Home » Competition »Consumer News »Public Policy & Gov't » Currently Reading:

ATSC 3.0 TV Standard Will Launch in Multiple Cities by End of 2020; You’ll Need a New TV or Converter to Watch

Phillip Dampier April 9, 2019 Competition, Consumer News, Public Policy & Gov't 15 Comments

A new standard in over-the-air TV broadcasting could arrive as early as this year in more than 40 U.S. cities, bringing better reception and more TV channels and features to those willing to buy a new television or converter box to watch.

ATSC 3.0 comes just a decade after full power television stations in the United States ceased analog broadcasting. The ‘upgrade’ is a significant improvement over ATSC 1.0, the digital over-the-air television standard now in use in the U.S.

At the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas, Sinclair, Fox Television Stations, Nexstar, and NBCUniversal (and a consortium group of stations owned by SpectrumCo and Pearl TV) this week announced 40 U.S. television markets would see ATSC 3.0 stations launched by the end of 2020, starting in these cities:

  • Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX
  • Houston, TX
  • San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, CA
  • Phoenix, AZ*
  • Seattle-Tacoma, WA
  • Detroit, MI
  • Orlando-Daytona Beach-Melbourne, FL
  • Portland, OR
  • Pittsburgh, PA
  • Raleigh-Durham, NC*
  • Baltimore, MD
  • Nashville, TN
  • Salt Lake City, UT
  • San Antonio, TX
  • Kansas City, KS-MO
  • Columbus, OH
  • West Palm Beach-Ft. Pierce, FL
  • Las Vegas, NV
  • Austin, TX

To help the transition, ATSC 3.0 stations in these cities will switch off their ATSC 1.0 channels and relocate programming to one or more other local stations’ digital subchannels, allowing viewers with older sets to continue watching until a 5-year transition period ends.

The second, and likely larger wave of stations to switch on ATSC 3.0 will come in these cities:

  • New York, NY
  • Los Angeles, CA
  • Chicago, IL
  • Philadelphia, PA
  • Washington, DC
  • Boston, MA
  • Atlanta, GA
  • Tampa-St.Petersburg-Sarasota, FL
  • Minneapolis – St. Paul, MN
  • Miami – Ft. Lauderdale, FL
  • Denver, CO
  • Cleveland-Akron, OH*
  • Sacramento-Stockton-Modesto, CA
  • St. Louis, MO
  • Charlotte, NC
  • Indianapolis, IN
  • San Diego, CA
  • Hartford-New Haven, CT
  • Cincinnati, OH
  • Milwaukee, WI
  • Greenville-Spartanburg, SC – Asheville, NC

The third wave of stations, still expected to complete a transition to ATSC 3.0 by the end of next year, are located in:

  • Norfolk-Portsmouth-Newport News, VA
  • Oklahoma City, OK
  • Albuquerque – Santa Fe, NM
  • Grand Rapids – Kalamazoo, MI
  • Memphis, TN
  • Buffalo, NY
  • Providence – New Bedford, RI
  • Little Rock – Pine Bluff, AR
  • Mobile, AL – Pensacola, FL
  • Albany-Schenectady – Troy, NY
  • Flint-Saginaw – Bay City, MI
  • Omaha, NE
  • Charleston – Huntington, WV
  • Springfield, MO
  • Rochester, NY
  • Syracuse, NY
  • Chattanooga, TN
  • Charleston, SC
  • Burlington, VT – Plattsburgh, NY
  • Davenport, IA – Moline, IL
  • Santa Barbara – Santa Maria – San Luis Obispo, CA

*ATSC 3.0 is already running on one or more stations in these markets.

A faster transition to ATSC 3.0 may be possible in cities where station owners like Sinclair own more than one full power local station. It will make it easier for programming on one station to be temporarily shared on another, without complicated carriage contract negotiations. There is no forced transition to ATSC 3.0, so consumers can make their own choices about whether they want to invest in new televisions or converters. Broadcasters understand that, and many are planning to launch a host of new channels and networks that could benefit cord-cutters and convince them to upgrade.

Over the air viewers will need to get in the habit of remembering how to “rescan” their local channel lineup as stations occasionally disappear as they move to different channels as a result of an unrelated ongoing channel repack or from shifting around to accommodate ATSC 3.0. Some secondary networks like Retro TV, MeTV, Comet, and others may temporarily disappear in some markets if that channel space is temporarily needed for channel-sharing arrangements.

