I think that we can all follow suit with the broadcasters rather than us trying to send a message to the broadcasters. We can watch what the broadcasters do, and they're just going forward. I think that they see that this is going to ultimately have a solution that's going to work and that their plans are going ahead.

TVT: What can you tell me about the New York launch of NextGen TV?
MN: I'm excited about New York because we are going to have our public broadcast station WNET up and running. What's also exciting about New York is that a second transmitter is scheduled as well. So, the first transmitter coming online will be the public broadcaster, and then later on there's another transmitter that's scheduled. I think both are supposed to be lit up this year. 

TVT: What’s the latest developments from Brazil?
MN: I’m very excited about Brazil. Brazil started their process of defining their second generation, what they are calling their "TV 3.0" digital system. They started that process back in 2020, and since then they've gone through a development of requirements, a call for proposals, combing through the responses to all the proposals. ATSC 3.0 was among them.

(Read: Where in the World is ATSC 3.0?)

Basically, they are selecting layer by layer which technology that they're going to use. They weren't sort of doing one-stop shopping. They were saying: “Let's pick the best video.” “Let's pick the best audio.” “Let's pick the best transport.”

We're pretty excited that they have so far chosen almost all ATSC 3.0 technologies. There are two exceptions. So far, they've chosen ROUTE/DASH for transport, MPEG-H audio, ISMC1 caption and ATSC emergency messaging.

The one that they are going to do is have VVC instead of HEVC, which is logical because they're coming a little bit after ATSC. But we're going to catch up to them. We're adding VVC, too, to the 3.0 standards. So, it'll all be one, pretty soon. Then the other one is their interactive system. They are keeping their homegrown system that they've been using for years. So that was never really on the table for a new proponent to come in. 

So, the last piece is the physical layer. There were four proponents for that. At one point earlier this year, one of the proponents withdrew, which took it down to three. Three proponents were in lab testing. Their plan was that when the lab tests concluded that they would take two of the three proponents to testing in the field. 

I'm very pleased to announce that ATSC 3.0 is one of the two systems that's advancing to the field. So, we will be undergoing field testing with one other system. The expectation is field testing will conclude late in Q1 next year.

By then, they will have recommended their full suite of layer technologies, and we'll be moving forward from there. So, we're excited by what's happening. 

TVT: Is there any concern that this whole patent issue related to non-uniform constellation modulation, which is an integral part of the physical layer, will have a negative effect on Brazil’s decision about what to choose?
MN: Interesting question. By no means is ATSC a patent attorney, and we are not in a position to predict what is or isn't going to happen. However, we have researched the matter.

There are a couple of data points I think are worth mentioning. One is that looking at an international patent search for Constellation Designs, and not having done a completely deep dive, but at least looking at a reasonable level, it appears that the patent is granted in five countries. Brazil is not one of those countries.

What that exactly means, I'm not 100% sure. But ATSC is working with its counsel to try to understand the nuances.

I think the other thing that's worth mentioning is that one of the countries that they do have it in is Japan, which is the source of the other physical layer standard that's being tested [in Brazil]. Presumably, and I can't say this, for sure, but I would think that it's entirely possible that that standard also has non-uniform constellations in it.

So, when you look at the landscape as it stands right now, it would seem that a couple of things are happening: If non-uniform court constellations are in the other system, which is originating out of Japan, there may be a similar situation. I don't know.

The other thing is that the patents don't appear, at least not at this moment, to exist in Brazil. So, I don't know how it's going to impact things. But these are the things we've been able to uncover so far, and we're communicating transparently with the Brazilians about what we're finding.

TVT: Finally, what’s the update on ATSC 3.0 in India?
MN: Funny you should ask. I was up at 3:00 in the morning Pacific Time today to do a webinar at a TSDSI [Telecommunications Standards Development Society, India] technical deep dive conference talking about converged networks.

In India, what's happening is the TSDSI, which is their telecommunication standards development organization and a partner of the 3GPP [mobile broadband standards group] have adopted or transposed –I forget which terminology they exactly use—ATSC 3.0 as their own.

Currently, the Indian regulatory authorities are in a comment period to help decide whether or not to make ATSC 3.0, as adopted by TSDSI an Indian national standard. If they do that, that paves the way for ATSC 3.0 to be deployed in India.

Right now, it is deployed on an experimental basis. There's a major proof of concept field trial going on in Delhi. But I think that if the Indian regulator were to permit 3.0 as an Indian national standard that would open up some doors. That said, unlike Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, South Korea and Brazil, there's no government mandate within India to make a change at all, let alone to ATSC 3.0 or any other system. 

So right now, they're very much in the testing phase, understanding and paving the way for what they may or may not do in the future. But I think that it is important to note with India, that they really are highly motivated to have a direct-to-mobile broadcasting solution. And that's pretty exciting.

TVT: Is it reasonable to think that with India’s direct-to-mobile strategy and its population of more than 1 billion people, that if 3.0 is permitted as a national standard that 3.0 mobile reception—that is in cell phones—will get a big boost?
MN: Certainly, I think that what's interesting about India is, as you point out, it's such a large market, that you could argue they can create scale, unilaterally within the country. That certainly is pretty exciting if that were to come to pass.

WASHINGTON—ATSC 3.0 deployment will soon reach 25% of U.S. viewers, according to ATSC President Madeleine Noland.

