Datacasting Via ATSC 3.0 a Major Broadcaster Push
Major broadcasters are banking heavily on ATSC 3.0-enabled datacasting services as a significant future revenue stream, speakers said Thursday at a NextGen TV conference in Washington. Numerous broadcasters said one big NextGen hurdle remains the dearth of ATSC 3.0 receivers and 3.0-compatible TV sets deployed and in use.
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Nexstar Chief Technology Officer Brett Jenkins likened datacasting -- using broadcast TV signals to deliver data -- to retransmission consent fees, helping insulate broadcasters from industry disruption and ensure long-term survival. ATSC 3.0 high dynamic range (HDR) visuals on TV screens "are not going to keep the people in our stations employed," he said. Kerry Oslund, Scripps vice president-strategy and business development, said those datacasting-enabled mobile data services will help broadcasters finance services like local news.
Datacasting opportunities include extending private 5G networks and various positioning, navigation and timing services, broadcasters said. Nexstar and Scripps have joint experiments underway in Detroit, Indianapolis, Kansas City and Denver as they work on refining signal coverage, Jenkins said.
"The elephant in the room” is turning off ATSC 1.0, which requires more NextGen receivers in the marketplace, which will come when better 3.0 services are being offered to consumers, said Sinclair President-Technology Del Parks. He said ATSC 3.0 also needs to be accepted as a 3rd Generation Partnership Project standard and integrated into 5G networks. Sinclair is partnering with Korea's SK Telecom toward that end, he said.
Asked about the danger of both datacasting and enhanced over-the-air services fighting for bandwidth, Jenkins said there's plenty of capacity once broadcasters are done with the transition.
Pearl TV Managing Director Anne Schelle said broadcasters are starting to promote ATSC 3.0 to consumers. Its rollout covers more than 60% of U.S. markets now, and is on track to cover 75% by year's end, she said.
Broadcaster experimentation with the NextGen platform is still in the early stages, and there needs to be a higher rate of station conversion, said One Media Vice President-Emerging Technologies So Vang. Broadcasters need to start sharing with each other what’s working among NextGen features and offerings, he said. Sinclair is piloting a program with Washington-area emergency responders, in which localized emergency information would flow into newsroom workflow and be wrapped into broadcasts, enabled as part of NextGen TV tech, Vang said. He said the pilot effort should be up and running this summer.
One broadcaster hurdle is that production techniques still revolve around optimization of cathode-ray tube sets, with HDR-native content and workflows still in the works, said Clarence Hau, NBCUniversal senior vice president-standards, policy and advanced engineering. While the existing broadcast infrastructure has limited capabilities for delivering alternative tracks, NextGen provides capabilities for additional channels, which could range from audio descriptions for the visually impaired to Spanish, he said.