LAS VEGAS—The challenge of attending CES is its size. The convention utilizes all of the enormous Las Vegas Convention Center as well as several other facilities, so often getting from one vendor appointment to another is an exercise in logistics and physical endurance. This was not as much of a problem for me this year as I was focused on what was happening in ATSC 3.0 (aka NextGen TV).
Not that CES wasn’t enormous—it certainly was—but the ATSC booth was located in the new Grand Lobby of the LVCC and that seemed to be where all of the NextGen TV information was. While I didn’t see every vendor at the show, I cannot recall seeing an ATSC 3.0 or NextGen TV reference anywhere on the various floors.
I spent time listening to presentations about the latest and greatest television displays. My consistent question after the presentation was the same: “Does this set include a NextGen TV receiver?” To their credit, I didn’t have anyone say “no,” but I also didn’t hear anyone say “yes”—mostly because I think they didn’t know what I was asking for. The one exception was Sony, which doesn’t even exhibit televisions as a product at CES anymore; they knew the vast majority of their sets are NextGen TV-ready. So after a long day on the floor I went back to the ATSC booth and found out the latest.
The Quest for Cheap Converter Boxes
The biggest news is the work that Pearl TV is doing with its partners iWedia and Skyworth on the creation of a low-cost, plain “vanilla” converter box—think of the coupon-eligible converter boxes of the original DTV conversion two decades ago. Anne Schelle, Managing Director of Pearl TV, says that by creating a model with tailored specifications, it qualifies the units for discount pricing from the IP owners and the chip set manufacturers.
I say “plain vanilla,” but in truth, the final specifications are still being worked out and it is a bit of a balancing act. The idea is to bring the box to market at $60 or less, which presents some interesting challenges. According to Miguel Rivera, Skyworth’s Director of Business Development for North America, the explosion of AI infrastructure has created a supply chain issue on components such as DDR memory chips.
So there are still details to be worked out and according to both Schelle and Rivera they are analyzing what consumers really need and want to get the best trade off of features for price.
Understanding what consumers want is critical for the success of the project. Pearl is working with Magid Associates to analyze consumer data to help ensure that this device ticks the right boxes. Ultimately what will be delivered is a converter box with an antenna input and an HDMI output that will allow any display to present NextGen TV to the viewer.
Target: 50K Boxes for Retails By the End of 2026
One area where this converter box will outperform the original DTV converter boxes is that there are already many successful implementations of ATSC 3.0 tuners in the market so much of the refinement has already been accomplished.
Additionally, Skyworth and their software partner iWedia already have considerable experience since Skyworth is providing the tuners for TV 3.0 in Brazil and Mexico as well as being licensed to provide the receivers for televisions marketed under the Panasonic and Phillips brands. This level of experience should ensure that these new converters function properly.
According to Rivera and Zillow Radonjic, business development manager for iWedia, this CES was technically the first demonstration of a prototype for the project. The target is to have a working demo by the end of the summer when the complete list of specifications is better defined and an initial run of approximately 50,000 units by year end. Schelle expects that promotion of NextGen TV and the units will begin around that same time frame. Of course all of this is dependent on supply chain stability.
I asked Schelle what metric Pearl would use to measure the success of the venture. She offered that success would be “incremental.” Pearl’s belief is that by delivering a working model of an affordable converter, other manufacturers would step up to the plate and deliver similar units under their own branding.
Several times during the conversation, the need to sunset ATSC 1.0 was mentioned so I asked what Pearl would see as the best 1.0 sunset rulemaking. Robert Folliard, Gray Television’s senior vice president of government relations and distribution, offered that broadcasters need a hard date from the FCC as soon as they are comfortable. Neither Schelle nor Folliard believe that maintaining the current status was tenable for much longer.
Given that Pearl was using the DTV CECB (coupon-eligible converter box) model to develop this new device, I asked if they were considering presenting this program to Congress to generate support similar to the coupon program. While the answer wasn’t immediate, it was “yes,” but only as an idea and it wouldn’t be the deciding factor on whether or not to proceed.
A ‘Soft’ Market for NextGen TV
When asked about how satisfied she is with how the consumer electronics manufacturers are approaching NextGen TV, Schelle admitted that the market is certainly soft and that the business model has changed. Folliard also spoke about how set manufacturers have created their own walled gardens and are hoping to get broadcasters to pay to be discoverable within their Home Screen environment.
I postulated that I wouldn’t be surprised if the large manufacturers didn’t adopt the cellular model and give away televisions if the consumer signs up for a multi-year subscription plan. Schelle said he was happy to hear that, since they had been having similar discussions.
While the affordable converter box was the most interesting ATSC 3.0 development I looked at, I have to give an honorable mention to Zapper Mini. One of the challenges that I see to any renaissance of OTA television is the idea that every set in the house has to have an antenna cable drop.
The Mini uses a regular Zapperbox as a gateway and then uses WiFi or Ethernet to connect Mini’s to the gateway. You can put these on every television in the house with the gateway connected to a single antenna. It is an interesting technology that I am looking forward to trying in my home.
