HUNT VALLEY, Md.—Sinclair and its wholly-owned subsidiary One Media Technologies have released a new report focused on how ATSC 3.0, the IP-based NextGen TV standard, delivers data more efficiently and in a more sustainable manner than other wireless transmission alternatives.
The report, “ATSC 3.0: Efficient, Scalable, Sustainable Wireless Capacity,” was penned by One Media Technologies strategic marketing advisor Josh Gordon with an introduction by Sinclair senior vice president and One Media Technologies president Mark Aitken.
“ATSC 3.0’s IP streams are now opening business and efficiency opportunities at broadcast stations as well as with the IP systems used by telecoms, streamers, CDNs, and data transport companies,” the report says.
While covering a lot of familiar ground for those involved with the standard, the report brings a good deal of context to the discussion, particularly in terms of how 3.0 and 5G together address some major problems with growing video consumption over unicast wireless networks. It examines how 3.0 can reduce 5G capacity spikes and thereby reduce the need for infrastructure buildout, additional electrical power and associated carbon emissions created to power new network cells as well as create massive savings in the capital expense otherwise needed to construct new 5G cell sites.
Hybrid 5G-Broadcast Examples
The report points to two examples of the benefits of a hybrid multicast-unicast data network. In the U.K., British Telecom has spent about $1 billion to create its Multicast-Assisted Unicast Delivery System (MAUD), which leverages existing terrestrial broadcast and satellite spectrum to augment 5G service and cut capacity peaks in half.
The report quotes a CSI magazine interview with BT director of engineering Ian Parr as saying: “We can expect MAUD technology to use up to 50% less bandwidth during peak events, reducing energy usage through the use of fewer caches, and network equipment scale. What is more, next generations of equipment will use even less power and drive down carbon emissions of media distributions.”
If current media consumption trends continue, with individuals accessing content via a solely unicast wireless network, it could cost the U.K. wireless industry as much as $20.8 billion to build out capacity to handle the traffic, making MAUD’s $1 billion price tag a bargain, the report says.
Similarly, India’s 5G wireless network “sometimes gets clogged” with video, the report says, pointing out that congestion will only get worse going forward as mobile content consumption is expected to double every three to four years. That’s why Prasar Bharati, the nation’s public broadcaster, has conducted two rounds of trials of 3.0-based Direct-to-Mobile (D2M). The D2M initiative is in keeping with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s goals of using advanced digital technologies to advance the nation’s socioeconomic growth, it says.
According to the report, D2M could “shift 25-30%” of video traffic from 5G to enable operators to moderate their 5G network expansion.
Quoting a May 2025 article from The Economic Times of India, the report says: “India appears to be moving closer to a commercial roll-out of the direct-to-mobile (D2M) technology, having completed significant preparatory work.”
ATSC 3.0 Efficiency
The report begins with a discussion of the efficiency of the ATSC 3.0 physical layer. It discusses how closely 3.0’s different operating points (capacity vs. robustness) are aligned with the Shannon Limit—the maximum number of bits that can pass through a channel, pointing out that on this basis alone 3.0 is 28% more efficient than ATSC 1.0.
It also discusses how the High-Efficiency Video Codec (HEVC) is four times more efficient than the MPEG-2 codec used for 1.0. Together, the physical layer efficiency and HEVC’s efficiency “deliver a 5x video efficiency increase over ATSC 1.0,” it says.
It then explores how even greater video efficiencies can be achieved with the standard. It points out that the Versatile Video Codec (VVC), which the Advanced Television Systems Committee standardized support for earlier in the year, is twice as efficient as HEVC. Further, efficiencies are possible through the use of Multiple Input Multiple Output technology, which is supported in ATSC 3.0 and is one of the centerpieces of Brazil’s TV 3.0 standard, which leverages many components of the ATSC 3.0 suite of standards.
The report is published as a PDF with links to multiple reference works, including guides, manuals, articles and videos, such a 30-minute video on the functionality of the 3.0 physical layer by Luke Fay of Sony Electronics, former chair of the ATSC committee that developed it.
The report concludes by reiterating how ATSC 3.0 enhances efficiency and sustainability. “Broadcasters that adopt ATSC 3.0 advance responsible stewardship of their broadcast spectrum by both raising the efficiency of TV delivery, and by adding efficiency to IP systems they integrate with. In short, ATSC 3.0 transforms the output of a terrestrial TV station into a series of multipurpose streams that can natively integrate with digital infrastructure.”
According to a One Media Technologies spokesperson, the report will be discussed during a Dec. 11 TVNewsCheck webinar.
Click here to download the report.
More information about the webinar is available online.
