SPECIAL GUIDE: NEXTGEN TV

May
2024
ebook

www.tvtech.com

Branching
Out NextGen TV broadcasters
explore the potential of a
datacast future
Sponsored by
ROHDE & SCHWARZ • TELOS ALLIANCE
 editor's note

May 2024

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CONTENT
Content Director
Tom Butts, tom.butts@futurenet.com
Content Manager
Terry Scutt, terry.scutt@futurenet.com
Senior Content Producer
George Winslow, george.winslow@futurenet.com

Credit: Getty Images

Contributors Gary Arlen,
James Careless, Fred Dawson, Kevin Hilton,
Craig Johnston, Bob Kovacs and Mark R. Smith
Production Manager Heather Tatrow
Art Editors Matt Lochrie and Rosie Webber

ADVERTISING SALES

With NextGen TV Reaching

Managing Vice President of Sales, B2B Tech
Adam Goldstein, adam.goldstein@futurenet.com

Critical Mass, What’s Next?

MANAGEMENT
SVP, MD, B2B Amanda Darman-Allen
VP, Global Head of Content, B2B Carmel King
MD, Content, Broadcast Tech Paul McLane
VP, Global Head of Sales, B2B John Sellazzo In the seven years since the transition to ATSC 3.0 was launched, broadcast-
Managing VP of Sales, B2B Tech ers have diligently worked to deploy the advanced broadcast standard to
Adam Goldstein the point where signals now reach about 75% of U.S. households. Achieving
VP, Global Head of Strategy & Ops, B2B
Allison Markert
this critical mass hasn’t been easy and establishing a local transmission
VP, Product & Marketing, B2B Scott Lowe infrastructure to simulcast both 1.0 and 3.0 has prompted local stations to
Head of Production US & UK Mark Constance cooperate on a technical level never before seen in our industry.
Head of Design, B2B Nicole Cobban This year, the main goals of the transition are consumer awareness and build-
ing out new services that take advantage of 3.0’s hybrid IP-broadcast protocol. At
FUTURE US, INC.
130 West 42nd Street, 7th Floor,
the recent NAB Show in Las Vegas, several new services were announced that will
New York, NY 10036 allow broadcasters to devote a certain portion of their spectrum to provide datacast
services in the enterprise space. Such services have been on the drawing board for
years, with broadcasters promising a lucrative market for providing an essential link
that’s more reliable and robust than cellular technology. Is it ready for prime time?
All contents © 2024 Future US, Inc. or published under licence. All We’ll soon find out.
rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be used, stored,
transmitted or reproduced in any way without the prior written Along with expanding 4K/HDR programming, broadcasters are also starting to add
permission of the publisher. Future Publishing Limited (company
number 2008885) is registered in England and Wales. Registered ancillary services including personalized advertising, DVR-type features and hy-
office: Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA. All information
contained in this publication is for information only and is, as far as we per-local news and information that will help distinguish NextGen TV from its com-
are aware, correct at the time of going to press. Future cannot accept
any responsibility for errors or inaccuracies in such information. You
petitors. ATSC 3.0 is now expanding beyond the embryo stage and broadcasters are
are advised to contact manufacturers and retailers directly with
regard to the price of products/services referred to in this publication.
now testing new features and services that help the industry
Apps and websites mentioned in this publication are not under our be better prepared when it’s time to shut down 1.0.
control. We are not responsible for their contents or any other

contents
changes or updates to them. This magazine is fully independent and In our latest Guide, we take a look at the latest develop-
not affiliated in any way with the companies mentioned herein.
If you submit material to us, you warrant that you own the material
ments in the deployment of NextGen TV, and its market
and/or have the necessary rights/permissions to supply the material potential in an increasingly IP-focused media landscape.
and you automatically grant Future and its licensees a licence to
publish your submission in whole or in part in any/all issues and/or
editions of publications, in any format published worldwide and on 04 ATSC 3.0 Datacasting
associated websites, social media channels and associated Comes of Age Tom Butts
products. Any material you submit is sent at your own risk and,
although every care is taken, neither Future nor its employees, Content Director
agents,subcontractors or licensees shall be liable for loss or damage. 05 Broadcast Positioning tom.butts@futurenet.com
System Offers Alternative
to GPS and More
COMMENTS?
08 Detroit Broadcasters
Launch Start Over,
Have a comment or suggestion about this ebook or other ebooks
Datacasting to Boost
NextGen TV from TV Tech? Drop us a line at tvtechnology@futurenet.com.
ON THE COVER:
10 NextGen TV Update Photo credit: iStock

twitter.com/tvtechnology | www.tvtech.com | Special Guide: NextGen TV | May 2024 3

