President’s Memo: Celebrating Excellence

Posted on June 2, 2020 in ATSC News

It’s exciting to see the transition of a technology from development to adoption. As we congratulate South Korea on its third anniversary of commercial ATSC 3.0 services, we are privileged to watch this transition as it unfolds in the United States.

Broadcasters, consumer electronics device makers and technology vendors have teamed up to release the first ATSC 3.0 capable receivers and launch NEXTGEN TV service in the first seven markets in the U.S. with the latest addition of Las Vegas. Three more markets have broadcasters with FCC license applications on file and a fourth has been announced with FCC applications coming soon.

Together, these markets already reach about one in seven U.S. households. Find all the latest products and services in the ATSC 3.0 Progress Report: Spring 2020. Released in sync with the NAB Show Express, the Report documents over 80 announcements from more than 50 organizations. This is very exciting progress toward broadcasters’ stated goals, and you can follow along at home with ATSC’s Deployment Tracker webpage.

With this level of momentum and adoption (even with the pandemic), those riding along the Road to ATSC 3.0 may be asking, “Are we there yet?” There’s still another important constituency needed to endorse NEXTGEN TV – consumers. As with any new service or product, consumers are kings and queens, and their opinions count – a lot. But manufacturers and broadcasters have done their homework, conducting multiple consumer research studies on NEXTGEN TV features, and they are ready to meet expectations today and tomorrow.

At the same time, broadcasters are making great strides with television services, they are also laying groundwork for datacasting services – or “Broadcast Internet” services as FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr has dubbed them. The IP-based ATSC 3.0 standard is poised to fulfill a wide variety of Broadcast Internet use cases, and ATSC members are working within the new planning team on core network technologies for broadcasting (ATSC Planning Team 8) to explore how core network concepts could make ATSC 3.0’s Broadcast Internet capability even more efficient.

Epitomizing the excitement surrounding the launch of NEXTGEN TV powered by ATSC 3.0 are this year’s ATSC award winners. Sincere congratulations to Dr. Jae-Young Lee of ETRI, who was honored with the ATSC Lechner Outstanding Contributor Award, and the Phoenix Model Market Partners recognized with the ATSC Richer Leadership Medal.

Whether it’s B2B or B2C services, the transition of this technology from development to adoption is well underway.  Join us on the Road to ATSC 3.0. Enjoy the ride!

Madeleine Noland, ATSC President

The June issue of THE STANDARD is brought to you by ATSC 2020 sponsor LG Electronics and its U.S. R&D lab, Zenith. Thank you for your support!

Posted in ATSC News