On Tuesday, October 20, Brazil’s next-generation broadcast television system, which includes many ATSC 3.0 attributes, will take center stage at the SET Congress and Expo in São Paulo — putting a spotlight on “TV 3.0” at the region’s largest gathering of broadcasting, media, and entertainment executives.
SET—the Brazilian Society of Television Engineering—stages its annual conference and exposition in Brazil’s largest city each August, during the winter months of South America.
The presence of ATSC at the event comes after a July recommendation from O Fórum do Sistema Brasileiro de TV Digital Terrestre to the Brazilian government of the ATSC 3.0 “physical layer” as the over-the-air transmission system for the country’s upgrade to next-generation broadcast terrestrial services.
The recommendation follows extensive testing in one of the world’s most important over-the-air television marketplaces to meet market demands for the country of more than 200 million people.
Madeleine Noland, President of ATSC, commented, “Eight countries representing over a billion viewers are now deploying, planning launches, or experimenting with the suite of ATSC 3.0 broadcast technologies, and the recent recommendation from the SBTVD Forum underscores that Brazil is looking forward to all of the possibilities for enhanced broadcasting in a country with hundreds of millions of viewers watching over-the-air broadcasts.”
Noland added that ATSC 3.0 broadcasts are being tested in India, Canada and Mexico, as Brazil joins South Korea, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and the U.S., as countries where NEXTGEN TV services and ATSC 3.0 technology is in place or will launch in the near term.
While viewers in 75% of U.S. TV markets now have access to ATSC 3.0 transmissions, it is unclear as to the actual consumption levels of NEXTGEN TV channels. Meanwhile, the retail environment remains cloudy, with the ease of purchasing a NEXTGEN TV-capable set in conflict with NEXTGEN TV reports that sales volume is strong.
Brazil’s deployment of TV 3.0 is expected to begin in 2025.
ATSC will showcase the capabilities of the ATSC 3.0 broadcast standards at its SET Expo exhibit in Stand 29 of the Distrito Anhembi convention center throughout the three-day event, which begins Tuesday.