 OPINION
ATSC 3.0 Datacasting Comes of Age
Important 3.0 developments at the 2024 NAB Show point to near-term revenue from datacasting
The 2024 edition of the NAB Show
will be remembered as a turning
point in the effort to make ATSC
3.0-based datacasting a profitable
proposition.
Sinclair Broadcast Group
advanced its goal of monetizing
spectrum from datacasting with
the announcement of its Broadspan
datacasting platform.
AT&T Business was on the Phil Kurz
show floor in the ATSC booth
discussing a significant upcoming trial of
3.0 datacasting that will lead to a Q4 2024
commercial launch for business clients, and a
new venture, Peak3, informed public broad-
casters at Public Media Venture Group (PMVG)
TechConnect one day before the show about
its efforts to sell 3.0 datacasting services to
Internet of Things (IoT) customers.
DATA VERIFICATION
The new Broadspan platform gives busi-
nesses a way to distribute data over the air to
any device with a 3.0 receiver. Leveraging the
broadcast core network Sinclair announced
at the 2023 NAB Show, the platform enables
customers to plan, order and validate delivery
of their data. “They [customers] can immedi-
ately visualize network availability and order
distribution tailored to their needs with a
full picture of the path their data will take
through the network,” said Sinclair CEO Chris
Ripley during the company’s NAB Show press
conference.
Initially, Sinclair is making Broadspan avail-
able in the 30-plus markets where it is serving
as the 3.0 host station; however, the company
wishes to work with other broadcasters to grow
the service, he said.
There are a couple of key takeaways from
the Broadspan announcement. First, Sinclair
already has a taker for Broadspan. Content
delivery network Edgio will use the platform
to deliver data over the air that supplements
internet streamed content from OTT subscrip-
tion services to give viewers access to 4K video.
Second, the excess bandwidth available
on Sinclair’s 3.0 host stations available for
Broadspan is 9 Mbps for delivery to stationary
receivers, said Ripley. While at first glance that
may seem paltry when compared to median
U.S. mobile and fixed broadband speeds of 130
4 May 2024 | Special Guide: NextGen TV Update | www.tvtech.com |
Mbps and 250 Mbps, respectively,
such a comparison misses the
point.
“It’s apples and oranges,” said
Ripley. “When we say 9 Mbps, that
covers an entire geography… mul-
tiply that by the number of people
it covers, you’re going to get very,
very big numbers in terms of total
capacity.”
AT&T JOINS ATSC
On the floor in the Las Vegas Convention
Center West Hall, AT&T Business was full
of surprises. The first was that the compa-
ny joined the Advanced Television Systems
Committee within the past two months. It
is interested in using ATSC 3.0 as a business
solution for wireless data delivery, said Cy
Smith, founder and CEO of CY Networks,
which recently has been hired by AT&T Busi-
ness to provide engineering services related to
3.0 datacasting.
CY Networks makes a small, portable ATSC
3.0 receiver called Caros>>l (pronounced
Carousel) that can receive and parse a 3.0 data
stream and offers support for linear, real-time
CY Networks was in the ATSC booth at the NAB
Show demo-ing its Caros>>l compact portable
NextGen TV receiver. (L to R): Kris Brus, Niem
Dang, C.Y. Smith and Jay Costales
twitter.com/tvtechnology
as well as non-real-time datacasting.
The second surprise is AT&T Business this
summer will launch a pilot program using 3.0
OTA data delivery to Caros>>l receivers for
digital signage applications at its own retail
locations—rather than fiber circuits or 5G,
said Smith, adding that if all goes as expected
AT&T Business will launch a 3.0-datacasting
service for businesses before the end of the
year.
AT&T Business is talking to “OTA Wire-
less”—the E.W. Scripps-Nexstar Media Group
datacasting venture—about securing 3.0 band-
width and is “hoping to work with everybody
that wants to work with us” to secure band-
width, said Smith.
IOT POTENTIAL
Peak3 also sees the potential of 3.0 for
datacasting and has raised venture funding
to become a mobile virtual network operator
(MVNO) to provide data IoT solutions for
enterprises, said Alp Sezen, Peak3 CEO, who
spoke at PMVG TechConnect.
Peak3 has inked a deal with Sinclair for 3.0
bandwidth and is weeks away from signing
a deal with OTA Wireless as well, said Sezen,
who was at the conference to find a way to
work with public broadcasters as well. The
company already has customers that will soon
deploy, including a June rollout in Seattle and
another that will launch later in Denver, he
said.
IoT customers do not care about whose
network is used to deliver their data; they
simply care that their IoT devices can receive
that data when it’s transmitted. “We feel we
can do that on a national basis [leverage ATSC
3.0]” he said.
Sezen noted Peak3 has overcome a pricing
impasse that made its launch difficult. The
problem stemmed from the newness of 3.0
datacasting. Broadcasters, fearing they were
leaving money on the table, were reluctant to
assign a value to their 3.0 bandwidth available
for datacasting. The solution proved to be a
revenue split that would assure broadcasters
their capacity was optimally priced.
Together, all of these developments demon-
strate ATSC 3.0-based datacasting isn’t just
technically possible, but more importantly
that it is a viable, new revenue source that will
benefit the bottom line of broadcasters.

