"Yet, 2019 shouldn't be considered the launch year, as broadcasters and CE
makers will have to build the ecosystem, and until there is a critical mass of
stations supporting ATSC 3.0 there will only be a limited number of products on
the market."
That's the concluding sentence, and it makes little if any sense. In a system
that is supposed to be purely "voluntary," no one will give a hoot, if they
can't buy TV sets that support ATSC 3.0. People won't care, so stations won't
care. Sets should be sold with ATSC 3.0 starting last year, or whenever Korea
decided to, and the average Joe could be totally oblivious. Until he saw the
whiz bang new whatever features coming to life, from the upgraded broadcaster.
Just as, no one is "waiting" to incorporate IPv6 in PCs and smartphones. As
long as Microsoft and others did wait, IPv6 wen absolutely nowhere. Now it is
finally being deployed, Windows 7 being the first serious deployment, and the
average joe doesn't have to even think about it.
This article has at least a tiny amount of meaningful questioning. It is the
first article that essentially admits that all these new business models have
yet to be demonstrated at all. Although I doubt "hacking" is any concern with
the ATSC 3.0 broadcast signal, that it isn't already a concern with connected
TVs. That seems to be the knee-jerk "concern" for IP devices, but what
scenarios are we talking about? TV transmitters on trucks, transmitting bogus
software updates to TV sets? What TV accepts OTA software updates? And, since
most of ATSC 3.0 features are from its Internet connection, why wouldn't
software updates to TV sets come over the Internet, and not OTA?
The easiest way to get to the bottom of all the "IP" hype surrounding ATSC 3.0
is to ask what has been happening in South Korea?
Bert
------------------------------------------------
https://www.tvtechnology.com/atsc3/atsc-3-0-one-year-on-are-broadcasters-ready
ATSC 3.0 One Year On: Are Broadcasters Ready?
Industry announces steady progress towards a 2020 rollout
Peter Suciu 7 hours ago
WASHINGTON-A year after the FCC gave U.S. broadcasters the green light to
deploy ATSC 3.0, stations are ramping up their efforts to make the Next Gen TV
standard a reality by 2020. Last month's announcement of support from prominent
station groups illustrated how far efforts have come in the past 12 months.
At NAB Show New York, executives from Fox Television Stations; NBC and
Telemundo Owned Stations Group; Univision; TEGNA, Inc. (for Pearl TV), and
Nexstar Media Group (for SpectrumCo) announced a collaborative effort to
support the introduction and roll out of ATSC 3.0. There has been a growing
consensus that 2020 will represent the wide rollout of the new TV standard,
with the expectation of ATSC 3.0-enabled products to hit the market in time for
the holiday season (see sidebar).
Station group executives touted the endorsement as an illustration--absent a
government mandate--of how the broadcast industry can come together on
deploying the standard in light of competition from telcos.
"One big challenge was whether the big owners of valuable spectrum could work
together, commit resources, and stick to the game plan. Done, done and done,"
said Jack Abernethy, CEO at Fox Television Stations.
Valari Staab, president, NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations said
broadcasters have to make the commitment. "ATSC 3.0 is something that as an
industry we have to do," she said. "The new standard will transform the way we
deliver content to our audiences-including viewers who are consuming
information in multiple languages and screens. ATSC 3.0 will also help us to
better connect advertisers with the audiences they want to reach on any
platform.
PEARL PROGRESSES
With last fall's launch of the Phoenix Model Market project, designed to
conduct tests to demonstrate the viability of the ATSC 3.0 ecosystem, Pearl TV,
the consortium of stations involved in the lab, announced last month the
addition of seven broadcasters across 10 stations in the Phoenix area, bringing
the total of participating stations to 12. In addition to technical tests,
Pearl TV is collecting data on how consumers interact with ATSC 3.0, as well as
their preferences. Last month, it released the results of a new survey that
indicated that 42 percent of those interested in ATSC 3.0 say they anticipate
buying a new TV to enable and enjoy Next-Gen TV services.