Noland details that three markets—Baltimore; Buffalo, N.Y.; and Syracuse, N.Y.—filed applications with the FCC for commercial deployment of ATSC 3.0 in February, putting them in the final steps toward officially launching the NextGen TV service. When ATSC 3.0 is launched in these markets, that will put it at the 25% point.

Three other markets are currently labeled as “readying broadcasts” by the ATSC—Los Angeles, San Antonio and Washington, D.C.

To date, 23 markets have officially deployed ATSC 3.0. Among them are Dallas-Forth Worth, Texas; Denver; Las Vegas; Phoenix; Pittsburgh, Seattle-Tacoma, Wash.; and Tampa-St. Petersburg-Sarasota, Fla.

Noland, during an APTS 2021 Summit panel, said that she expects about 62 markets to have launched ATSC 3.0 by this time in 2022, which would reach between 70-75% of the market.

See TV Tech’s updating ATSC 3.0 deployment map for the most current info on NextGen TV’s rollout. 

WASHINGTON—The rollout for ATSC 3.0 is well underway, with ATSC 3.0 having already been deployed in 23 markets across the country. But for stations that aren’t ready to deploy the NextGen TV standard, the important question they face is how much will deployment cost? That was one of the issues discussed in the “Datacasting, Next Gen TV and Beyond” panel during APTS’ 2021 Public Media Summit.

The virtual panel, which debuted to attendees on Feb. 22, featured Susi Elkins, director of Broadcasting and general manager, WKAR Public Media, East Lansing, Mich.; Mark Newman, executive director, Indiana Public Broadcasting Stations (IPBS); John Taylor, senior vice president of Public Affairs and Communications, LG Electronics USA; and Madeleine Noland, president of ATSC.

It was Noland who got into the business of launching an ATSC 3.0-capable station. For instance, making a single site with a newer transmission plant ATSC 3.0 capable would cost about $300,000, Noland reports. For older single sites, the price tag depends on how much tower work is needed—if minimal, it could be around $600,000; for significant tower work the cost could jump to $3 million. Also, if working to get a single frequency network (SFN) ready for ATSC 3.0, the cost would be around $4 million.

However, Noland argued you can’t just look at the cost of transitioning to ATSC 3.0 without also acknowledging the community impact of NextGen TV. The new transmission standard will be able to deliver more, better local content; assist with distance education; help close digital divides; and increase public safety features, Noland said.

“It’s when the tools get into the hands of folks like yourself [Susi Elkins] and Mark, and others who are connected to the community and know how to create content, and know what those use cases are that are going to resonate in their community, then they apply the tools to that. That’s when it gets really exciting,” said Noland.

Noland also gave a brief update on where things stand with ATSC 3.0 deployment. She expects that by this time next year 62 markets, covering 70-75% of U.S. TV households, will have deployed ATSC 3.0; most of those will deploy by the end of 2021, with a handful possibly taking place in Q1 or Q2 of 2022.

On the consumer-facing side, Taylor spoke on how the number of TVs that are NextGen TV capable being shipped is set to rapidly increase over the next few years. He shared estimates from the Consumer Technology Association that says by 2024 12 million NextGen TV-capable models will be shipped to consumers, up from the 300,000 that were shipped in 2020.

The panel also looked at datacasting, which has been a key component in supporting remote education during the COVID-19 pandemic. Newman detailed how public TV stations in Indiana, as well as other states like Pennsylvania and South Carolina, have been using broadcast signals to datacast educational resources to students who may not have access to broadband. Newman says that IPBS is expected to serve 11,000 students via datacasting by mid March.

While datacasting can be done with current ATSC 1.0 signals, the introduction of ATSC 3.0 will likely be able to increase this capability, making it possible to send even more content via TV broadcast signals, according to Noland.

Much like Elkins’ WKAR, which runs the NextGen Media Innovation Lab, public TV stations have a significant role to play in testing and promoting the uses of the ATSC 3.0 transmission standard.

A full recording of the “Datacasting, Next Gen TV and Beyond” panel is available online. 

The abiding saga of advanced television standards requires patience. Noland brought plenty of that, along with a consensus-building leadership style and an encyclopedic knowledge of NextGen TV when she became ATSC president in May 2019. Noland had chaired several ATSC 3.0-related and implementation teams since 2012 and in standards roles, at Backchannelmedia Inc., Telvue Corp. and LG Electronics.

Noland began to earn her geek credentials as a kid. Her father, a university professor, gave her access to an acoustic coupler, which gave her access to the “campus mainframe” computers.

“I was soon playing text-based adventure games and learning to write programs in Basic and Fortran on this amazing new toy,” she recalled. Eventually she applied her tech interest to the media business at Backchannelmedia, a pioneer in advanced advertising solutions for ATSC 1.0, which was just emerging. 

As Noland moved through the standards process, she found it “gratifying to work with the brightest minds in broadcast engineering from around the globe.” As the groups discussed technical solutions, Noland was impressed to watch the “amazing intersection of technology and teamwork.”

She is also aware of on-going issues of the intertwined communications/media ecosystem. “ATSC 3.0 offers great potential to be a gamechanger for the media tech business,” Noland reflected. “But history suggests that vigilance, creative thinking and continually striving for progress will all be required to make good things happen.

“With next-gen technology, broadcasting is emerging from a largely local solution onto the global stage, joining other global data/media delivery systems such as the internet, Wi-Fi and LTE/5G. Cloud technology, the international outlook, IP-based workflows and new business scenarios [are] all coming together,” Noland observed, which means “the industry needs a huge range of skillsets.” 