Broadcast Positioning System
Offers Alternative to GPS and More
3.0 can provide redundancy when communications
are threatened
By Phil Kurz
"Redundancy is ambiguous because it seems like
a waste if nothing unusual happens. Except that
something unusual happens—usually.”
– Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author, distinguished
professor of risk engineering at the New York
University Tandon School of Engineering
Imagine some day in the future you kiss your
young grandchildren and daughter goodbye
as they head to downtown Houston in their
new self-driving car. An hour later, you hear
on the radio there’s been a massive wireless
service outage. You fight back that tinge of
nausea in the pit of your stomach as your
mind immediately flashes to your family
whizzing down I-45. No network connection.
No navigation. No traffic data.
You’re left to hope the onboard safety
systems designed for such circumstances
function as promised.
RELIABLE COMMS
Back to the present. AT&T network customers
in Austin, Houston, San Antonio, Indianapolis,
Credit: istockphoto
OPINION
Chicago, Atlanta, Miami, Dallas and New York
City—more than 70,000 in total—were affect-
ed by an outage Feb. 21. About one out of two
AT&T customers reported having trouble with
their cell phones, and another 40% lost signal
entirely, according to a Time online story.
Cricket Wireless, which is owned by AT&T,
had problems, too. About 13,500 Cricket
customers reported outages, and Verizon and
T-Mobile customers had problems trying to
reach customers of affected carriers. AT&T
attributed its outage to a “process error,”
according to an NBC News online story.
The point, especially in the context of a
potentially life-threatening situation like the
future self-driving car scenario, is the impor-
tance of redundancy, especially when it comes
to communications systems.
KEEPING THE PUBLIC INFORMED
Look no further than the Sept. 11, 2001,
terror attack. Many may recall that the
multi-layered broadcast infrastructure serv-
ing New York City was bent but did not break What about the communications redun-
when the TV tower atop World Trade Center dancy needed to maintain safe operation of
Tower 1 came down. TV broadcasters on other self-driving vehicles in the future? The U.S.
towers, radio stations, cable TV and satellite Department of Transportation is looking into
TV seamlessly kept the public informed. the matter—in particular, into finding an alter-
native to the Global Positioning System (GPS).
NAB is heading up the broadcast effort
to pitch ATSC 3.0’s Broadcast Positioning Sys-
tem (BPS) to the Transportation Department
as an effective terrestrial GPS alternative.
Not only does GPS deliver critical positioning
info but also accurate timing data upon which
everything from modern power generation
to stock trading depends. So having a backup
simply makes sense.
The department’s effort may have taken
on added urgency as the White House said in
mid-February that Russia is developing a weap-
on that could one day threaten satellites.
If this is a legitimate threat to the na-
tion’s security, one could envision a scenario
in which the Department of Defense gets
involved, throws around a few billion dollars
to make 3.0 BPS a reality and in the process
solves the NextGen-TV-voluntary-transi-
tion-jampacked-3.0-lighthouse challenge the
industry currently faces.
Stay tuned.