Among those services are the demand for enhanced media and entertainment in the
expected rollout of autonomous vehicles in the years ahead. In anticipation of
that opportunity, Pearl TV also announced last month an alliance with Avis to
begin testing various use cases for TV-delivered signals to passenger cars
early next year.
"There are great use cases for automotive, and they are an interesting
company," said Anne Schelle, Pearl TV managing director. "They are one of the
largest fleet owners of cars and certainly positioning themselves for the
future of connected cars and the shared car environment."
A TRANSFORMATION FOR THE INDUSTRY
As the next-generation broadcast TV standard, ATSC 3.0 will support several
advancements including mobile viewing, 4K Ultra High Definition, high dynamic
range, high frame rate, and wide color gamut picture quality, as well as
immersive audio and perhaps most importantly for broadcasters' bottom
line-targeted advertising. It was designed to greatly enhance over-the-air
services for viewers while bringing together broadcast and broadband
functionality to give audiences more content and choice.
"ATSC 3.0 will be able bring together OTT and live linear programming together
in a way not possible before," said Schelle. "This is an interesting time as
there are many elements that are new to broadcasters and we have to figure out
how to commercialize these in an economic and efficient way. Fortunately South
Korea, which has already deployed ATSC 3.0, has been a great case study but
there are many elements that will be quite different for the U.S. market."
As a new broadcast standard, ATSC 3.0 will require new hardware at both the
broadcaster and consumer levels. This is why the first step will be deployment
in test markets where early adopters can experience the new format, and it is
easy to see why this is already being compared to the transition from analog to
digital TV-but experts point out that this time it is quite different.
Some would even suggest that this isn't another "transition" at all but that in
fact, the move to ATSC 3.0 could be far more transformational for broadcasters.
"We need to try to stay away from even calling it a transition," said Mark A.
Aitken, vice president of advanced technology at the Sinclair Broadcast Group,
which has been conducting extensive tests on the use of single frequency
networks for ATSC 3.0 in Dallas. "Everything that is wrapped around this next
generation standard is far more transformational. It is data agonistic IP
utility and broadcasters have every opportunity to become a different kind of
wireless provider rather than continuing to remain just broadcasters."
With the recent announcements from the various media groups it is also clear
that this transformation process to ATSC 3.0 has already begun, but it is still
very much in its earliest stages.
"We've already seen a pretty dramatic change with the momentum since it was
given the go ahead by the FCC a year ago," said Marc Hand, CEO and co-founder
of Public Media, a non-profit advocacy group for public broadcasting. Public
Media helped Michigan State University station WKAR launch ATSC 3.0 testing in
August-the first public TV station in the U.S. to do so. "We have already gone
from an abstract to an early transition within a few markets. We still have
much more active testing to do to get us there."
BABY STEPS
Given that this is so early in the process, there are those who would argue
against the idea that this is so transformational after all, but also add that
it isn't even at the transition stage.
"That is putting the cart before the horse," said Evan Fieldman, head of
digital strategy at Weigel Broadcasting Co., which launched its own ATSC 3.0
facility on UHF Channel 23 in Chicago in September. "I would caution as we
don't want to get ahead of ourselves. We are only moving to a transformation
period, but really entering the evaluation period at this point as we're
testing in major urban markets. Before we can consider the business models, we
need to evaluate the benefits of 3.0."
Fieldman added that Weigel's affiliates will be watching this early test period
very closely.
"If the evaluation period is a success than we can move to the transition
stage, but there are many factors that are still beyond our control," Fieldman
noted. "The other factor is that the transition to digital was mandatory, yet
this is not, and that wasn't a walk in the park for anyone. Right now there is
a lot that needs to be addressed and we need to see what is behind door number
three before we enter."
At this stage there are still other significant hurdles that will need to be
cleared as well, including whether ATSC 3.0 is determined to be the only game
in town for bringing OTA and OTT together.
"One obstacle is really the adoption and support it is able to get, as there
are other companies that are creating apps and other online solutions that are
standalone and could compete with ATSC 3.0," said Renard T. Jenkins, vice
president of PBS operations, engineering and distribution. "There will be those
questions such as 'why make this move to ATSC 3.0 if I can do this in an app?'