Cable, telco-TV, streaming and satellite customers should not notice a thing because any changes will be managed by your television provider. But those watching over-the-air will need to prepare for the transition either with a forthcoming TV converter or preparing to buy new television sets with ATSC 3.0 tuners. Details on both are sketchy, but free TV viewers may want to start saving money now for new equipment spending starting either late this year or more likely early next.

ATSC 3.0 promises better, more robust reception, with error correction and the capability of downgrading video quality in marginal reception areas to preserve a stable viewing experience. It also supports 4K Ultra-HD and better sound, mobile viewing on smartphones and other devices, and local features including hyper-local weather warnings, targeted advertising and some data applications.

0 0 votes
Article Rating
15 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Josh
Josh
4 years ago

I’m sort of excited by ATSC 3.0, but also worried about what we’ll be left with. Whether it really requires the internet.

And whether TiVo is going to have a 3.0 model…

Bob Lee
4 years ago
Reply to  Josh

Yep, and I have never bought into the internet, it is, in fact, a mega time waster, and, worst of all, the most crippling dream-breaker for our youth. The current atsc system is great. In this rural area we have one on air, that really belts the signal over parts of three states (WLFG), which includes eight (8) channels that make cord-cutting easier. The others struggle with “…half an old and half a used atsc trnsmttr” to dish out 2 or 3 channels, one having lost a major network affliation, tho the owner is a nice guy….

Joe
Joe
4 years ago
Reply to  Bob Lee

You never bought into it, yet here you are posting comments via the Internet.

Ben
Ben
4 years ago
Reply to  Joe

Lol

Mark Bratcher
Mark Bratcher
4 years ago
Reply to  Josh

See https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/will-3-0-ota-need-internet-work-answer-question/.

“In short yes 3.0 OTA TV can use the internet but NO you do not need internet to watch 3.0 OTA TV.”

Nick
Nick
4 years ago

Hopefully broadcasters won’t try to force people to connect their TVs to the internet. It will be interesting on how it turns out.

I do think the concerns of OTA TV becoming pay walled are a bit overblown as I doubt much of the OTA crowd would be willing to start paying a monthly fee on what was previously free.

Time will tell.

Ben
Ben
4 years ago
Reply to  Nick

Youre probably right.

Ken
Ken
4 years ago

Two comments to a rather terse bit that should have been expanded upon:
“promises better, more robust reception, with error correction and the capability of downgrading video quality in marginal reception areas”

1) Like this is a new idea — it SHOULD have been part of ATSC 1.0!
and
2) It “promises”. ATSC 1.0 ‘promised’ superior quality HD at lower power levels too. How did THAT work out?

I’m hopeful, but I’ll believe it when I see it. And are there any ATSC 3.0 converter boxes out there for consumers yet?

Lou
Lou
4 years ago
Reply to  Ken

ATSC 1.0 was as good as was possible with mid-90s technology. Two decades later, things have improved a bit, although not as much as we’re led to believe. Broadcasters may start with 4k streams, but they stand to make more money by lowering video quality and squeezing more channels in. That’s the real motivation for the FCC ramming this through… they’re addicted to auctioning off TV spectrum to cellular companies for big bucks, and hope to do it again in a few years.

Radioguy
Radioguy
4 years ago
Reply to  Lou

Was it really? COFDM vs 8VSB was debated and both were ‘available’ in the 90s but we got the NIH silliness and ‘promises’ that 8VSB would provide better weak signal performance. It didn’t and now 3.0 promises a lot that I won’t believe until I see it. Particularly with ‘channel bonding’ and 4K promises which just (to me) imply that those of us with fringe reception will be even further abandoned.

Have there been any ‘real world ‘ tests done for ‘pure’ OTA performance? Don’t talk about how good theory says–show me the tests with real consumer grade equipment. Sigh.

RonaldRobles
RonaldRobles
4 years ago
Reply to  Ken

Not yet don’t worry I’ll you know when they become available my email is [email protected] contact me anytime 24/7

Radioguy
Radioguy
4 years ago
Reply to  RonaldRobles

It’s been a half year and the silence about consumer gear is deafening! Any news?

Fred Jones
Fred Jones
4 years ago

I wonder who is going to be transmitting 4K OTA TV. I can’t find any info that any of the 4 major networks have any plans for this.

Soclikes
3 years ago

Today is already normal to buy something to watch TV

Search This Site:

Contributions:

Recent Comments:

Your Account:

Stop the Cap!