As for ATSC’s agenda, Noland expects that camaraderie will continue to drive the group and fulfill her checklist: “How to help a group achieve its goals, how to build a great team, how to keep learning, how to make things happen, how to keep calm, how to stick up for your ideas, and how to listen.”

“And how we all need a good laugh from time to time.”

WASHINGTON—The 2020 ATSC Next Gen Broadcast Conference has its plans finalized, set to take place five months from its original date and virtually rather than in person, according to a memo from ATSC President Madeleine Noland.

After paraphrasing “Hamlet”—“To meet or not to meet?”—Noland, in a memo released on July 6, said that all remaining ATSC technical meetings in 2020 will be conducted virtually, as will the Next Gen Broadcast Conference because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Originally scheduled for May, then initially postponed to August, the annual Next Gen Broadcast Conference will instead take place in October in conjunction with the NAB Show New York, with special programming that Noland says will leverage the second-half momentum for ATSC 3.0 deployments. Details and dates for the program sessions are currently in development.

ATSC had programming as part of the NAB Show Express that took place this spring in lieu of the NAB Show in Las Vegas.

Noland anticipates that the traditional time and in-person format for the Next Gen Broadcast Conference will return in 2021, announcing a date of May 12-13, 2021. The virtual version of the NAB Show New York is scheduled for Oct. 21-22.

Beyond conference plans, Noland shared that ATSC is aggressively pursuing its dual track of supporting the ATSC 3.0 rollout and planning for the future. This includes receiving real-world feedback from implementers in the field and the Technology Group offering clarifications and updates to technical documents. 

PLUS: ATSC 3.0 Deployments: Where and When Will NextGen TV be Available?

In addition, the ATSC 3.0 Conformance Implementation Team is preparing for 2021 features, while the Future Broadcast Ecosystem Technologies and Core Network Technologies for Broadcast teams are working on new developments for the broadcast ecosystem. Full details on the work of subcommittees are available online.

“While it’s certainly not ‘business as usual’ these days, it is nonetheless ‘full steam ahead,’” Noland said.

Noland's full statement is available on the ATSC website.

At this point last week, 100,000 people—give or take—should have been dealing with their hectic 2020 NAB Show schedules. But the COVID-19 pandemic saw to it that that wouldn’t happen.

The outbreak and subsequent show cancellation removed the focal point for broadcasters’ NextGen TV follow-through, which the industry all but took for granted after a successful 2020 International CES in January where LG Electronics, Samsung and Sony together announced 20 NextGen TV models for 2020. 

However, that doesn’t mean the Advanced Television Systems Committee isn’t doing all it can to make the most of a tough situation. A new website, an ATSC 3.0 progress report, coming participation in NAB Show Express 3.0 sessions and new planning teams tasked with developing strategies for what’s next for the standard are all aimed at advancing the progress of NextGen TV.

ATSC President Madeleine Noland talks about these and other efforts in this interview.

(An edited transcript) 

TV Technology: If this were a normal year, we would all be recovering from the NAB Show about now. But no such luck this year. In the past, the show has offered a forum for the industry to come up to speed on the latest ATSC 3.0 developments. Could you tell me what would have been at the show from a 3.0 perspective?

Madeleine Noland: It’s impossible to fully replace the impact of a real conference, and I think the NAB Show and PBS TechCon tied together are huge opportunities.

But we are pretty excited about NAB Show Express. There will be a lot of ATSC 3.0-related content involved with NAB Show Express. The program schedule will be released soon. There are at least four sessions I will be involved with. I also know I am not the only one involved with 3.0 content.

The sessions include: “ATSC: Interactive Signaling from the Executive Layer;” “Update on ATSC 3.0: Madeleine Noland;” and “Global Harmonization for Advanced Emergency Alerting: ATSC 3.0, DVB and ISBD.” 

I am also presenting a paper along with NAB’s Lynn Claudy that was going to be presented during the Broadcast Engineering Conference. The two of us will be doing a 15-minute video on our paper, “ATSC: Beyond Standards and a Look at the Future.”

[Editor’s note: Following the interview, more information, which Noland emailed following the interview, is presented.]

So, NAB Show Express is going to have a lot of great content. Along with that, ATSC is going to release an ATSC 3.0 progress report on Monday, May 11, for the spring 2020 timeframe. The idea there is to help ATSC members share the information that they want to share, leading into all of the events that have built up over the spring for ATSC 3.0 announcements.

So, there are going to be quite a number of things available about what would have been at the show if we would have been there to meet face to face and what’s going on now. 

We are really looking forward to that mid-May opportunity [with the release of the update and at NAB Show Express] to get the word out about what’s going on.

TVT: Has the pandemic affected the plans to have 60 markets on-air with ATSC 3.0 by the end of the year?

MN: We’re really happy to see that broadcasters are pretty much going to stick to their plan. We know that the pandemic is going to slow things down for no other reason than the repack is slowed down a little bit. But the hope is once tower crews are back in business, and the repack can continue, broadcasters will continue with what they are up to.

So, I was excited to see that despite the delay that is being created right now that they feel 2020 is still a doable project, and that’s their plan.

TVT: Ditto the consumer side of the equation. Is the pandemic going to impede the 20 NextGen TV models in 2020 forecast?