twitter.com/tvtechnology | www.tvtech.com | Special Guide: NextGen TV Update | May 2024 5
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Realizing the undeniable
benefits of NextGen TV
ATSC 3.0 - NextGen TV - is transformative
for US broadcasters and the broader
communications landscape. It provides a
more modern. secure and efficient means of
broadcasting. as well as a huge potential for
additional revenues: as much as $15 billion
by 2030. predicts media research group BIA
Advisory Services.•
ATSC 3.0 provides local TV with a new form
of broadband. wireless. point-to-multipoint.
local market distribution. The fundamental
technical advancement is its abiLity to
deliver a stream of data in IP packets in the
same way that the internet does. This means
it can deLiver television very efficiently and
adapt instantly to different formats and
standards.
Broadcasters can choose to deliver some
of the television output in 4k. HDR and/
or immersive audio. ATSC 3.0 supports
formats for scalable broadcasting. such as
transmitting a core HD signal and adding
the additional data to upscale in the receiver
to Ultra HD.
It can work in conjunction with the internet.
so that the bulk of the data is deLivered
efficiently using terrestrial broadcast and just
the personalization data carried online. This
connectivity also provides the return path
for interactive services.
The flexibiLity and robustness of ATSC
3.0 creates a myriad of ways to monetize
pl t 11 11 " '' •-
6 June 2024 I Special Guide: NextGen TV Update
broadcast content and spectrum. State­
of-the-art encoding and modulation
technologies provide a more effective use
of spectrum.
With ATSC 3.0 broadcasters can add
channels to market quicker and generate
new revenue streams. including using
some of the spectrum for n o n -TV uses.
Geolocation services such as BPS -
Broadcast Positioning System are one
example. BPS enables the transmission
of very precise time signals from multiple
towers and can provide accurate location
information along with the
precision timing that a lot of
systems depend upon.
Datacasting can power the
delivery of data in multiple use
cases. including the Internet
of Things. Datacasting uses TV
broadcast spectrum to carry
data to computers. If a home can
receive a television signal. it can
also receive the data signal With
more connected devices than
ever. this is a huge estabLished
market for broadcasters.
In addition. ATSC 3.0-enabled TV sets pave
the way for new business models powered
by interactive content delivery. including
customized ads and offers.
ATSC 3.0 today reaches more than
80% of the U.S. population. but largely
through "lighthouse
transmitters".
Competing
broadcasters in
a market share a
single transmitter for
ATSC 3.0. while their
own transmitters
transmit legacy digital
broadcasting. The
data budget is full:
there is no space for
new services. Once
broadcasters recognize
the full potential and
move to put ATSC
3.0 on their own
I www.tvtech.com I O twitter.convtvtechnology
transmitters. those additional revenues and
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The new R&S®TE1 from Rohde & Schwarz
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1. "Sizing Growth Opportunities for NextGen
TV in Local Markets: Clear Upside Potential
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tv-local-markets-clear-upside-potential­
according-bia-study/
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nextgen tv

