As broadcasters continue to deploy ATSC 3.0, the current reach of 70% was achieved with the launch of NextGen TV in New York earlier this month with the WNET Group. That figure will jump to 75% with the anticipated launch of 3.0 in the nation’s third largest market, Chicago in early 2024.
Details of the Chicago launch are sketchy (currently WRME-LD, aka “Jewelry Television” is listed as the only 3.0 station in the windy city, according to rabbitears.info), but the prediction was made by Anne Schelle, managing director of Pearl TV, the consortium of broadcasters and manufacturers promoting NextGen TV, who told TV Tech last week that Chicago will launch in January.
With the launch in New York, the number of markets deploying 3.0 exceeds 70, with signals now reaching 70% of U.S. households, according to the ATSC. As for the TV sets, Pearl TV estimates that 10 million devices will have been shipped by the end of 2023, since hitting the market in 2020.
And although that vast majority of these devices are TV sets, Pearl is honing in on auxiliary devices (boxes or “dongles”) that allow viewers to access 3.0 via the HDMI port on their set.
Among the newest products is the NextGen TV box from ADTH, the first on the market certified to carry the NextGen TV logo. The box—whose price tag has been cut from $120 to $99 and began shipping in late August—has been restocked after the company sold out its initial supply, according to ADTH.
Well-known antenna manufacturer Channel Master is teaming up with Taiwanese TV box manufacturer Zinwell to bundle a 3.0 NextGen TV certified box with an OTA antenna, Schelle added. The bundle will run between $160-180 according to Dave Arland, Pearl TV spokesman.
“Channel Master has been hunting for a set top solution,” Schelle said. “Zinwell is well known, they’re a big white label provider and produce all the boxes for Comcast.”
A current complaint among 3.0 viewers is the issue of security with many noting that current 3.0 channels are encrypted, preventing them from recording programs. Schelle pointed to the Zapperbox which has been on sale for more than a year and is scheduled to achieve NextGen TV certification by the end of the year.
Updated Zapperboxes now include a memory card slot that will allow viewers to record directly onto the card but security protocols in place will prevent them from sharing video beyond what can be played via the memory cards.
On the current box, “you could record ATSC 1.0, but the hurdle was how do we get security verified so the security community is comfortable… that whatever is recorded stays on that box—in the end a memory device so they're tied to each other,” Arland added.
Whether the DVR capability on the Zapperbox is memory card-based is beside the point; that functionality can be either via a memory card or embedded in the box. The important thing, according to Arland, is that the industry take the necessary precautions to satisfy broadcasters’ and content owners’ concerns over security issues.
“The security authority has said broadcasters are not permitted to restrict recordings of simulcast content,” he said. “So it has to be able to be recorded so long as it's secure. And nobody's trying to prevent recording… what we're trying to do is prevent piracy.”
With most basic streaming devices from Roku and Amazon featuring an entry point of around $35, that “sweet spot” for retail would seem to be a goal for 3.0 advocates. However, Schelle added that manufacturers of such devices are now working on adding capabilities for viewers to plug (or “daisy chain”) their 3.0 devices into existing popular streaming dongles.
“There are plans to do that,” Shelle predicted, adding that security issues must be resolved first. However, she hinted that further developments on that front could be announced by CES 2024.
“Those players [i.e. Roku and Amazon’s FireStick] are OS’s [operating systems],” Schelle said. “And OS’s are working on NextGen TV.”
With LG’s recent announcement that it was suspending including support for 3.0 in its 2024 TV sets due to a patent dispute, concerns were raised about how this would impact the future of the standard and whether fellow manufacturers Samsung, Sony and Hisense would follow suit.
Such concerns are overblown, according to Pearl TV.
“[The LG issue] is ‘a bump in the road,'” Schelle said. “These kinds of patent disputes happen all day. And it's just this one is so highly visible because there's only a handful of manufacturers.”
LG recently lost a court involving a patent dispute with Constellation Designs, which is not a member of the ATSC or its patent pool. If Constellation had been, it would fallen under the so-called FRAND terms (Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory) terms. Constellation's infringement suit against LG resulted in a claimed $6.75 per unit royalty rate for its one patent.
In comments filed with the FCC announcing its decision, the company “strongly” recommended that the commission examine the ATSC patent process in light of the fact that companies that hold ATSC patents and don’t follow the FRAND approach to patents can have a “chilling” impact for companies bringing “advanced technologies” like NextGen TV to market.
Despite LG’s temporary exit from the market, another major TV manufacturer, TCL, announced several months ago that it joined the ATSC 3.0 MPEG-LA. Could we see a fifth set manufacturer enter the 3.0 market in 2024? Stay tuned.
(Editor's note: This article was updated Nov. 1)