MN: I saw an announcement from LG that their sets are shipping. That’s not to say anything positive or negative about Samsung’s and Sony’s plans. I just happened to see the LG announcement. My understanding is the NextGen TV logo is on the box. 

TVT: You’ve updated the ATSC website. What are your goals for the new site, particularly when it comes to ATSC 3.0?

MN: The new website is live. The intent was to go live in time for the NAB Show that was to be. So our go live date was April 1. 

We are a standards development organization, so we have members, sponsors, documents—all of that stuff. It’s all there—easy to search, easy to find.  We also have our news area, which is updated and revamped. It’s newly searchable and easy to find everything. We have our new events page, which has featured events as well as industry events we know about. 

Then there is Spotlight ATSC 3.0, which has basic information about 3.0 NextGen TV, an area of resources, which are physical layer calculations, spreadsheet tools and handbooks and webinars to learn more about 3.0.

Then there is the deployment section, which essentially is a deployment tracker that includes maps of the United States and South Korea—which cities are deployed and, in the case of the U.S., which DMAs are deployed or being planned. 

We are pretty excited about the Spotlight 3.0 section of the website, and we hope people find it a valuable and useful tool.

TVT: In the past we’ve talked about 3GPP, the standards body responsible for 5G, and the whole concept of 5G being a heterogeneous wireless network with room for ATSC 3.0. Has there been any movement on that front whether from the 3GPP side or ATSC side of the equation?

MN: I think the most important thing to talk about is the establishment of the ATSC planning team on core network technologies for broadcast. The planning team’s whole mission is laid out on the ATSC website, but in essence the idea is to study core network technologies as they might relate to broadcast, and, this in my personal opinion, can be a prerequisite for any kind of convergence with 5G, 3GPP or other type of data delivery networks.

So, I think the establishment of Planning Team 8, Core Network Technologies, is the right step forward, where ATSC members can have a discussion to advance these kind of thoughts.

TVT: How does that work? Once they come up with recommendations, how do those recommendations advance? Who approaches 3GPP?

MN: What happens in a planning team is they may come up with some kind of recommendations, and those recommendations will go to the board. The board will figure out what to do.

With respect to working with an organization like 3GPP, I think there are already a number of organizations that are partners within 3GPP, for example ATIS [the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions], which represents North America; TTA [the Telecommunications Technology Association], which represents South Korea; TSDSI [Telecommunications Standards Development Society], which represents India; ETSI [the European Telecommunications Standards Institute] for Europe; and there are others from Japan and China. So, I think we would need to wait to see what ATIS thinks is the best thing to do.

The other thing to keep in mind is there are ATSC members that are also members of 3GPP. How ATSC as a body would interact? It’s really way too early to talk about that. But interacting with these other organizations that are already part of 3GPP would be a potential path forward.

When the NAB announced the postponement of the NAB Show last week, it not only dashed the hopes of exhibitors eager to launch new products, it also threatened to impact the progress broadcasters are making on the transition to ATSC 3.0 (aka NextGen TV). With the launch of 20 new NextGen TVs scheduled to hit the retail floor soon and broadcasters currently deploying the new standard, this year’s NAB Show was expected to provide a prominent showcase of new technologies and discussions among attendees. 

That said, priorities have quickly changed and TV Technology editors Tom Butts and Phil Kurz talked with Madeleine Noland, president of the ATSC this week on how the industry will move forward without the NAB Show next month:

TV Technology: Is everybody remaining safe and healthy at the ATSC offices, as well as involvement in the working groups?

Madeleine Noland: As far as I know, everyone is safe and healthy and following local advice about how best to conduct business and keep their families safe. Thank you for asking.

TVT: The NAB Show was going to be the first NAB since the announcement of the “20 3.0 TV sets” at CES, so it was a significant opportunity to advance ATSC 3.0 among broadcasters. What are the consequences of the postponement and what are you doing to maintain the momentum for NextGen TV?

MN: That's a great question and something we've put a lot of thought into. We 100% support PBS TechCon and NAB's decision not to hold the conferences. As unfortunate as that is, we certainly think it was the right call under the circumstances; we would have done the same thing in their position. We are hopeful that there will be some “Plan B options” for the conferences. I think both organizations are considering possibilities and ATSC would certainly look forward to participating in any alternate plans that the organizations may announce. 

Meantime, we are considering ways to help to take advantage of the momentum that we know was building and builds every year leading into April, so we're in active discussions with other key organizations amongst the leadership and we hope to make an announcement pretty soon about some great ideas we've been hatching. 

Our goal with the ATSC Showcase booth which we had planned for the NAB was to have a way for members within the booth and throughout the show floor to talk about what they're doing and get their messages out to the industry with 3.0. So we are actively pursuing a particular idea along those lines that we're not quite ready to announce yet but will soon. We're hopeful to keep that momentum going by providing a platform for our members to talk about what they're up to with 3.0 as they head into April.

TVT: The ATSC working group that came up with 3.0, and probably all the working groups, were practicing social distancing before social distancing was cool; in other words a lot of the regular work got done on conference calls. Is that helping you in terms of the committees continuing to do work on the standard and best practices?

MN: I think you’ve assessed it exactly right. We conduct a large portion of our business remotely as it stands. That said, we do hold meetings face to face every other month. We had one scheduled for the end of the March, which has been converted into a virtual meeting. Nonetheless the work continues as expected and we expect active participation in these meetings even though they're remote. 

