WASHINGTON—The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) has announced the launch of the NextGen TV News Technology Lab, a three-year initiative designed to help local stations harness the power of NextGen TV (ATSC 3.0) to better serve their communities through locally focused journalism.
The project is made possible by a $2.5 million grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
The effort comes at a time when broadcasters are trying to move beyond simply simulcasting existing content and offer services that highlight the unique features that NextGen TV broadcasts can offer viewers in terms of interactivity, advanced alerts and other capabilities.
Those new opportunities are based on the fact that ATSC 3.0 is the world’s first and only IP based broadcast standard that inherently supports broadcast and broadband delivery of content. That allows it to offers numerous new tools and capabilities that aren’t possible with the legacy ATSC 1.0 standard.
The NextGen TV News Technology Lab will enable broadcasters to build and experiment with new and innovative services that will ultimately help them better engage with their communities, the NAB said.
The NAB also reported that The NextGen TV News Technology Lab will work directly with multiple television stations and broadcast groups to design, test and integrate new ATSC 3.0-based projects in the newsroom.
Each participating station will receive resources and hands-on support to experiment with services that could, for example: enable advanced emergency alerting to save lives, expand community coverage through hyper-local news and weather, offer community specific sports broadcasting of high school and college games, explore integrations with Broadcast Enabled Streaming Television (BEST) channels and Free Ad-Supported TV (FAST) platforms to expand viewership, and deliver real-time local updates without requiring internet access, especially during emergencies.
“As the broadcast industry deploys NextGen TV, it is essential that newsrooms are empowered to fully leverage this technology to enhance the essential services they provide to viewers,” said Sam Matheny, NAB executive vice president and chief technology officer. “The NextGen TV News Technology Lab will help unlock the potential of ATSC 3.0 to deepen audience engagement, expand coverage and deliver content in more responsive and dynamic ways. We are grateful to Knight Foundation for their support in strengthening local journalism and innovation, and this comes at a pivotal time considering the pending full transition in the coming years.”
In addition to project-specific resources, participants will have access to NAB’s Technology Lab at its headquarters in Washington, D.C., for implementation testing and verification prior to over-the-air deployment in the project markets. The program will also publicly document project findings to expand the benefit beyond the participants to the entire broadcast industry.
The program runs through October 2028. The NAB has been pushing the FCC to allow broadcasters to sunset 1.0 broadcasts and exclusively offer 3.0 feeds beginning in Feb. 2028 in the 55 largest markets and cut off 1.0 broadcasts in every market by Feb. 2030.
