The Consumer Technology Association released research suggesting that, in 2018, about 8.1 million Americans will buy TV antennas, up from just under 8 million for the past several years. CTA senior vice president of research and standards Brian Markwalter believes that the uptick in sales of home antennas is due to more cable subscribers cutting the cord. CTA research found that 20 percent of consumers say they watch over-the-air (OTA) TV via an antenna; NAB stated that more than 72 percent of Americans rely on an antenna for OTA. Continue reading Cord-Cutters Are Driving Sales of OTA Antennas for Live TV

ATSC 3.0 — otherwise known as Next Gen TV — is a dramatic remaking of U.S. broadcast, and, at NAB 2018, a select group of broadcasters and technologists came together to describe actual field deployments of the new system and talk about the potential innovations and opportunities for programming, advertising and return-on-investment. Capitol Broadcasting Company director of engineering and operations Pete Sockett said it best: “UHD works. It just plain works, like it says in the spreadsheet.” Continue reading NAB 2018: ATSC 3.0 Now Live with Next Gen TV Deployments

As it does every year, the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) presented a rundown of emerging technologies it believes will go mainstream in three to five years. “These technologies are still incubated out of the mainstream,” said IP Action Partners president Stuart Lipoff, who moderated the CES event. He identified seven “overarching drivers of emerging technologies,” beginning with managing complexity of feature-rich hardware, QoS-aware broadband connectivity and cheap, abundant storage. Continue reading IEEE Pinpoints New Technologies to Go Mainstream by 2023

In the Grand Lobby of the Las Vegas Convention Center at CES 2018, ATSC president Mark Richer, NAB president Sen. Gordon Smith and CTA president/chief executive Gary Shapiro gathered to clink glasses of champagne to celebrate the official rollout of the new ATSC 3.0 television standard. In the audience were ATSC board members and several people who contributed to the standard. “Today’s milestone wouldn’t be possible without the work of hundreds of people,” declared Richer. “It’s been an intensive five year effort by all these people.” Continue reading ATSC, CTA, NAB Chiefs Gather to Celebrate ATSC 3.0 Rollout

The advent of smart TVs connected to the Internet has opened up new ways to gather data about the viewing of TV shows and ads. Three companies — Sorenson Media, Alphonso and Verance — are getting ready to leverage new technologies. The first, which is known for its video compression and coding technology, has a way to detect and analyze what’s on a smart TV screen and play the ad best targeted for a specific household. The company has created deals with smart TV manufacturers to have access to the data necessary to do so. Continue reading Preparing for Targeted Ads and Better Metrics With Smart TVs

As expected, the Republican-led FCC voted 3-2 along party lines yesterday to reverse the media cross-ownership ban. Now, an individual company will be permitted to own TV and radio stations and a newspaper in the same town. Changes to the rules, which were originally created to prevent individual entities from holding an unwanted amount of power over local news and information, also makes it possible to increase the number of TV stations that a single company can own in a given market. The deregulation was largely supported by broadband, cable and media companies, while opposed by consumer advocates concerned about the future of local news and diversity of expression. Continue reading FCC Reverses Decades-Old Media Cross-Ownership Rules

The FCC is scheduled to vote today on the long-awaited ATSC 3.0 broadcast standard. On the eve of the vote, privacy advocates have expressed concern that the standard allows broadcasters to harvest data about individual viewing habits so that advertisers can target their pitches, and there are no rules governing how broadcasters handle the data. In its 109-page proposal for the new rule, the FCC does not mention the issue of privacy. Broadcasters perceive the rule as a way to catch up to Facebook, YouTube, Amazon Prime and others. CTA president Gary Shapiro defends the standard and suggests the vote is being politicized due to the Sinclair-Tribune merger proposal. Continue reading Consumer Groups Say Next Gen TV Standard Ignores Privacy

An NAB panel on upcoming changes in Digital TV, moderated by NAB vice president of spectrum policy Alison Neplokh, focused on the challenges and promises of deploying ATSC 3.0., or as an increasing number of industry experts are dubbing it, Next Gen TV. Neplokh noted that FCC chair Ajit Pai stated the rules will be in place by the end of 2017, enabling broadcasters to adopt it quickly. South Korea is also going online with ATSC 3.0 next month, allowing U.S. broadcasters to learn from its experiences. Continue reading NAB 2017: Next Gen TV Will Bring Innovation, New Revenues