It saddens me because I really enjoy the company of the ATSC membership, what a great bunch of people to work with and I'll be really happy when we can convene in person again. I sort of miss that, but in terms of getting the work done, we can marginally do what we normally do even though we can't meet face to face as we hoped we would. 

TVT: Nobody knows where this thing is going, but if we go beyond the initial 15 day period and continue to work from home, will that have major consequences to what the ATSC is doing on NextGen TV or can you kind of remain in this remote mode for the indefinite future?

MN: For ATSC itself, we can remain in remote mode for as long as is necessary. I miss the camaraderie of face-to-face meetings, but I think for us the biggest impact is going to be on some of our membership as they relocate to home offices and some of them having to turn their attention to their own family and friends and officemates, and figure out a new way to work for the time being.

So I think that there's some of that happening but we're optimistic that work is going to continue apace. I know that everybody has a lot of great ideas on their mind and want to carry them forward. Fortunately the logistics of working remotely will iron itself out. Within the ATSC itself, this is what we do all day, all the time, so it's nothing new to us.

I think that after this initial period where everybody is settling into a new work pattern, things will probably continue apace and hopefully everyone will stay healthy so that is not an issue. We hope and expect to get a lot of work done. 

TVT: Obviously, right now the TV stations are under great pressure to deliver the local news. Are you concerned that this is going to affect stations' planning for deployment? 

MN: It's almost impossible to expect this isn't going to affect everything at some level. That said, we're very, very excited by the announcement out of Portland, Ore., earlier that low power stations in that market coming on with 3.0. We know that the FCC has at least created a little bit of slack in its repack schedule and that may impact some broadcasters' launch for 3.0, but I'm not sure. But I'm going to hope that if the situation doesn't dramatically deteriorate, that any impact will be short-lived and that progress will move forward. 

TVT: Given that the outbreak is worldwide, but particularly with South Korea and Japan facing issues, do you think Samsung, LG and Sony will be able to fulfill their stated plans for delivering the 20 3.0 sets this year?

MN: I certainly don't want to put the words into the mouth of these companies but I did see the LG announcement this week announcing their 2020 lineup which included the NextGen TVs and which ones exactly earned the NextGen TV logo, so we're expecting those to come out as scheduled. It's my understanding that those sets will hit retail real soon, within weeks, according to the announcement, in fact.

TVT: One of the important capabilities of 3.0 is the advanced emergency alerting, and over the past year there's been an evolution that will not only provide the emergency alerts of whether there's a tornado bearing down on you, but will provide more emergency information to the public about where to go in the event of emergencies. Do you think that capability might have been helpful for broadcasters in the crisis we face now? 

MN: It certainly would have been helpful when it comes to specifically local news that would be breaking at a given moment. Let's say, for example, the local county or state has made a recommendation about sheltering in place or a new update to the policies that they've implemented, and that could be presented on television as an emergency alert banner. That said, I think that as you point out in this case, many of the TV stations are probably running news stories all the time and their news departments are probably extremely busy right now, making sure their communities are informed. 

I can envision that the advanced emergency system would be extremely valuable on the Diginets where you can present some information over what’s happening on the Diginet. One of the aspects of the advanced emergency system is that it can ask the viewer, “hey, there’s breaking news over on our main channel, would you like to go there now?” and the viewer could click yes and it would automatically retune the television to the main station where breaking news is provided.

TVT: In regards to station deployments, do you think the industry will hold to its promise it made a year ago to deploy in 40 markets by the end of 2020? 

MN: I do, but I think again, this is a very fluid situation with respect to COVID-19 so it's very difficult to predict what's going to happen. But I would say that if the situation does not deteriorate dramatically that I would think that broadcasters will meet or come very close to the expectations that they set with previous announcements. 

One last thing I want to add: You asked about the emergency messaging role of broadcasters and I think about this situation and I can't think of a group of people who know more about how to get things done in the face of crisis more so than broadcasters. If anybody has a “get it done attitude” and figures out a way, it's going to be this industry. 

ARLINGTON, Va.—The standard has been approved, testing is ongoing and new TV sets with support for NextGen TV (aka ATSC 3.0) debuted at CES2020 earlier this month. Now comes the hard part—marketing it.

That was among the chief topics at SMPTE’s NextGen TV Summit hosted by WETA last week. A standing-room-only crowd discussed the technology, marketing and business opportunities broadcasters could harness with the new over-the-air broadcasting standard. And one of the first steps is branding.

“We don’t talk about ATSC 3.0 anymore,” said Lynn Claudy, senior vice president of technology for NAB and chairman of the ATSC board of directors; “now we talk about NextGen TV.”

KEEP UP WITH THE JONESES

In a quickly evolving mobile, digital world, broadcasters have to assert themselves once again if consumers are to embrace the new standard, Claudy added.

“There’s a lot of competition and disruption; you have to ‘keep up with the Joneses’ in digital media,” Claudy said. Referring to the IP component with NextGen TV that allows broadcasters to provide OTT-type services, Claudy said, “We have to be seamlessly integrated into existing online broadband ecosystem in a meaningful way.”

With increased demand on spectrum, “the pressure is on broadcasters to be more efficient,” Claudy added. “You’ve got to do more with less.”

Claudy’s opening comments were echoed by ATSC President Madeleine Noland.

