The broadcast television station group led by Rob Weisbord is teaming up with a group of PBS Member stations for the launch of what is being billed as the first no-cost broadcast-enabled streaming TV, or “BEST” channel, in Omaha.
The offering is being hosted by the publicly traded company’s FOX affiliate in the market as “a free, virtual channel in addition to its other programming offerings.”
The Broadcast-Enabled Streaming TV (BEST) Channel is linked to Sinclair Broadcast Group‘s KPTM “FOX 42” in Omaha, and is now officially available to those in the market, which includes Council Bluffs, Iowa.
And, the channel is an offering from Nebraska Public Media.
What are “BEST” channels? Sinclair explains them as transmissions that provide programming directly over-the-air to smart TVs using the ATSC 3.0 broadcast data channel capacity of a host broadcaster. “Viewers with NEXTGEN TVs can view and select the channel in their programming guide and access the channel seamlessly over the internet,” the company explained in an announcement distributed Wednesday morning.
Sinclair and America’s Public Television Stations (APTS) previously announced that the Baltimore-based group would provide carriage of APTS member stations for free in markets where Sinclair has deployed ATSC 3.0 services, and a public television station has not.
This launch is the first under the arrangement.
Nebraska Public Media’s virtual channel delivers programming in high dynamic range (SL-HDR1).
Peter Clowney, Chief Operating Officer for Nebraska Public Media, said his organization is “proud to be the vanguard in offering this unique service to our Omaha viewers. Our partnership with KPTM will help prime the pump for full NEXTGEN Broadcast Service as the national rollout of this technology continues.”
APTS President/CEO Kate Riley added, “This is an excellent example of commercial and public broadcasters cooperating to bring the remarkable NEXTGEN Broadcast Service to more public television viewers and to enhance public television stations’ services to their local communities.”
Speaking for Sinclair, Weisbord, the COO and President of Broadcast, said the company was “thrilled” with the successful launch of the “BEST” service. “For public television stations that have not yet launched NEXTGEN service, we hope that this partnership will demonstrate the tremendous upside to using this new transmission technology.”