This is something we're going to have to figure out and even hedge our bets."
Such thinking could result in a hybrid of traditional broadcast technologies
being used side-by-side with new delivery options.
"One thing to understand is that in a software environment you can change the
code, but the service itself can't be disrupted during an update," added
Jenkins. "So at least in the beginning we expect broadcasters will operate as a
software developer while still using the traditional hardware."
For those reasons perhaps now is really an evaluation period in a great
transformation of the future of TV.
"We have a long way to go," said Schelle. "We're seeing 2018 and 2019 as the
development years, with 2020 and beyond being the launch years."
IP: THE GOOD AND THE BAD
Broadcasters are already going through a transformation with the convergence of
OTA and OTT, as well as the role of video over IP, and ATSC 3.0 could play a
significant part of it-but that won't come without its own challenges.
"This is about all the things that are sent over the internet, but also
everything that comes with it," said Schelle. "That means all the good things
such as delivery to a multitude of devices, but also the concerns such as
hacking and other security issues. We have to protect the system, but we have
to worry about the TV sets and other devices and even how the publishers will
be safe from piracy as we make this change."
It is just one aspect of broadcasters transforming into tech companies and
operating as such.
"Absolutely that line is simply blurred," said Kyle Walker, vice president of
technology at Weigel Broadcasting. "We have been having this conversation for
the past 15 years and today's broadcast engineer has to have a strong IT
mindset to address the business models of today. Broadcasters and the IT group
operate now under the same mindset."
ATSC 3.0 will play a crucial role in this transformation at all levels for
broadcasters.
"This IP-based platform will change how departments work in stations, and that
promises to be more of a fundamental change that wasn't nearly as impactful in
the digital transition," said Public Media's Hand. "This could include how
stations utilize data analysis, which was in its own silo. Now we're going to
see this playing a greater role. It is just one of the whole range of services
that can be more effective, but there are all sorts of things that could play
out on the consumer side and the business-to-business side."
Perhaps this will transform the traditional broadcast into something entirely
new as well, such as a wireless operator or utility. What is clear is that ATSC
3.0 is just part of a future that could be very different for the broadcast
world.
"ATSC 3.0 opens the door to distribute content on many platforms and not just
video and audio," said Aitken. "This can include data content and you can
rattle off a list of what could now be sent out from PDFs to high resolution
maps and so much more."
However, Aitken warned that not everyone in the broadcast industry is
completely sold on the benefits of ATSC 3.0 at this point. "You won't find this
universally embraced by those comrades I dubbed 'televisioners,' who are too
focused on a single product and are not looking for the transformational
future," he said. "But the consolidation within the broadcast universe is
gaining speed and we have to accept the future beyond TV as an over-the-air
medium. Broadcasting is now sitting in the middle of the broadband universe."
Sidebar
Consumer Electronics and ATSC 3.0: Is the Support There?
Any transition or transformation in the world of broadcast will face a "chicken
and egg" scenario-stations may not be eager to support ATSC 3.0 until viewers
are capable of actually receiving the content with new consumer electronics
products; while potential viewers won't purchase the next generation of devices
until content is available.
Three of the world's largest manufacturers of TV sets--LG and Samsung of S.
Korea and Sony of Japan--have long been involved in the development of the Next
Gen TV standard and all three companies chimed in with station groups in the
announcement of their support for ATSC 3.0 last month. Sony announced that it
will supply TVs, demodulators and application development tools while also
collaborating with broadcasters and other industry players in testing both
technical solutions and service models. LG, in particular, is actively
marketing the standard in its home country.
"We're not starting from a clean slate this time," said John Taylor,
spokesperson for LG Electronics USA Inc. "Dual tuners are already being sold in
South Korea."
Yet, 2019 shouldn't be considered the launch year, as broadcasters and CE
makers will have to build the ecosystem, and until there is a critical mass of
stations supporting ATSC 3.0 there will only be a limited number of products on
the market.
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