“The cellular industry is ravenous for spectrum,” she said. “And the way to defend your spectrum is to use it well. And I think the ATSC 3.0 standard is going to help broadcasters make their stake in the ground very strongly with, ‘hey, our spectrum is being used extremely wisely for the betterment of the people and the economy.’”

One of the most significant differences between ATSC 1.0 and 3.0 is the latter standard’s emphasis on mobility, which was driven home by Mark Aitken, senior vice president of technology for Sinclair.

“[With ATSC 1.0], we lost consumers because we had an opportunity to be the mobile leader and we didn't choose that path,” Aitken said. “And if we forget that this time around, we might as well put the gun to our head right now.”

In 2017, Sinclair offered to give away 1 million NextGen TV tuners to any cellphone makers willing to add the capability to their devices. While there have not been reportedly any takers, Sinclair has showcased a NextGen TV chip it has developed in conjunction with Saankhya Labs, VeriSilicon and Samsung Foundry, and Aitken hinted that there will be new developments to see at the NAB Show in April.

“Don’t be surprised if you see a smartphone with a NextGen TV chipset at NAB,” Aitken predicted.

SINGLE FREQUENCY NETWORKS

Broadcasters are currently petitioning the FCC to revise the commission’s standards to allow the increased use of multiple transmitter deployments to make NextGen TV signals cut down on multipath, making the broadcast signal more robust in the mobile environment. These “single frequency networks” could be the key to consumer adoption, according to attendees.

“SFNs let you extend your coverage into shadow areas,” Noland said, adding that an SFN in San Francisco, for example, could increase audience reach up to 40%.

SFNs also represent an opportunity for broadcasters in one market to cooperate on deploying and enhancing NextGen TV coverage, according to Jeff Andrew of Osborn Engineering.

“We believe that SFNs should be co-located—all the stations in one particular market should all be on the same SFN sites, sharing the same infrastructure,” Andrew said. “Pick your channel assignments that support SFN deployment.”

NextGen TV also allows for enhanced graphics and geo-targeted emergency alerts through its AWARN platform. With broadcasters often serving as the primary source of information, this could enhance even more broadcasters’ roles during emergencies.

“Wireless companies are not overly eager about wireless alerts,” Noland said. “They don’t want to accept responsibility for the message that goes out. The broadcast community cares about such messages and enhances such messages. Broadcasters are content creators, not just content distributors, which differentiates us from the 5G community.”

John McCoskey, CEO of SpectraRep, mentioned that the industry needs to create a consistent look when it comes to providing enhanced emergency alerts.

“We are looking at approaches that will provide a similar look across all channels,” adding that “there is a fair amount of interest among broadcasters about how to tie emergency alerts into the news workflow.”

THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

NextGen TV is not being deployed in a vacuum however. 5G was described as “the elephant in the room” at the conference, but NextGen TV advocates emphasized the differences between a broadcast one-to-many service and cellular one-to-one.

Acknowledging the hype around the next-generation cellular standard now being rolled out in selected areas, Josh Arensberg with Verizon Media reminded attendees that “5G is an enabler, a last mile provider, just like ATSC 3.0,” but that as content creators, broadcasters can better enable programming and information tailored to the benefits provided by broadcast.

“Without content and people creating experiences, there’s nothing,” he said. But because higher resolution content comes with a bigger data appetite, “you can see a $500 bill within minutes with up to 10 Gbps downloads [in 5G],” adding that when it comes to efficiency in a mobile device, when compared to “cost per bit,” 5G is up to “90% less efficient.”

“[NextGen TV] can contribute to a very efficient battery life,” Arensberg added.

CONTENT IS NO LONGER ‘KING’

When it comes to business opportunities for NextGen TV, Mark Fratrik, senior economist with BIA took issue with the traditional “content is king” mantra.

“Platforms and devices drive the business models more than the content,” he said. “It’s hard to think that content is king; Roku, for example doesn’t create content, but Wall Street loves them. For incremental growth, it’s platforms and devices that drive the growth today.”

Fratrik and his colleague Rick Ducey unveiled the results of their study that estimates that broadcasters could grow revenue 50% over the next 10 years as they deploy ATSC 3.0. Nevertheless, the ATSC 1.0 signal will continue to be the main source of revenue over the next decade, they said.

“Even with the new capabilities NextGen TV provides, traditional linear TV advertising and retransmission will continue to account for the lion’s share of revenues throughout the 2020s,” Fratrik said.

A CLEAR MESSAGE

With deployments under way and sets scheduled to hit retail by the 2020 holiday shopping season, marketing NextGen TV will probably be the biggest challenge for broadcasters in 2020. Skip Pizzi, vice president of technology education and outreach for NAB, advised caution when promoting a product and service that can’t be accessed by consumers yet.

“You don't want to push too hard on the consumer side if there isn't yet a product that they can use,” he said. “You have to be careful and clear on the messaging.”

For those consumers who have heard about NextGen TV, the main takeaway has been that it will allow for 4K resolution and enhanced audio. And for South Korea, which has gotten a headstart on deploying ATSC 3.0, 4K has been described as the “killer app.”

That country in fact, is already planning on shutting down ATSC 1.0 before the end of the decade according to Claudy. “They have already planned their shutoff of ATSC 1.0 in 2027,” he said. “All HD content will be gone in favor of 4K by then.” But he also reminded attendees that that country’s transition to ATSC 3.0 was mandated by the government. “Korean broadcasters also got more spectrum for the transition,” Claudy said.

