ATSC, The Broadcast Standards Association, is being honored with a 2026 Technology & Engineering Emmy Award by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) for the association’s “pioneering development” of next-generation TV broadcasting standards that establish the industry’s first fully IP-based broadcast standard to reach commercial scale.
The announcement from NATAS notes the collaborative effort that created the ATSC 3.0 standard, which gives TV broadcasters the capability of transmitting Ultra High-Definition programming with High Dynamic Range and other improvements that full-power television station licensees have been striving to bring to its fullest fruition for upward of seven years.
“Through a multiyear, consensus-based engineering, drafting and balloting process led by the Advanced Television Systems Committee, the standard has enabled new capabilities, including UHD, HDR, immersive audio and interactive services,” Emmy Award organizers said in a statement. “ATSC 3.0 is now commercially deployed across the United States and internationally, reaching millions of households and driving significant changes across the broadcast equipment, consumer electronics and regulatory landscape.”
ATSC President Madeleine Noland commented, “This Emmy belongs to the entire ATSC community. ATSC 3.0 is the result of extraordinary collaboration among hundreds of experts and organizations, past and present, who contributed their ideas, technical expertise, time and leadership over many years. This recognition from NATAS celebrates not simply a standard, but what our members can accomplish when an industry comes together around a shared vision for the future of broadcasting.”
Developed through ATSC’s open, consensus-driven standards process, ATSC 3.0, in the association’s words, “fundamentally reimagines terrestrial broadcasting” around an Internet Protocol-based architecture. “Its flexible and extensible design provides broadcasters with a platform for enhanced television services while creating a foundation for continued innovation as broadcast, broadband and other communications technologies evolve.”
Not all broadcasters are on board, however, with the LPTVBA and several low-power television station licensees instead advocating for 5G Broadcast as an optional FCC-approved standard.
Then, there’s the debate over how long ATSC 3.0’s path to universal consumer acceptance will take. In November 2019 at a FCC symposium, RBR+TVBR asked key stakeholders in the NEXTGEN TV build-out process if it was “the next HD Radio,” referencing the nearly two-decade process of making digital multicast radio stations akin to HD1 offerings. Today, buying a ATSC 3.0-equipped television set remains a vexing task, with smaller units requiring dongles. Then, there is the consumer who has largely moved on to streaming media platforms exclusively to watch video programming.
Meanwhile, Nexstar Media Group EVP/Chief Financial Officer Lee Ann Gliha may have inadvertently worried some investors by stating on Tuesday at the Citi Global TMT Conference that the largest licensee of broadcast television’s transition from ATSC 1.0 to ATSC 3.0 could take several years — a length of time that entities such as Starlink may not wait for, given the ambitious of its founder, Elon Musk.
Spectrum lease deals are a key non-broadcast revenue opportunity for broadcast TV stations. It is why Edgebeam Wireless saw Nexstar team with The E.W. Scripps Co., Sinclair Inc., and Gray Media come together to create a joint venture designed to deliver “internet of things” capabilities via broadcast internet powered by ATSC 3.0 technology. Should Nexstar wish to monetize low-band spectrum in a partnership with Starlink, it would not be able to do so until ATSC 1.0 is sunset.
“We first have to stop broadcasting in 1.0 to free that up, and that’s going to really require that you have a critical mass of people that can be able to receive the signals,” Gliha said at the conference, which was first reported by Policyband.
There is currently no official or mandatory end date set for ATSC 1.0 broadcasts, although the National Association of Broadcasters wants one. Minimizing viewer disruption has proven to be a key factor in why there is presently no firm date. In 2017, the FCC decided that its “substantially similar rule” for simulcast streams and the requirement to comply with the ATSC A/322 standard on primary 3.0 streams would remain in effect until at least July 17, 2023. With less than a month before that date, the Commission changed the date to July 17, 2027.
By July 2025, Grover Norquist, President for Americans for Tax Reform, emerged with a fight to toss the NAB’s petition on an ATSC 1.0 signal sunset date. By October 2025, the FCC — now under the leadership of Brendan Carr — declined to move forward with a firm end date for the current broadcast TV standard.
Also applauding the decision was Gary Shapiro, who as head of the Consumer Technology Association had been vociferously fighting any cut-off date for ATSC 1.0-powered digital TV signals. Why? Bringing ATSC 3.0-powered NEXTGEN TV signals to a MVPD is a matter that neither the NEXTGEN TV marketing arm, Pearl TV, nor the ATSC has directly addressed.
As of 10:33am Eastern on Wednesday, Nexstar shares were down $2.94 from September 8’s closing price, putting Nasdaq-traded “NXST” at $166.20. That’s a $12.33 decline from one week ago and a $26.23 dip from one month ago.
Nexstar’s 52-week high is $254.30, seen in early March, while its 52-week low is $154.47, seen in late June.
ATSC will be honored at the Engineering, Science & Technology Emmy Awards ceremony on Wednesday, October 14, at the Television Academy’s Saban Media Center in North Hollywood, Calif. It is the fourth Emmy Award recognizing ATSC and its standards work, following honors in 2009, 2012 and 2015.
