As CES 2023 Begins, ATSC Marks Milestones

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LAS VEGAS — At 4pm Pacific on Tuesday (1/3), the first in a series of media-focused presentations will officially serve as the kickoff of the 2023 Consumer Electronics Show — the sprawling affair that takes over Southern Nevada hours after the New Year’s Eve cleanup efforts have concluded.


As the technology world — and just a few broadcast industry leaders — converge for CES, the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) is ready to showcase new consumer accessory receivers that are in development for the U.S. and international markets.

New set-top and USB receivers will be on display at the ATSC exhibit (Central Hall No. 17783), along with “innovative ways” the IP-based wireless broadcast technology could be deployed to offer new choices for consumers and new opportunities for broadcasters and other companies.

New products and services will be shown by ATSC members and exhibit sponsors Gaian Solutions, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Pearl TV, and Sinclair Broadcast Group, the chief broadcast TV station owner invested in bringing NEXTGEN TV into every U.S. home and business.

The latest push to raise consumer awareness of NEXTGEN TV, which remains questionable despite the media releases distributed by the ATSC and Pearl TV, comes as ATSC 3.0-delivered broadcast signals came to 26 new markets in 2022. What ATSC President Madeleine Noland didn’t say, however, is that not every broadcast TV station is participating in these rollouts, which involve “lighthouse” stations ahead of the eventual “SFN,” or single-frequency network. Hubbard Broadcasting is one company that has been absent from the NEXTGEN TV rollout. Meanwhile, the launch this month of NEXTGEN TV in Miami-Fort Lauderdale will come without the participation of Sunbeam Television-owned WSVN-7 and Berkshire Hathaway-controlled WPLG-10 — two of the market’s top broadcast television channels.

Despite the uneven rollout of NEXTGEN TV (in Boston “SuperFrank” Copsidas brought ATSC 3.0-powered broadcast TV to the market months before this month’s major rollout), Noland is looking ahead “to another year of continued deployments across the U.S. and sales of new consumer receivers.”

By the end of 2022, some 66 NEXTGEN TV markets saw their lighthouse stations lit up.

But, who can see them? Noland says, “Consumers have already purchased millions of NEXTGEN TV receivers, with thousands more to be sold each day throughout 2023.

Yet, repeated visits to Best Buy, Costco and BrandsMart USA retail stores in South Florida resulted in conversations with bewildered and/or confused sales representatives who assumed NEXTGEN TV was synonymous with a 4K and/or UHD television. One sales person’s manager expressed familiarity with NEXTGEN TV, explaining that at this time 50-inch television sets or bigger were the ones that had the capability. For those seeking a smaller set, availability may not come for some time.

Even so, the rollout of NEXTGEN TV is not expected to mirror that of HD Radio, which current parent company Xperi Corp. still hopes will win over consumers and broadcasters — especially as the DTS AutoStage gains another CES platform after turning heads in 2022.

Among the products on display at the ATSC CES booth are both integrated NEXTGEN TV receivers as well as “upgrade accessory devices” that are next for certification with the NEXTGEN TV mark.

As previously noted in RBR+TVBR reporting, this marks a shift from the initial stance that consumers would naturally phase out their existing television sets within six to seven years, and would choose a NEXTGEN TV set at that time; the story was that backwards compatibility was not possible.

“ATSC members are also showing additional options for integrating ATSC 3.0 into future devices, home antenna products that can be used to receive next-generation broadcasts, and automotive applications for over-the-air IP datacasting,” the organization said.

Noland’s presence in Las Vegas will include participation in a January 7 session scheduled for 11am Pacific in a room familiar to any NAB Show attendee — North Hall N258. Here, the discussion on Saturday will be on the “Changing Dynamics of TV Viewing,” with panelists discussing how television “never stops reinventing itself” with a “fiercely competitive” industry with record sales.

Noland is expected to take a global approach to her discussion, noting that South Korea and Jamaica are on-air now with ATSC 3.0-powered broadcast signals, while the prior Bolsonaro administration in Brazil selected key ingredients of the standard as the nation moves to its own next-generation system now under the leadership of Lula Da Silva.

“Other countries are also looking at how ATSC 3.0 is being deployed and how their local markets might benefit from a similar rollout,” Noland said.

Meanwhile, the ATSC “is looking ahead to refinements and improvements in the ATSC 3.0 standard that will allow broadcasters to respond to ever-shifting market opportunities,” Noland added.


If you happen to see Anne Schelle, Managing Director of Pearl TV, while in Las Vegas, be sure to congratulate her on a Tulane Green Wave victory over University of Southern California in the Cotton Bowl. Schelle’s daughter is a Tulane student.