At last week’s NAB show in Las Vegas, numerous manufacturers offered tools related to streaming on various OTT platforms and social media. Telestream, which has provided file-based video transcoding and high-quality media exchange over IP networks since the late 1990s, has doubled down on such products for broadcasters. Although broadcasters have availed themselves of Telestream tools for some time, the upcoming ATSC 3.0 TV standard adds urgency to broadcasters’ need to adapt to the technologies behind IP networks and OTT platforms. Continue reading NAB 2017: Telestream Offers OTT Solutions for Broadcasters

In his first appearance at NAB, FCC chair Ajit Pai got a warm welcome from broadcasters who liked what they heard. Pai promised to promote ATSC 3.0, also known as “next gen TV,” prune out regulations that are out-of-date or present obstacles to broadcasters, and tweak others. “Inertia is a powerful force in government,” declared Pai, who said he was “fundamentally optimistic” about broadcasting’s future. “There are close to 1,000 pages of broadcast rules, many of them decades old, and I’m trying to change that.” Continue reading NAB 2017: FCC Chair Ajit Pai Vows to Trim Dated Regulations

At NAB in Las Vegas, Technicolor gathered group chief technology officer Cristina Gomila, group SVP/CTO home division Jon Walkenhorst and Technicolor Experience Center head Marcie Jastrow to talk about the company’s work in immersion, 360-degree video, virtual reality and other nascent technologies. Jastrow pointed out that these are early days for virtual reality. “The technology is still rough and delivering experiences to headsets isn’t easy,” she said. Yet Technicolor has been involved in 18 VR projects in the last year. Continue reading NAB 2017: Technicolor Unveils Research and Trials in VR, AR

At CES 2017, LG Electronics introduced the first ATSC 3.0-enabled 4K UHD TVs for South Korea, which will begin deploying the new broadcast standard in anticipation of the 2018 Winter Olympics. The new 2017 models, which will go on sale in the spring, will have both ATSC 3.0 and ATSC 1.0 tuners. At CES, LG demonstrated a 65-inch LED TV with an embedded second-generation ATSC 3.0 tuner displaying 4K UHD HDR programming. The company also showed ATSC 3.0’s “advanced electronic service guide” capabilities. Continue reading LG Introduces First ATSC 3.0-Enabled TV for Winter Olympics

CES 2017 may be best remembered not for one standout product, but for revealing a new and powerful generation of technology and the things it enables. The top five CES hashtags as the show ended perfectly summarize the hot topics of the week: #tech, #iot, #ai, #VR, and #CES. It was also a remarkably balanced show in the sense that almost every product category and business sector reflected applications and the impact of this evolution. Moore’s Law is alive, tomorrow is here, and the pace is accelerating. Three of the most important presentations of the week were made by Nvidia, Intel, and Qualcomm. Their processors deliver the power necessary for this next level of computing. Continue reading CES 2017: That Just Happened – Closing Day Takeaways

ATSC 3.0 is on the horizon, and Sinclair Broadcast Group chief executive/president Chris Ripley is excited. At CES 2017 in Las Vegas, he described the “five key new tenets” of ATSC 3.0 that will allow his company to do business differently. First and foremost, he said, is that “it’s a mobile-first standard” that is compatible with existing mobile technology. “Mobile is predicted to expand dramatically,” he enthused. Second, ATSC 3.0 is IP end-to-end, which will enable his stations to seamlessly integrate “content from broadband and IP perspectives.” Continue reading Broadcasters Embrace ATSC 3.0 and the Mobile TV Business

In a 21-page petition, a group comprised of the NAB, America’s Public Television Stations, the Consumer Technology Association and the AWARN Alliance is asking the FCC to authorize use of the new ATSC 3.0 transmission standard — what the collective refers to as “Next Generation TV” — in order to improve delivery of 4K broadcasting, streaming to smartphones and tablets, personalization features and IP-based services. ATSC 3.0 “will create the bedrock for continuing innovation by the television industry for decades to come,” claims the petition. Continue reading ATSC 3.0: NAB Calls on FCC to Authorize Next Generation TV