In the early stages of the deployment in the U.S., Claudy believes broadcasters will opt for 1080p resolution with HDR and HFR (in certain situations) and just offer 4K on “special occasions.” But by combining over-the-air broadcasting with IP, the capabilities are so much more than that, according to Stacey Decker, CTO of Public Media Group, who reminded attendees that it’s not just NextGen TV, but other advances such as the cloud, AI and software-defined networking that is revolutionizing broadcasting.

“We're at a unique time in our history with regard to technology disruption,” he said. “We now have the opportunity to take the infrastructure we've all known for years and deploy these things on top of it and make it powerful.”

For a comprehensive source of TV Technology’s NextGen TV coverage, see our NextGen TV silo.

LAS VEGAS—The 10-year slog taking a new generation of digital television broadcasting from a mere concept to a complete system capable of delivering IP-based video and other services to receivers in the U.S. homes is ending as 20 actual NextGen TV receivers are debuting this week at the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show—effectively closing the loop in the ATSC 3.0 ecosystem that long concerned broadcasters and fueled naysayers.

Speaking at an IEEE-sponsored event Jan. 6, the day before the opening of this year’s consumer electronics confab, Madeleine Noland, president of the Advanced Television Systems Committee, told those attending the session that 20 NextGen TVs [the consumer-facing marketing designation for ATSC 3.0 capable sets] will be announced at CES 2020.

Noland was joined on the stage by John Taylor, senior vice president of Public Affairs at LG Electronics; Dan Schinasi, director, Product Planning, Consumer Electronics Product Marketing, at Samsung; and Luke Fay, senior manager, Technology Standards, at Sony. Brian Markwalter, senior vice president at the Consumer Electronics Association, moderated the panel.

Earlier in the day, LG Electronics announced six new NextGen TV models ranging in size from 55 to 88 inches, which are expected to reach market in the second quarter. The day before, Samsung announced it would support NextGen TV in its full line of 8K products, ranging in size from 55 to 85 inches. The sets are expected to become available in spring 2020, said Schinasi.

(While the ATSC 3.0 standard could one-day be used to support 8K broadcasting, its highest supported resolution at the moment is 4K UHD.)

Sony’s Fay declined to provide any information about possible NextGen TV introductions, instead referring those at the session to attend the company’s press conference later in the day. Sony eventually debuted its X900H model that is NextGen TV-compatible.

Recalling a few years ago when he was walking on the roof of the Las Vegas Convention Center to mount an antenna to receive an ATSC 3.0 signal transmitted by the Sinclair Broadcast Group station from Black Mountain, LG’s Taylor emphasized that ATSC 3.0 is no-longer a work in progress. “Now it is real with real products and services coming on the air,” he said during the session.

Schinasi mentioned another sign that ATSC 3.0 consumer equipment is becoming a reality during the session. “From the marketing side, what’s a little bit unique here is for marketing this, ATSC 3.0 is the technical standard, for marketing this [the name] is NextGen TV. And through the efforts of CTA, the industry has gotten together a common name, a common logo, across CE companies, broadcasters, NAB, TV broadcast groups. Everyone will be marketing that, so that’s an important element to really help this get off the ground.”

With the news that 20 NextGen TV models are being announced at CES 2020, the reality of 3.0 coming to fruition is sinking in. Noland recalled a conversation she had with a “very prominent broadcaster” prior to the session.

“He [the broadcaster} said, ‘Oh my God, we have our work cut out for us,’” said Noland.

“The TV guys have really done a great job…,” she said. “The broadcasters are very excited about this. They know there is going to be product on the market. The product is going to be marketed to consumers, and there had better be something to watch,” she said.

For a comprehensive source of TV Technology’s ATSC 3.0 coverage, see ourATSC3 silo.

Television viewing is now much more than something that needs just a TV antenna or cable line. Over the past two decades, viewers have enjoyed a plethora of new viewing options, from satellites to streaming and new services that take advantage of better connections that can deliver more choice and control.

The original ATSC Standard was set in 1995, before the availability of DVD players (not to mention Blu-Ray). The iPod wouldn’t even be a reality for another six years. And the DVB-T standard dates from about the same time period. DVB-T2 was a huge improvement, but that 10-year-old technology dates from the era of the iPhone3.

Meanwhile, Moore’s Law has been chugging away each year reducing chip cost by half (or doubling capacity), mobile broadband penetration has exploded and Internet Protocol (IP) has taken over as the de facto language of the communications world.

The broadcast industry’s response to this rapid pace of technological change is the new ATSC 3.0 standard, now literally the best in the world.

Early in its conception, ATSC members determined that in order to achieve true excellence the ATSC 3.0 system would have to be non-backward-compatible with the current ATSC 1.0 system, giving the freedom to design a system with all the newest technical developments.

At the physical layer level, the flexible nature of the “bootstrap” functionality offers unparalleled extensibility for the standard, a unique advantage of ATSC 3.0. As we have learned over and over again, technology just doesn’t stand still. The myriad combinations of modulation, coding and features of the ATSC 3.0 physical layer offer significant improvement over standards a decade old (or even older), and features such as Layered Division Multiplexing bring unheard of opportunities for mobility and hybrid services with tangible spectrum efficiency advantages. ATSC 3.0 is well aligned with other communications technologies that are already in use today, and this reduces the complexity of implementation.