Detroit Broadcasters Launch Start Over, Datacasting

to Boost NextGen TV
Stations test consumer apps to build momentum for ATSC 3.0 in local markets

By Jon Lafayette

NextGen TV has been on the air in Detroit for

more than three years. At this point, not too
many people are tuning in, but broadcasters
there are using the market as a laboratory,
testing features and getting ready for when
more viewers are paying attention.
“There’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg
phenomenon going on,” Michael Newman,
director of transformation at Graham
Media Group, owner of WDIV Detroit, said.
“We need to demonstrate the value of this
next-generation television broadcast system.”
“We continue to search for the killer app
that will be the motivating factor,” said Kerry
Oslund, VP of strategy and business devel-

Credit: Getty Images

opment at E.W. Scripps, which owns WXYZ-
WMYD Detroit.
Later this year, the Scripps stations in De-
troit plan to enable “start over” and “pause”
functionality, giving over-the-air viewers a
feature that cable viewers and streamers take
for granted. The features also create new ad-
vertising inventory for the stations to sell.
Detroit is also the hub for OTA Wireless,
Scripps’s joint venture with Nexstar Media
Group, which is datacasting there and in In-
dianapolis, Kansas City and Denver, covering
about 6% of the country. Another station is
expected to be added, bringing coverage to
12%.
Datacasting could be used to update sig-
nage on a highway or menus in McDonald’s
throughout the station’s coverage area, for
example.
Business development people for OTA
Wireless are beating the bushes to sign up
clients and start to generate revenue
MORE THAN PRETTY PICTURES
The Federal Communications Commission
in 2017 approved the use of ATSC 3.0 broad-
cast technology, which was designed to offer
viewers a sharper picture with better color,
improved sound, mobile reception and access
to internet-based programming over the air.
Detroit’s TV stations have been broadcasting in ATSC 3.0 — and testing its new capabilities — for
the past three years.
For broadcasters, the new format could
support additional channels, pay services
enabled by conditional access and the ability
to offer other digital business services, such
as data delivery and enhanced GPS. One
estimate had those services delivering a
potential $15 billion in annual incremental
revenue for the industry at a time when it
is losing viewers and advertising revenue to
streaming.
Detroit was an early market to begin the
shift to NextGen TV—a brand name for ATSC
3.0—with Scripps’s WMYD firing up a trans-
mitter in December 2020.
WMYD, an affiliate of The CW, is the
market’s “lighthouse” station, which means it
is broadcasting ATSC 3.0 signals carrying its
own programming, as well as programming
for its in-market “guests,” Scripps’s ABC
affiliate, WXYZ; Graham Media’s CBS affiliate,
WDIV; Fox-owned WJBK; and CBS’s WWJ.
Originally, Scripps used Phoenix as its
NextGen test market.
“We do a lot of things with our
partners and our network partners in Phoe-
nix,” Oslund said.
But Detroit is where Scripps turns for its
own projects because of the auto industry,
which could be a big customer for mobile
datacasting, enhanced GPS and other busi-
nesses. “We want to be right under their nose,
which we have been,” Oslund said.
To Oslund, the story of Detroit is two
stories. One is about the viewer and advertis-
er experience with NextGen TV. The other is
about mobile wireless data, “and we’ve made
huge progress on that,” he said.
There are about 30,000 TV sets using
NextGen over-the-air in the market, Oslund
estimated.
The NextGen technology enables stations
to see who is watching, if they’re using an
over-the-air antenna, if the TV is connected

