ALBANY, N.Y.—Albany’s major broadcast stations have launched NextGen TV broadcast signals from local affiliates of ABC, CBS, Fox, PBS and CW.
The five stations launching the NextGen TV, a.k.a. ATSC 3.0 broadcasts, are WTEN (the Nexstar-owned ABC affiliate), WRGB (the Sinclair-owned CBS affiliate), WXXA-TV (the Mission Broadcasting-owned Fox affiliate), WCWN (the Sinclair-owned CW affiliate) and WMHT (WMHT Public Media’s PBS affiliate).
As part of the launch, WCWN, owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, has converted to ATSC 3.0 transmissions. WCWN will broadcast its own programming, as well as the programming of the other participating stations, in NextGen TV format.
All the programming of each participating station will continue to be available in the existing DTV format, which all modern television sets can receive. BitPath, which is developing new data broadcasting services, led the planning process and coordinated efforts across the five television stations.
This latest deployment marks the 48th market to launch ATSC 3.0 in the U.S. Approximately 45% of U.S. TV households are within range of receiving ATSC 3.0 with that percentage expected to grow to 75% by the end of 2022, according to the ATSC.
CTA estimates that 3 million NextGen TV compatible TV sets have been sold in the U.S. so far and predicts sales of 4.5 million of the sets to be sold by the end of 2022.
TV Tech has been tracking all the markets that are planning to or have launched ATSC 3.0 broadcasts here.
For more information, visit TV Tech's NextGen TV page.
