PHOENIX, Ariz.—NextGen TV has expanded in the Phoenix market, an early testbed for the technology, with 11 local stations now offering ATSC 3.0 broadcasts. 

"Phoenix was the first NextGen TV launch in the nation, and we are pleased to be expanding the NextGen TV viewing opportunities for the Phoenix area," noted Anne Schelle, managing director of Pearl TV, the broadcaster business group that is coordinating NEXTGEN TV station launches. "NextGen TV isn't just better TV, it is a new enhanced TV experience that is revolutionizing how viewers interact with their home screens, by merging over-the-air TV with the internet. Viewers will be able to get the most out of live programming, such as news, events, and sports on even more channels." 

The 11 local stations that have launched the ATSC 3.0 broadcasts in Phoenix are: The E.W. Scripps Company's KASW (CW, Channel 61) and KNXV (ABC, Channel 15), Fox owned-and-operated KSAZ (Fox, Channel 10) and KUTP (Fox10 Xtra, Channel 45), Meredith Local Media's KPHO (CBS, Channel 5) and KTVK (Independent, Channel 3), NBCUniversal owned KTAZ (Telemundo, Channel 39; finalizing its service availability by the end of the summer), Arizona PBS' KAET (PBS, Channel 8), TEGNA's KPNX (NBC, Channel 12), and Univision's KFPH-CD (UniMas, Channel 35) and KTVW (Univision, Channel 33).

Phoenix is one of the most advanced markets delivering NextGen TV broadcast services and is an area where NextGen TV services were extensively tested in recent years. 

TV Tech has been tracking the launch of NextGen TV services around the country. A complete list of cities where the broadcasts are now available can be found here. Our extensive coverage of the subject, with scores of articles, can be accessed here.

NEW YORK—Locast, the free TV station streaming service, has added two more markets, Atlanta and Phoenix, bringing its total to 15 markets where broadband users can watch local TV station signals over-the-top for free, though Locast asks for a donation.

Broadcasters have sued Locast over the service, which relies on an exception for nonprofits in copyright law to stream the stations without asking their permission or negotiating a fee for carriage.

Locast was launched by the Sports Fans Coalition in part as a way to give viewers access to sports programming during retrans blackouts—via a copyright exemption for nonprofits that retransmit TV-station signals, like the translators that extend TV station signals to hard-to-reach areas.

Obviously, alternative ways for MVPDs to get stations that don’t involve going to the local bar or switching to an antenna reduces broadcasters’ leverage in retrans negotiations. For example, AT&T, during its recent impasse with Sinclair, suggested Locast as an alternative to stations blacked out by Sinclair.

In their suit, network lawyers say Locast is nothing like the TV translators it purported to resemble. “Locast is not a public service devoted to viewers whose reception is affected by tall building[s] … Instead, Locast’s founding, funding and operations reveal its decidedly commercial purposes,” they said.

Locast said it will add more markets before the end of the year, and if it can raise enough via donations, all 210 markets eventually.

PHOENIX—Seven broadcasters across 10 stations in Phoenix will launch what they describe as a “model market” to demonstrate the viability of the next-gen ATSC 3.0 ecosystem while at the same time continuing to serve over-the-air viewers with legacy ATSC 1.0 digital television, the broadcasters announced today.

The broadcasters include E.W. Scripps Company, Fox Television Stations, Meredith Local Media Group, Nexstar Media Group, Tegna, Telemundo Station Group and Univision. The Pearl TV consortium will coordinate the effort.

“Our goal is to have the market serve as a model for deployment for the next generation of TV service,” said Anne Schelle, managing director of Pearl TV.

“That will provide the industry with the components and framework that will be common as guidelines for the industry to deploy 3.0 services.”

Government authorization allowing broadcasters to begin deploying ATSC 3.0 on a voluntary basis is expected to be granted Nov. 16 at the FCC’s monthly Open Commission Meeting in Washington, D.C.

If commissioners vote in the affirmative, the participating Phoenix broadcasters will aim to have ATSC 3.0 service on air before the NAB Show, April 7-12 in Las Vegas, said Schelle.

Anne Schelle

There were a few reasons Phoenix, with more than 20 percent of its 1.8 million TV viewers receiving OTA television, was chosen for the model market project, she said.

“First, we are already testing together for the Verance watermark test,” said Schelle. Another factor was separate ATSC 3.0 interactivity testing Pearl TV has been involved with in the market.

Additionally, the consortium has a good relationship with cable operators in Phoenix, which makes it easier to test MVPD interoperability, she said.

Finally, only a couple of the stations participating in program will be changing channel assignments as part of the FCC TV spectrum repack and those stations are assigned to Phase 1 of the repack, she said. That made it relatively uncomplicated to get an early start in Phoenix.

Participating stations include:

· KNXV (Channel 15), E.W. Scripps Company’s ABC affiliate;

· KSAZ (Channel 10), Fox Television Station’s Fox station;

· KUTP (Channel 26), Fox Television Station’s MyTV Network;

· KPHO (Channel 17), Meredith Local Media Group’s CBS affiliate;

· KTVK (Channel 24), Meredith Local Media Group’s independent;

· KASW (Channel 49), Nexstar Media Group’s CW Network affiliate;

· KTAZ (Channel 39), Telemundo Station Group’s Telemundo station

· KPNX (Channel 12), Tegna’s NBC affiliate;

· KFPH-CD (Channel 35), Univision’s UniMas station; and

· KTVW-DT (Channel 33), Univision.

Phoenix will serve as a testbed for the business models and the consumer testing needed to prepare go-to-market strategies for next-generation television, said Schelle.

Among those are over-the-air delivery to fixed receivers, mobile –especially for the automotive market—as well as interactivity and MVPD retransmission.

An equally important thrust is to demonstrate the viability of the lighthouse approach to keeping legacy DTV on-air while broadcasters transition to 3.0, she said. The approaches taken in Phoenix can serve as a model to the entire industry.

Schelle said she envisions channel sharing beyond what she calls “self-sharing,” or duopolies, as part of the effort in Phoenix.

 “All of this demonstrates to the market the seriousness of broadcasters [regarding 3.0] and the need for the entire ecosystem to invest and complete implementations,” she said.

“The standard is near completion. Now it is time to build and get out to the marketplace.”

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