8 May 2024 | Special Guide: NextGen TV Update | www.tvtech.com | twitter.com/tvtechnology


to the internet and if the set owner has opted
into sharing data.
In March, Oslund was able to track 65,000
devices in 59,000 homes nationwide that have
tuned into a NextGen signal. They’ve tuned in
31 million times.
In Detroit, stations track 7,700 devices in
6,500 households. Those devices tuned in 2.2
million times. That data could be valuable.
The stations did their first data sharing deal,
which gives them a dashboard that tells them
how they’re doing with ATSC 3.0 viewers.
The stations, along with Pearl TV, a coa-
lition coordinating the NextGen rollout, are
discussing putting that data into a unified
platform and licensing it to measurement
companies, which don’t have another good
way to measure over-the-air viewing.
Scripps introduced the start over and pause
functions at last year’s NAB Show and have
rolled them out in Las Vegas. Detroit will have
it soon and “it seems like a no-brainer for us
everywhere else,” Oslund said.
“I wouldn’t say we’re slingshotting ahead
of the SVOD guys,” he added. “I think we’re
catching up in a lot of ways and that’s okay.
We need to.”
NEW VEHICLES FOR ADS
When an over-the-air viewer pushes the
start-over button on the remote control,
the set shifts from over the air to a virtual
Scripps station WXYZ is following the lead of sister station WCPO Cincinnati by rolling out “start
over” via ATSC 3.0.
streaming channel. A pre-roll
commercial or promo appears be-
fore the show restarts. “So we’re
creating new kinds of inventory
with new kinds of functionality,”
Oslund said.
The new technology will also
help compete with streamers for
advertising.
“As a local TV station, it’s
really important that we’re able
to compete with Netflix, Disney
and Paramount for ad dollars,”
Newman said.
At this point NextGen ads
are experimental. Stations will
be able to see exactly where
specific opted-in sets are located
and tell advertisers precisely
which households were exposed
to commercials, making them
more attractive to increasingly
data-driven marketers.
“If you can do it on the internet
we can do it on TV,” Oslund said.
In terms of programming,
Oslund said he hasn’t seen any
shows viewers like better on
NextGen sets. Because so many
stations are riding on a single
signal, there isn’t enough spectrum for 4K
pictures. But rolling out high-dynamic range
twitter.com/tvtechnology | www.tvtech.com | Special Guide: NextGen TV Update | May 2024
nextgen tv
(HDR) video for key sporting
events is a priority.
Eventually other features con-
sumers will value will be available
via ATSC 3.0, including interac-
tivity, personalization, commerce,
betting and up-to-date electronic
program guides.
Fox station WJBK is keeping
its powder dry. The station hasn’t
done any special programming
Kerry Oslund, VP of using its ATSC 3.0 channel, ac-
strategy and business,
E.W. Scripps cording to general manager Greg
Easterly.
“We’re just looking at it long
term to see what’s going to be the
best strategy and trying to deter-
mine what’s best for our viewers,”
Easterly said.
But at WDIV, Graham Media
is leaning into the new standard,
Newman said.
“We really wanted to demon-
strate what was different about
this signal,” he said. “I think the
Next-Gen stuff is hand and fist
Michael Newman,
director of above what digital can do.”
transformation,
Graham Media Group RUN3 TV APP LAUNCHED
Four or five weeks after ATSC
3.0 started airing, WDIV launched the Run3
TV sidecar application.
“When you are tuned to our television
station, you get a little call-to-action prompt
that’s noticeable but not very disruptive,”
Newman said. “With your remote control,
you can open up the menu and navigate to all
kinds of additional content” normally found
on a station’s website.
One feed available on the sidecar app is a
channel following the trial of the parents of
the 17-year-old who was found guilty of the
2021 mass shooting at Oxford High School in
Pontiac, Michigan.
Newscasts are available on-demand
through the app, as is an airport cam. Viewers
can create personalized feeds and bookmark
stories during the workday and come home
and watch them on their televisions.
The app provides a tangible benefit for
buying a NextGen set, Newman said. “We
have thousands of users in Detroit who ac-
tively have NextGen TV that are using our ap-
plications at the same time, and that’s every
single day,” he said. “The Run3 has allowed us
to dive in with two feet.”
Every once in a while, a set maker will
update software and knock the sidecar offline,
and calls come in from viewers who were
watching.
9
 nextgen tv update
NBCU Launches Personalized, Hyperlocal Services via 3.0
In a major step forward in the broadcast indus-
try’s move to ATSC 3.0, NBCUniversal recently
launched personalized broadcast experiences
through its NextGen TV (ATSC 3.0) over-the-
air channels on NBC- and Telemundo-owned
stations in four markets.
Up until now, content for viewers of Next-
Gen TV has mostly been limited to simulcasts
of a local station’s primary 1.0 signal. The new
service represents a significant milestone in
realizing NextGen TV’s full potential by intro-
ducing personalization, hyper-localization and
enhanced content capabilities to broadcast
television to improve the viewer experience
and enable advanced engagement, advertising,
