It’s the start of 2026, and if one were to ask an everyday American if they’re familiar with NEXTGEN TV and how to receive it, the answers could range from excitement over the ATSC 3.0 technology to bewilderment and consumer confusion with 8K UHD receivers in a world where streaming and digital delivery is fast becoming the preferred method for watching video content.
Pearl TV, the Anne Schelle-led marketing arm that’s been promoting NEXTGEN TV for more than six years, hopes to further increase awareness and acceptance among U.S. television households.
With the FCC considering next steps on bringing a transition to ATSC 3.0 to its fullest fruition, including an NAB-suggested “flash-cut” date ending ATSC 1.0 broadcasts altogether, Pearl TV on Friday (1/1) unveiled an industry-led “NEXTGEN TV Converter Box Program” that is designed to ensure that over-the-air TV households have a cost-effective and user-friendly way to access NEXTGEN TV services while continuing to rely on free, local broadcast television.
As Pearl TV sees it, The Pearl Converter Box Program is designed to support a new category of dollar-conscious basic NEXTGEN TV converter boxes that connect to existing televisions and antenna products, via a dongle.
In 2019, Pearl TV insisted that consumers would naturally replace their aging televisions with new sets, equipped with ATSC 3.0 receiver capabilities. There was no such talk of set-top boxes, with Schelle expressing confidently that NEXTGEN TV wasn’t the “next HD Radio,” a response to a question RBR+TVBR asked of TV industry representatives at a November 2019 FCC symposium on the future of broadcast media in the U.S.
The new initiative some six years after that Washington gathering “aligns with key policy considerations raised in the FCC’s ongoing proceeding, including consumer access, affordability, and continuity of service as NEXTGEN TV broadcasts become more widely available.” It also comes after six years of questionable gains for NEXTGEN TV, with zero MVPDs offering ATSC 3.0-powered channels and no discernable data on just who — by percentage of total viewers — is consuming a NEXTGEN TV signal.
If anything, the industry is at a point akin to perhaps 1966, when UHF stations were nascent and few could receive them — let alone watch them. Sixty years later, Schelle is betting the STBs and dongles will be positively impactful. “We anticipate that the first affordable NEXTGEN TV converters could be available later in 2026,” she said. “As NEXTGEN TV adoption expands and the FCC considers future policy frameworks, these affordable devices are expected to play an important role to bridge consumers who rely on over-the-air television.”
Those consumers are largely in metropolitan areas and discount those in an area such as the Mid-Hudson Valley of New York, within the New York DMA. Here, over-the-air signals in the analog era of the 1980s included UHF rebroadcast homes of the ABC and NBC affiliate from adjacent Albany, N.Y., as well as the PBS Member station. There was also a local independent TV station that today is the foundation of the RNN operation. Today, in an ATSC 1.0 world, only Sinclair Inc.’s WCWN-TV and WRGB-TV via translators can be viewed in the region; no New York-area station can be received without cable TV or DBS service.
She continued that Pearl’s NEXTGEN TV Converter Box Program specification is being developed now and “will be informed by consumer research, broadcaster requirements, retail pricing requirements, labeling and certification specifications, and ongoing discussions with device manufacturers.”
The program establishes “a common certification and interoperability framework to support a range of eligible receiving devices across participating manufacturers,” she added, noting that the program is open to any qualified converter box manufacturer that aligns with the program’s baseline device profile and affordability goals.”
PEARL IN THE SHELL: CES STB SPOTLIGHT TO SHINE
At CES 2026, which starts January 6 in Las Vegas, Pearl TV is showing “early converter box examples in collaboration with industry partners.”
The ATSC exhibit booth in the Central Hall Grand Lobby include an example developed with set-top manufacturer ADTH as well as a second example developed by Skyworth (a high volume global device manufacturer) and iWedia (a certified ATSC 3.0 software stack developer).
Pearl TV is also engaged in discussions with additional manufacturers, including Zinwell, as part of its broader market engagement.