Certainly, better audio and video, more accessibility features, advanced emergency messaging and a high capacity, robust, flexible physical layer are all key elements. In addition to those advancements, one of the key decisions for ATSC 3.0 was that ATSC members wanted the new system to align with internet-based technologies. We envisioned a future of digital terrestrial TV broadcasting as an integral part of a global ecosystem that has embraced IP transport, web browser technologies and app-based services.

ATSC 3.0 IP transport offers several advantages, but perhaps most interesting is that it integrates well with other IP networks, such as the internet and cellular networks. A number of use cases have been envisioned and implemented already.

Of course, content security is paramount for any IP network. ATSC members again turned to existing internet technologies for a solution. In this case Common Encryption (CENC) was chosen. CENC is used by many OTT streaming apps, and so many receive devices already understand CENC. The challenge was to devise a CENC system that works on unconnected devices as well as connected devices. ATSC members and implementers (including new ATSC member Google) have solved this use case and are now implementing it in the Phoenix Model Market and elsewhere.

ATSC members also selected internet technologies for the interactivity system, which is based on technologies that are supported by the major web browsers running on laptops, desktops, tablets, smartphones and smart TVs. This convergence can simplify receiver development and also allow broadcasters to tap into the rich ecosystem of web developers, including the skilled men and women they already employ in the digital departments of local TV stations.

Today, we see the successful deployment of ATSC 3.0 in South Korea with millions of receivers sold. At this year’s NAB Show, broadcasters announced plans to deploy ATSC 3.0 in 61 U.S. TV markets over the next year—a move that will reach more than 70% of the U.S. population. Those introductions coincide with the expected introductions at retail of the first U.S. ATSC 3.0 TV receivers.

It’s an exciting time for Next Gen TV as broadcasters enter the global 21st century data-driven world.

Madeleine Noland is president of the Advanced Television Systems Committee.

For a comprehensive source of TV Technology’s ATSC 3.0 coverage, see ourATSC3 silo.

WASHINGTON—Madeleine Noland has been tapped by the Advanced Television Systems Committee Inc. to take over as president from Mark Richer as of May 15. Richer announced in January that he planned to retire after 20 years of leading ATSC.

“The ATSC Board of Directors warmly welcomes Madeleine Noland as the incoming ATSC president,” said Lynn Claudy, 2019 ATSC Board chairman. “From a sea of highly qualified applicants, the ATSC Search Committee, headed by former Chairman Richard Friedel, selected the perfect candidate, and the Board unanimously agreed.”

Noland is senior technology and standards advisor with LG Electronics, and is the current chair for the ATSC technology group that oversees the ATSC 3.0 next-generation broadcast standard. Noland has chaired various ATSC 3.0-related specialist groups, ad hoc groups and implementation teams since 2012.

Noland's career began in the TV industry in 2004 with Bachchannelmedia Inc., where she first started working on ATSC projects. She took over with product and project management roles at Teluve Corp. in 2012, then joined LG Electronic's CTO office in 2013. She also chairs the Ultra HD Forum's Guidelines Work Group.

In her career she has been recognized as an industry leader by multiple trade publications, while also earning the Bernard J. Lechner Outstanding Contributor Award, ATSC's highest technical honor, recognizing her leadership roles in the development of ATSC 3.0 Next Gen TV.

"Madeleine is superbly qualified to lead ATSC into the future," said Richer. "I couldn't be happier, passing the baton to such a talented leader."

In a separate release, NAB President and CEO Gordon Smith praised Noland's appointment: "NAB strongly supports and congratulates the ATSC on hiring Madeleine Noland to serve as President of the standards development organization. Her extensive hands-on technical experience coupled with her engaging management style will serve the organization well and ensure strong leadership at this important time in the deployment of Next Generation Television, ATSC 3.0."

"I am humbled and honored to follow in Mark Richer's footsteps, and I look forward with great enthusiasm to working with the talented ATSC Board and the hundreds of ATSC volunteer leaders," Noland said. "This is a critical time for the organization as Next Gen TV powered by ATSC 3.0 is commercialized in the months and years ahead."

WASHINGTON—There will be a changing of the guard in the ATSC Technology Group, as the ATSC Board of Directors have tapped Madeleine Noland to take over as lead from Dr. Richard Chernock starting in May. The ATSC Technology Group supports the implementation of the ATSC 3.0 next-generation broadcast TV standard.

Noland, a consultant for LG Electronics, has been part of the development phase of Next Gen TV as the chair of the Specialists Group on Applications and Presentation for ATSC 3.0 (TG3/S34), leading the effort to develop ATSC 3.0 features like vetting of standards for watermarking, advanced emergency alerting, personalization and companion devices, according to Mark Richer, ATSC president. She has also served as vice chair of the S31 Specialists Group, helping to frame the system requirements for ATSC 3.0.

[Madeleine Noland Receives ATSC Bernard Lechner Award]

“Throughout the development of ATSC 3.0 suite of standards, Madeleine has been a consistent and dependable leader,” said Richer in the official press release. “She is adept at forging agreements on difficult technical issues within the collaborative standards development process. Following in Rich’s footsteps is a logical progression for her. We are delighted that Madeleine has accepted this new assignment to guide the Technology Group’s continuing development of standards and recommended practices.”

Dr. Chernock, Triveni Digital’s chief science officer, has been the chair of the ATSC Technology Group since 2014.

For a comprehensive list of TV Technology’s ATSC 3.0 coverage, see our ATSC3 silo.