and measurement opportunities, services that
have been promised but not realized until now.
The new experience—which automatically
launches when viewers tune into a NextGen
TV over-the-air channel—is now available on
NBC- and Telemundo-owned stations in the
New York (NBC 4 / WNBC and Telemundo 47 /
WNJU), Los Angeles (NBC4 / KNBC), Philadel-
phia (NBC 5 / WCAU) and Miami (NBC6 / WTVJ
and Telemundo 51 / WSCV) markets. Addition-
al NBC- and Telemundo-owned stations, which
are part of NBCUniversal Local, will soon
Station Groups Invest in ATSC 3.0 Software Platform
Several broadcast station groups have formed
an advocacy to invest and promote RUN3TV, a
software suite for ATSC 3.0 that takes advan-
tage of the format’s IP architecture to offer
a wide range of advanced options, including
DVR-type features as well as emergency alerts
and personalized ads.
The companies—Gray TV, Sinclair Broadcast
Group, Hearst Television, Tegna and The E.W.
Scripps Company—are members of Pearl TV,
a consortium of broadcasters, manufactur-
ers and NGOs to promote ATSC 3.0. Specific
financial terms of the investment were not
disclosed.
ATSC 3.0 has been launched by more than
91 stations in 40 markets, bringing the ad-
vanced broadcast standard to within reach of
more than 75% of U.S. households. Pearl says it
expects that number to grow to more than 200
stations in 53 markets by the end of 2024.
The broadcast group investors will lead the
funding to accelerate the commercial launch
of the ATSC 3.0 Framework Authority (A3FA),
9000
10 May 2024 | Special Guide: NextGen TV | www.tvtech.com |
deploy the new application in major media
markets across the nation, NBCUniversal said.
“The launch of this innovative experience
is a considerable milestone for broadcast
television and demonstrates the immense
potential and possibilities NextGen TV has for
viewers, programmers, stations and adver-
tisers,” said Shawn Makhijani, Senior Vice
President of Business Development and Strate-
gy & NBC Spot On, NBCUniversal Advertising
& Partnerships. “We are proud to further our
leadership position in ATSC 3.0 by developing
this innovative product with our partners and
look forward to the continued evolution of its
capabilities and benefits. We are truly excited
to present these enhancements to our NBC
and Telemundo viewers in several top markets,
with more to come.”
Created in partnership with Fincons, Ease
Live (an Evertz company) and Pearl TV,
features of NBCUniversal’s new features give
viewers the ability to restart programs when
joined in progress; hyper-localized elements
integrated into the TODAY show; and access to
personalized weather information—including
radar, forecasts and meteorologist reports—
and severe weather alerts. The experience
the driving force behind the RUN3TV platform.
Pearl TV says it expects additional broadcast
groups to become involved in the future. Prog-
ress Partners is the exclusive financial adviser
for Pearl TV and A3FA initiative.
Pearl TV says the move unites broadcast-
ers to offer new services and unlock the full
potential of the convergence of broadcast
and broadband that ATSC 3.0 enables. The
effort provides a common method for viewers
to take advantage of NextGen TV by stan-
dardizing broadcast application capabilities
across manufacturers to provide interactive
services and the convergence of over-the-air
with over-the-top (broadcast + broadband)
connectivity.
For viewers, RUN3TV introduces a suite
of features designed to elevate the Next-
twitter.com/tvtechnology
also provides expanded and enhanced access
to content, including clips, full episodes and
alternate programming from NBC and Tele-
mundo’s local and national news, sports and
entertainment shows and events, NBCUniver-
sal said.
NBCUniversal’s new experience also
expands safety controls and access to public
service notifications, while enabling near-real
time viewer and program metrics. The data
integration delivers rich public safety alerts
from both the FEMA Integrated Public Alert
and Warning System (IPAWS) and The Weather
Channel (TWC) customized to viewers’ loca-
tions and specific households.wers who were
watching.
Tom Butts
Gen TV experience, enabling functions like
“Start Over” and advanced emergency alerts
for broadcaster’s applications. The platform
not only enriches the viewing experience
with enhanced access to local news, weather,
and on-demand content including VOD and
streaming services but also provides immedi-
ate access to essential information and their
favorite entertainment. With RUN3TV, viewers
benefit from a more interactive, engaging, and
modern viewing experience.
For broadcasters, RUN3TV makes it easy
to integrate essential and advanced features
across various platforms, while also allowing
for the customization of unique services and
content. It enhances broadcasters' ability
to gather detailed viewership data, offering
insights that help tailor content directly to
viewer preferences, according to Pearl TV.
With RUN3TV, broadcasters can also signifi-
cantly improve content discovery and viewer
engagement.
Tom Butts
 THE TROUBLE WITH USB-C • MEET SMPTE’S NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR • IMMERSIVE AUDIO

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cloud solutions

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