Nebraska public broadcasters are among the first in the nation to launch a free “virtual” channel over NextGen TV and the former CTO of Nebraska Public Media was at the ATSC NextGen Broadcast meeting in Washington D.C. last week to demonstrate its capabilities.
As part of its extensive capabilities, the ATSC 3.0 advanced television standard—now available to approximately 76% of U.S. TV households—allows broadcasters to launch so-called “virtual” channels. Like traditional main channels, they are transmitted over the air, using the NextGen broadcast data channel capacity of a host broadcaster, sending data directly to a viewer’s smart TV. Viewers with NextGen TVs can view and select the channel in their programming guide and access the channel seamlessly over the internet.
In Nebraska Public Media’s case, the broadcaster teamed up with Sinclair to launch its "Broadcast-Enabled Streaming TV" (BEST) Channel in Omaha last fall. Nebraska Public Media’s PBS and local programming is hosted on KPTM, Sinclair’s Fox affiliate in Omaha, and delivered in high dynamic range (SL-HDR1)
Ling Ling Sun—who as former CTO for Nebraska Public Media, led a team that launched the channel and is now vice president of technology for Maryland Public TV—explained the premise of the launch.
“We have many loyal viewers, and they watch our shows on different platforms,” she said. “We wanted to provide one portal to our viewers, so from this screen, they can watch linear broadcasting or video on-demand. And we also integrated our radio streams into it. Viewers can also scan the QR code [on-screen] to donate. And we incorporated some community outreach programs. It’s basically a service to inform, educate and entertain our viewers.”
In addition to local programs such as the long-running “Backyard Farmer,” the virtual channel also includes weather alerts as well as live and on-demand coverage of the Nebraska Unicameral Legislature. In other words, basically most programming and live services available on the network’s traditional TV and radio channels can be made available on its BEST channel.
When NextGen TV was launched in Omaha in 2022, the four major networks began broadcasting from host station KXVO, which serves as the lighthouse station for the area. However, PBS was not part of the launch and in the fall of 2024, the network launched its virtual channel on KPTM, Sinclair’s Fox affiliate in Omaha, the result of an agreement between Sinclair and America’s Public TV Stations (APTS) in which the broadcast station group agreed to provide carriage of APTS member stations for free in markets where Sinclair had deployed NextGen TV and a public television station had not.
The technology enabling the virtual channel resides in the RUN3TV platform, which brings two-interactivity to broadcast television. The platform’s architecture enables TV stations to develop, innovate and differentiate at the application services layer, making possible consistent viewer experiences across all NextGen TV devices, according to Pearl TV, which launched it in 2022.
“I wanted to deploy this on RUN3TV because I think this is a great example where we can combine OTA and OTT together,” Sun said. “One portal, one unified access so people can watch over the air and also easily jump to OTT.”
To develop the interface, Sun reached out to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for help from a senior student design team. The network sponsored the initiative that involved six students working on the project which resulted in the team receiving a Platinum Award from the University, according to Sun.
Other markets that have launched virtual channels under the SInclair-APTS initiative include Nashville and Reno, Nev.
